Are you considering getting your house painted? Other than the price and timeline, what criteria do you look for? Call it circumstantial or luck, I’ve got one house painted (including supervising my parents’) each year for the past three years – all from different vendors. Some factors keep topping the list. So, I thought I would put them together if you are doing it for the first time.
Factors I consider before painting a house:
1. Odour free paint – top of the list. Irritated by the paint smell in some neighbor’s house 200 meters away? Or, have a child at home? Then I suggest you go water based emulsion for walls and the doors instead of the standard oil based paint even though they are a little expensive.
2. Timeliness – you get a fair idea of whether the painters will complete the work within the deadline promised within their first hour of arrival.
3. Quality – most paint companies outsource the painting job to individual contractors. There are standard guidelines for the ratio of paint and water to be used. But, I’ve seen some contractors thin the paint way too much (to limit the quantity of paint) resulting in poor quality painting. To top it, if the scraping is not done properly, every after two coats of fresh paint you can see the old paint. More than two coats usually results in the paint flaking after a few days.
4. Cover up and after job clean up – covering up cupboards and all the household items before beginning takes at least 10% of the time. It’s an art and I’ve seen the Asian Paints guys go to great lengths in this area – painstakingly taping the edges of the ceiling with newspapers if you are not painting the ceiling. Do they clean up at the end of the day or leave everything as is?
5. Background check – check the reviews on the net if you are going with someone standard like Asian Paints. But, if you are using a local contractor, it’s usually through word of mouth. In that case, take one close look and run your hands through the walls – you will instantly know if it’s worth saving the extra 1,000 or 2,000 bucks. And yes, it comes with a added package of personally supervising the painters.
In the next post, I will evaluate Asian Paints, Nerolac and Berger. Let’s see who comes on the top. Stay tuned and have a great weekend.
Disclaimer: This is not a promotion for any of the brands listed here. It’s all based on my personal experiences with each of the vendors which may differ on a case by case basis.
