[rajeevsulu]

I wanted to get my house painted. Instead of going the traditional route, I decided to take the "professional" route this time.I decided to go online and contacted the painting services provided by the following companies

• Nippon
• Berger
• Asian Paints
• Nerolac


After logging in to the respective websites of the above companies, I chose repainting services and gave house dimensions. My requirements were just the external area plus dampproofing of terrace and parapet areas. My house is 50 years old, was repainted 7 years ago and has a built in area of 4800 sq. ft. The site is 9900 sq. ft.

I chose to do only the exterior areas initially as I have a pooja scheduled in honor of my departed wife. I would do the interiors separately in a month or so.

Out of the four companies, Berger was the first to respond followed by Nippon. The other two companies responded later and said their services were not available in my city.

The Berger representative called, fixed up a site visit, came home, did a site inspection, scheduled another visit for the painter. They came the next day, looked around, and said they would send a quote that evening. The visit was all of 22 minutes!

The Nippon representative came the same way, followed up on second visit with painter and dealer and meausured the whole area with lasers and tapes over 4 hours.

The Berger quote was less in cost per square feet but they inflated square feet by 40 percent. 18500 sq. ft was inflated to 25300 sq. ft at 23 rupees a square foot for painting and damp proof. I rejected the quote outright

Nippon is very much more professional. Their quote was precise in measurements and cost. They quoted 33 rupees per square foot for both deluxe emulsion and dampproofing with a 10 year warranty. After a little discussion with the area manager, Regional manager, dealer discount, it was settled at 25.50 rupees per square foot. I have attached the quotation below.

Nippon does not reduce the square foot rate but gives a discount on the calculated price. The end cost is calculated by me based on this.

Once I approved the quote, Nippon asked for shade choices and i chose the off white shade which you would see in the pictures below. A series of photos were processed and sent to me with border shades out of which I approved one.

A total of 5 painters worked 26 days including Sundays. The whole outer walls, terrace, compound walls were scraped, cleaned, cracks sealed with putty, a layer of white cement applied. This layer was later washed away with brooms and water so as to fill up the pores. A layer of primer was applied. Two coats of emulsion followed.

Ceiling areas were in white, main walls in chosen shade, borders in brown and steps in red for contrast. Dampproofing was done in white for optimum heat reflection. Dampproofing was one layer of primer with two layers of coat.

After 25 days this is the result:




























































Total cost incurred was Rs. 4,60,000.

Cheers

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Shreyans_Jain]

I’ve used Berger for waterproofing solution for my factory roof. This year, I had them redo a section that had developed cracks, under warranty. Did need some escalation, but it was eventually done at no additional cost to me.

However, when we asked them about painting our house, the response was less than professional in terms of measurements and the quoted square footage. Good to see you’ve had a positive experience with Nippon.

[rajeevsulu]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

However, when we asked them about painting our house, the response was less than professional in terms of measurements and the quoted square footage. Good to see you’ve had a positive experience with Nippon.

Exactly. I still cannot fathom how the Berger executive meausured the area in 20 minutes. The Nippon guys took a full 4 hours and remeausured a few areas when I was a little doubtful. They were correct. They are certainly more professional. Berger paints has a long way to go if they want to come close to Nippon
Cheers

[Shreyans_Jain]

Originally Posted by rajeevsulu

Exactly. I still cannot fathom how the Berger executive meausured the area in 20 minutes. The Nippon guys took a full 4 hours and remeausured a few areas when I was a little doubtful. They were correct. They are certainly more professional. Berger paints has a long way to go if they want to come close to Nippon
Cheers

Agreed. But I feel the proof of the pudding is in their long term commitment - the warranty coverage. That’s why we engage them in the first place and pay extra for, over a local contractor. And that involves so many variables in term of the structure’s condition and environment factors. Berger gave a 7 year warranty, and honoured it 4 years down the line.

[rajeevsulu]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Agreed. But I feel the proof of the pudding is in their long term commitment - the warranty coverage. That’s why we engage them in the first place and pay extra for, over a local contractor. And that involves so many variables in term of the structure’s condition and environment factors. Berger gave a 7 year warranty, and honoured it 4 years down the line.

Nippon honoured a commitment in my colleague "s hospital. This was after 3 years. That was the main reason to go with them. Hope I don't ever need to go back, and, if at all i have to, hope they honour the contract
Cheers

[rajeevsulu]

A small update:
I had left the wood and metal paintwork to be done at a later date due to time constraints. I got the work done recently. This is all the wood(windows, ventilators, doors, grabrails) and metal(gates, fancy grill work). Again I chose Nipon enamel which costs approx Rs. 600/ per litre. Total area in sq. ft came to 1300.i got a quote for Rs. 35,000 all inclusive with a time span of 6 days.
He finally finished it in 9 days. 3 painters worked all days and 4 on a couple of days. I chose the same color combination as done for the walls.
I have attached a few pictures of the results
Cheers
Rajeevsulu