Inspirations/Cost
Cost · 7 min read
What it costs to paint a house in India, and when to repaint
The paint is a small part of the bill. The preparation is most of it.
Interior repainting of an occupied flat typically runs an indicative ₹18 to ₹45 per square foot of wall area including labour, and the range is driven almost entirely by how much surface preparation the walls need rather than by the tin you choose.
Wall area is roughly 3 to 3.5 times carpet area for a normal flat, which is the number most people get wrong when sanity-checking a quote. A 1,000 sq ft flat is around 3,000 to 3,500 sq ft of paintable surface.
Preparation is the line to interrogate. Sanding, one coat of primer and two of finish on sound walls is a different job from scraping failed putty back to plaster, re-puttying, priming and painting. A quote that does not say how many putty coats and how many finish coats is not yet a quote.
On timing: interior emulsion in a normal household holds for four to six years before it looks tired rather than fails. Repaint because it looks tired. Repainting a wall that is chalking or peeling without addressing why is money spent twice.
Wall area is three times carpet area. Most quote checks go wrong right there.
