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Two other contractors quoted a lump sum over the phone. These people came, measured every room and gave me a per-square-foot quote on paper with the paint grade written on it. The final bill matched it to the rupee. Furniture was wrapped before a single tin was opened.

I had almost given up on my wardrobe shutters — everyone wanted to take them to a workshop. They set up a sheeted zone inside the flat and sprayed them in place. The sheen is even across the whole run, no brush marks anywhere. Smell cleared in about two days as they said it would.

The damp in my bedroom wall had been painted over twice by other people. Ansar checked the bathroom on the other side first and found the actual leak. Treated the source, replastered, then repainted. One full monsoon later and the wall is still dry.

Three bedrooms and a living room in four days, and we stayed in the flat the whole time because they worked room by room. Every evening the floors were swept before they left. The ceiling lines are dead straight.

Terrace was ponding after every rain. They checked the slope, cut and filled the cracks, then put down the membrane they had named in the quote. What I appreciated most is that they told me the balcony did not need doing — I had assumed it would be added to the bill.

Wanted a stucco feature wall behind the TV unit. They put up a sample panel on the actual wall and I looked at it in the evening light before approving. Good thing too, because my first shade choice looked completely different at night.

The finish on the doors and the kitchen shutters is genuinely better than what I have seen in showrooms. Only reason for four stars is that the schedule slipped by two days — but they told me in advance rather than leaving me guessing.

They handled the RWA gate pass and the society working-hours paperwork themselves, which I had been dreading. Crew arrived in company T-shirts and I had the lead's number the day before. Small things, but it is the reason I let them in.

We already had a designer, and they simply executed the brief without arguing about it — which is rarer than it should be. Terminations at the skirting and cornice are clean. Took slightly longer than estimated because the base wall needed more levelling than expected, and they re-quoted that part before starting it.

Booked painting and got them to polish the main door while they were here. Doing both in one visit saved a second mobilisation charge, which they pointed out to me rather than the other way round. Walked the rooms with me at the end and fixed two touch-ups on the spot.