The Great Quotation Dilemma#
The price difference is staggering: Contractor B is more than double Contractor A! Naturally, your initial reaction is that Contractor B is ripping you off. Why pay KSh 185,000 when someone will do the exact same job for KSh 75,000?
The short answer is: they are not doing the same job. In fact, they are barely operating in the same industry.
- Contractor A: KSh 75,000 (Labour and materials included)
- Contractor B: KSh 185,000 (Labour and materials included)
Deconstructing the Cheap Quote (KSh 75,000)#
To understand how Contractor A achieves a KSh 75,000 price point, look at what has been silently cut from the scope of work:
- No Floor or Fixture Masking (Saving: KSh 15,000): No heavy drop cloths or edge tape. They will use old newspaper or simply roll freehand, leaving paint splatters all over your floors, window glass, and door hardware.
- Zero Mechanical Prep (Saving: KSh 30,000): No scraping of hairline cracks, no V-grooving, no skim coating. They will simply sweep the wall with a dry broom and start painting.
- Skipping the Primer Completely (Saving: KSh 25,000): No alkali-resistant plaster primer. They roll topcoat straight onto raw plaster or old paint.
- Paint Dilution & Cheap Products (Saving: KSh 20,000): They buy budget economy emulsion and dilute it with 30% to 40% water, stretching two drums to do the work of four.
- The Result: The job takes two days. It looks acceptable for 90 days. But as soon as the dry season ends, the paint bubbles, chalks, and peels.
Deconstructing the Professional Quote (KSh 185,000)#
Now examine what you are actually purchasing with Contractor B (such as a professional contracting team from Sienna Paints Kenya):
- Comprehensive Site Protection: Heavy felt drop cloths, taped skirting boards, removed faceplates, wrapped light fixtures.
- Rigorous Substrate Remediation: Digital moisture testing, scraping hollow edges, raking settlement cracks, packing with flexible elastomeric acrylic filler, skimming with smooth wall putty, and orbital sanding with dust extraction.
- Full Alkali-Resistant Priming: One uniform coat of specialized penetrating primer that stops efflorescence salts and equalizes suction.
- Two Full-Bodied Topcoats: Premium, high-solids washable silk or vinyl matt paint applied strictly at manufacturer-recommended spread rates with zero unauthorized water dilution.
- Supervised Snagging & Handover: Formal inspection under raking light, touch-up containers supplied, clean site handover, and an accountable warranty.
The Real Financial Cost of the Cheap Option#
When Contractor A’s job begins peeling in eight months, you cannot simply paint over it. A professional crew must now be paid to chemically strip or mechanically scrape off all the failing, unprimed paint back to bare plaster, wash the walls, and repaint from scratch. That restoration will cost KSh 160,000+.
Add your original KSh 75,000, and your total project spend is now KSh 235,000—plus months of frustration and mess. True value in painting is measured in cost-per-year of durability, not lowest cash price on Day One.
