Interior design questions, answered

If the layout works, the storage is adequate and you only need things replaced, a contractor is enough. If you are changing how rooms are used, adding storage, moving services or coordinating more than three trades, you need someone owning the design and the sequence. The failure mode of contractor-only work is not bad finishing — it is a home that was never planned.

The floor plan or the sale agreement drawing, a rough carpet area, the possession or occupation date, a realistic budget range, and a list of what is wrong with how you currently live. Photographs of the existing space help. Reference images help less than people expect — how you actually use the space is more useful.

Three to five weeks for a full home: one week of consultation and measurement, two to three weeks of layout and 3D iteration, and one week to finalise the bill of quantities and contract. Compressing this reliably increases the final cost, because decisions that should be made on paper get made on site instead.

No. The first site visit, the measurement and the indicative cost band are free and carry no obligation. We charge from concept design onward, and that fee is set against the project value if you proceed.

Almost always because they are not quoting the same thing. Check carcass grade (BWP versus MR versus particle board), hardware brand, whether shutters are laminate or acrylic, whether electrical and plumbing are included, and whether the quote is per running foot or per square foot. A lump sum with no line items is not comparable to anything.

Usually: civil work and structural changes, appliances, loose furniture, soft furnishings, air conditioning units, society deposits and charges, and GST. Some studios also exclude electrical and plumbing. We publish an exclusions list with every BOQ, because what is missing from a quote matters more than what is in it.

18% on the contract value for interior design and works contracts. Every figure we publish on this site is ex-GST and says so. Be cautious of any quotation that does not state its GST position clearly — an 18% surprise at the final invoice is a large number on a ₹20 lakh project.

On our contracts: 10% at design sign-off, 25% at mobilisation, 30% at carpentry carcass and MEP first fix, 25% at finishes and installation, and 10% at snag closure. Each milestone is released against verified progress, not a calendar date. Never pay a large advance against a date alone.

It should only change through a written variation: we price the change and its programme impact, you approve it in writing, then it is executed. On a well-specified project variations typically land between 2% and 5% of contract value, and every one of them should be traceable to a decision you made.

BWP (boiling water proof, IS 710) in kitchens, bathrooms, utility areas and on any external or north-facing wall — in Mumbai we specify it throughout. MR grade is acceptable only in dry internal areas in a dry climate, which Mumbai is not. Particle board has no place in a permanent fitted installation here.

On kitchen shutters and feature faces, often yes — the depth of finish is genuinely different and it cleans well. On the inside of a wardrobe, on a loft shutter or in a utility area, no. Spend the difference on the carcass grade and the hardware instead, because those are the components you cannot change later.

A BWP carcass with branded soft-close hardware should give fifteen years or more with normal use. Shutter finishes date before carcasses fail. The components that actually fail early are drawer channels, sliding gear and cheap hinges — which is why we treat hardware as a specification item rather than an upgrade.

Quartz for a kitchen that cooks Indian food daily: it is non-porous, needs no sealing and shrugs off turmeric, lemon and oil. Marble is more beautiful, is porous, will mark, and needs periodic resealing. Choosing marble knowing all that is a legitimate decision; being sold marble without being told is not.

For internal, non-structural work: a society or developer NOC, a worker list, a refundable deposit and agreement on working hours and debris routes. No BMC permission is needed for internal work that does not touch structure, external walls, the façade or the plumbing stacks. Any structural change is a different conversation entirely.

Ten to six on weekdays and Saturdays, with no work on Sundays, public holidays or festival days, is the common Mumbai pattern. Some buildings add silence periods. Commercial buildings often allow night working under permit. Always programme against the actual written policy rather than the general norm.

For single-room work, yes, with the noisy scope batched into a few consecutive days. For a full home it is possible but slow and unpleasant — expect 30–50% more programme and a much higher chance of finish damage. Where clients must stay, we phase by room and seal the active zone properly rather than hanging plastic sheeting.

We do, as part of project management: the NOC application, marked drawings, structural undertaking where asked for, the crew list and police verification where required, the deposit, and the lift and debris schedule. You should not be chasing your own secretary for a lift slot.

Ten to twelve weeks for a 1BHK, eleven to fourteen for a 2BHK, fourteen to eighteen for a 3BHK, and longer for a 4BHK or duplex — all measured from design sign-off, with three to five weeks of design before that. Society hours, lift access and material lead times move these more than the size of the flat does.

In order of frequency: late client decisions on finishes, society or landlord access problems, scope changes introduced after work has started, and material lead times on imported or bespoke items. Trade productivity is rarely the cause. A project that is decided and sequenced properly usually finishes when it said it would.

Yes, and it is a better answer than reducing specification everywhere. Do the kitchen, the wardrobes and the electrical first fix now; leave the living-room joinery, the feature walls and the loose furniture for a second phase. Only phase things that can be added without disturbing what is already built.

Workmanship on the work we carried out, plus manufacturer warranties on hardware and appliances passed through to you with the documentation at handover. It does not cover damage, misuse, water ingress originating outside the flat, or work carried out later by someone else. The full terms are on the warranty page.

We produce and close our own snag list before inviting you to inspect. Then you inspect, raise anything further, and we close that too before handover. A studio that asks you to produce the first snag list is asking you to do quality control that should already have happened.

Very little. Wipe with a damp cloth, not a solvent. Keep hinge and runner screws checked in the first year — new joinery settles. Reseal a marble countertop annually. Do not let standing water sit at a kitchen sink cut-out, which is where almost every carcass failure in a Mumbai kitchen begins.

Warranty documents, a material and brand schedule listing what was actually used and where, appliance manuals and warranty cards, a copy of the closed snag list, and maintenance guidance. The material schedule matters most — in five years it is what lets any competent carpenter match what is already there.

Yes, by zoning. The floor is split into independent zones, each completed and handed back fully functional before the next starts, with sealed dust barriers between live and active areas and noisy work outside business hours. This is how the Sleepmax office was delivered without a lost trading day.

A binding document issued by Grade-A buildings covering permitted materials, floor loading, drilling depth, sprinkler and detector modification, ceiling void access, working hours, waste routes and insurance requirements. Design to it from concept. Retrofitting compliance after the drawings are done is expensive and slow.

To protect the base-build warranty and the building's fire certification. Fire suppression, smoke detection, sprinkler modification and tie-ins to a central chilled-water system are usually restricted to nominated vendors at their own rates. We carry those as named provisional sums with the landlord's quotation attached rather than absorbing them into a per-sq-ft figure.

Seventy to ninety square feet all-in for a standard corporate floor — that is workstation, circulation, meeting rooms, pantry and support space divided by headcount. Below about 65 sq ft, circulation and meeting provision fail before the desks do. Use the space per employee calculator against your own plate.