A committee’s guide to putting waterproofing out to quote

The hardest part of a society waterproofing contract is not the work. It is getting three quotations that can actually be compared, and then getting a decision out of a general body meeting before the rain starts.

This is the sequence that tends to work, written from the contractor’s side of the table.

1. Start with a condition survey, not a scope

Committees often write a scope first — “waterproof the terrace and paint the building” — and ask for prices against it. The trouble is that half the cost sits in things a scope written from the ground cannot see: whether the existing layers have to come off, whether the slope has gone, whether the plaster is hollow, whether the leak in B-wing is even coming from the terrace.

Get a written condition survey done first. Any serious contractor will do it as part of a free inspection. It should tell you, in writing, what is failing and why — with thermal images and moisture readings, not adjectives.

2. Write the scope from the survey, and issue the same one to everyone

Three quotes against three different scopes are three different jobs, and the cheapest is simply the one that assumed the least. Issue one document, with:

• Measured areas, by wing and by element (terrace, chajja, facade, staircase wall)
• The system required, or at minimum the performance expected
• Preparation explicitly included — what comes off, what gets ground, what gets primed
• The junction details — parapet turn-ups, drain outlets, pipe collars
• The test required before handover, and its duration
• The warranty term, and when the document is handed over

3. Ask for the quotation itemised, not lump-sum

A single figure is impossible for a committee to defend at a general body meeting and impossible to compare. Ask for it broken down by material, labour, area and stage. That does three things: it lets you compare like for like, it lets you phase the work if the budget will not stretch, and it makes any later variation visible instead of absorbed.

4. Check the material quantities against the coverage rate

This is the single most useful five minutes a treasurer can spend. Take the product’s published coverage in kg/m², multiply by the measured area, and compare it against the material quantity on the quotation. If the quote assumes materially less than the datasheet says, the system will be applied thinner than specified — and that is invisible once it has dried.

5. Phase it so residents are not living in a building site

Wing by wing, with the hours the committee sets, one designated material storage point, and the site cleared at the end of each day. Terrace work usually runs first because it stops the complaints that generated the contract; facade and painting follow.

Where the budget genuinely will not cover everything in one year, phase by cause, not by appearance: terrace and drains this year, facade next. Painting the building while the terrace still leaks is money spent twice.

6. Insist on staged billing against completed work

Agreed in the quotation before anything starts, released against work actually finished. Nothing added later without written committee approval.

7. Get the warranty document before work begins

Not after. A warranty issued after final payment has cleared is a promise; a signed document handed over before the first drum is opened is a commitment. We hand over the signed 10-year warranty at the start, and where the manufacturer’s system carries its own, that paperwork comes too.

8. Ask about an AMC afterwards — separately

An annual maintenance contract with a pre-monsoon inspection and minor repairs is worth having, and it is worth pricing separately from the main contract rather than bundled into it. Bundled, it hides margin. Separate, you can judge it on its own.

The paperwork you should end up holding

1. Written building condition report, with scan images
2. Itemised quotation you can circulate with the meeting agenda
3. Agreed phasing schedule and working hours
4. Signed warranty document, dated before commencement
5. Test records — ponding or flood test, and the post-work thermal scan
6. Manufacturer’s system documentation, where applicable

If a contractor cannot produce all six, the difference in their price is not a discount, it is a gap.

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We run society contracts across Thane West, Mulund, Ghatkopar and Andheri, and the condition survey costs nothing. See housing society and commercial waterproofing, or call +91 99875 06070 to get a survey booked before the pre-monsoon rush.