How to plan a balcony makeover in Bengaluru

Doing it yourself costs under ₹5,000 for ten plants, with pots and soil. Two online nurseries deliver here, Urvann and Nurserylive, and the horticulture department at UAS GKVK sells plants from ₹20 for curry leaf. Many arrive small, in 4-inch nursery pots.

A gardener to pot those ten plants brings the total to about ₹4,900 to ₹5,300, at the lowest pot price. Here is what gardeners charge:

• Garden Care Services, a gardening company in east Bengaluru: from ₹749 for an hour, from ₹2,200 for a day and from ₹60 a pot to repot. Hourly work has a one hour minimum, so ask if ten pots cost less than that.
• Make Heaven My Garden, on mytribe: ₹1,500 to ₹1,800 for a gardener's day.

We couldn't find a published rate for a freelance mali, so ask the one who works your building.

Grass on the floor alone costs far less than a build. For 100 sq ft, grass from the providers here is about ₹6,500 to ₹10,900 before delivery and laying, and drain cells under it add about ₹5,000. Question 3 works it out for your size.

Closing it in is a separate job. Netting, glass and a roof are priced by the size of the opening, and need your association's yes first. Question 3 has the rates.

What the extra buys is a balcony that looks planted, with plants picked for its light. Pots put where you point stand in a row. A gardener sets them at different heights, with something hanging and something tall, so it reads as one garden. Sqft Farm, who design balconies, say it this way:

A designer costs more again, because a designer sells you the whole balcony. Sqft Farm, one design firm, has a smallest job of ₹50,000. For it they might do one of two things: lay a floor and panel a wall, or build a seating corner, with some plants either way. If plants are all you want, a nursery or a gardener is enough.

The extra doesn't cover upkeep. Whoever plants it, somebody has to water and feed it every week, and Question 6 has what that costs.

Here is every other rate, and what it comes to on one balcony:

Start with plants if you want it all to move with you. Start with a seat if you want it built in.

Want both? That's two trades. Ask which half they do themselves and who they bring in for the other. Then ask where the plants sit in the quote: usually the last line, and the first one cut when the number comes back high. Ask who supplies the chair, too. On ₹20,000 to ₹30,000, one way is a gardener for the plants and a chair you buy yourself. Even a firm makes you choose: in Sqft Farm's words, their ₹50,000 might go on a seating set, a swing and 2 or 3 mature plants, or on grass, a wood panel on one wall and 4 or 5 plants.

Measure what's left after what has to stay. Nearly half (46%) of the 123 balcony requests we got say something out there has to stay. Stand in yours and take out the door swing, the drying rack, the AC's outdoor unit and room to walk. What's left is what you're furnishing, so send that size with your first message.

Settle four things before anybody measures.

• Where the clothes dry. If the answer is nowhere, it's a laundry again within a month.
• Which pots stay. Some designers leave clearing old pots to you.
• What hangs from the ceiling. A drying rack up there rules out ceiling panelling.
• The AC's outdoor unit. Does it stay, and can someone still reach it?

Misty Garden Weldscape build balconies out from scratch and won't work around a plant collection you already own. If you have forty pots you love, ring a gardener instead, or ask a designer how many they'd keep.

If you rent, everything that goes in should leave with you. A planter hung on a railing that's already there isn't drilling, and a bracket in the wall is. Interlocking deck tiles that lie loose aren't, and a frame fixed to the ceiling is, so pick a hanging chair on its own stand. Naviisha Greens drill nothing.

Photograph the balcony before anyone starts: that photo is the whole deposit conversation later. Then get the landlord's yes on WhatsApp. This works: "I want to put some plants and a chair on the balcony. Nothing goes into the walls or the floor, and I'll take it all with me. Is that alright?"

If you own, protect the floor and the drain. The floor's slope and the waterproofing under it are all that keep water out of the flat below. Before anything is screwed down, ask two things:

• Is the builder's waterproofing warranty still running?
• Is the deck frame screwed down or lying loose on the tiles?

Then ask for a removable panel over the floor drain. Soil and leaves will block it, and under a fixed deck the only way in is to take the deck up.

A designer who does no civil work won't fix a slope. Garden of Joy say structural work and waterproofing are part of their turnkey service, so ask if they're in the price.

Put heavy pots against the wall and light things by the railing. A balcony is a slab held at one end, and the Indian loading code checks it hardest at the outer edge.

For your association, the line is the outside of the building. Glass, a roof, netting or a frame above railing height usually needs the committee. A balcony is for your exclusive use: RERA calls it "meant for the exclusive use of the allottee". Work out which side of the line your plan is on before you pay anyone to design it.

• Get the yes in writing, in the minutes or on the association's own email. A spoken yes from this year's secretary means nothing to next year's committee, and a WhatsApp to one office bearer isn't enough.
• Ask what they want first: working hours, a refundable deposit, ID copies for the workmen, the service lift.
• Ask who clears the waste. Old tiles, bags and offcuts have to leave the building, and the society won't collect them.

Stand on the balcony on a Sunday and count the hours of direct sun. A west balcony taking hard afternoon sun suits sun lovers like bougainvillea, hibiscus and ixora. A north one that barely gets any suits money plant, snake plant and peace lily. Sqft Farm treat a site visit as standard and use it to check the sun, the floor levels and the drainage before they firm up the price.

Here is what each way of looking after the plants costs:

No provider we read puts upkeep in the quote, and it adds up. If a gardener looks after it at ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 a month, three years is ₹36,000 to ₹72,000. That's more than the ₹18,750 median budget of the 10 people who named a budget for plants and pots.

If the plants die. Sqft Farm print a 30-day free replacement on their own quotation. Ask everyone for their replacement window in writing, and hold back the last payment until the planting has come through a month.

When you travel. Ask who waters it when you're away for ten days. If the answer is nobody, say so now and buy plants that survive being left alone.

Before the work, somebody visits, a design is agreed and the advance clears.

1. Before anyone quotes

   Somebody comes to look. Make Heaven My Garden and Garden of Joy charge for that visit, and Sqft Farm and Misty Garden Weldscape visit too, so ask what theirs costs.

2. Before any money moves

   A design gets agreed. Misty Garden Weldscape put a 3D drawing in front of you and take the advance only once you approve it.

3. Once the advance clears

   Material goes on order. Naviisha Greens deliver what's in stock the same day or the next, and take three to four days on what isn't. Anything welded or cut is made after the design is signed off.

4. The work

   The short part. Garden of Joy say one to two days. Sqft Farm write eight days on their quotation and charge nothing extra if they run late.

5. Alongside all of it

   If anything changes how the building looks from outside, the association comes first. We couldn't find how long a committee takes to say yes.

A design takes a few rounds before anyone starts work. Koolkraft, who isn't taking new bookings right now, posted a rough sketch of one balcony with this:

Work back from the day you want it finished. 39% of the 123 balcony requests we got named a date, and 94% of those wanted it done inside a month. If your date is days away, skip the visit and the design. One online nursery delivers next day in Bengaluru, and Naviisha Greens deliver what's in stock the same day or the next.

Here is what each provider charges for a visit, takes up front and leaves out of the number:

Make every quote say whether tax and any fee are in or out. A designer may add a project management fee on top of the subtotal. One designer's is 18% (Koolkraft, who isn't taking new bookings right now), so a ₹40,000 subtotal becomes ₹47,200 before any tax. And ask whether the visit comes off the bill if you go ahead. One gardening service in the city charges ₹449 for a visit and does that.

Two quotes far apart are usually two different jobs. For example, a ₹12,000 quote may be grass laid over your tiles, and a ₹55,000 one grass, planters, lights and a design. Sqft Farm quote every element on its own line with the add-ons marked Optional, so you see what dropping one saves. Ask everyone for that.

Three checks that cost nothing. Sqft Farm's own quotation says the first price is a draft until they have measured. So before you pay:

• Ask for photos of balconies they've finished. They show the edges, the joins and how the job was left.
• Hold the material before you approve it. Misty Garden Weldscape bring the real deck tile and grass to your home. Grass looks different on your own floor in your own light.
• Ask who's doing the work on the day, and what they don't do. Naviisha Greens drill nothing, and Misty Garden Weldscape won't work around plants you already own.