Painting in JLT — Jumeirah Lake Towers

The big issue here is age — most of these towers were built between 2007 and 2013, so we're dealing with 11 to 18 year-old FCU systems that bleed condensation onto the walls in summer. A standard apartment in a newer building doesn't have that problem, but here, lower-floor units and lake-facing ones get so humid that we've got to use anti-mould paint, especially in bedrooms near the FCU. You can't just slap on emulsion and call it a day. Another thing is the building management protocols — in JLT, you're booking lifts, getting NOCs from the DMCC tower management, and working around 87 towers' rules, which adds 2 to 3 hours to a job setup versus a villa in The Springs. Residents here are usually moving out or in, and they're stressing over deposit returns — so we're often matching existing shades exactly, which takes more time than a fresh color job. The towers are packed tight, so parking's a headache too, but we've got it down.

Look, painting a 1-bedroom apartment in JLT usually runs you between AED 3,800 and AED 5,200 for the full job. That's walls, ceilings, and skirting boards. For a 2-bedroom, you're looking at AED 5,800 to AED 8,200. It's not cheap, but cheap paint jobs peel in three months. We don't do round numbers because every tower in JLT has different access rules — some DMCC towers make you book the service elevator three days ahead, and that adds an hour to our day. The process is simple: I come by, measure the rooms, check for mould near the lake-facing windows (you'd be surprised how many lower-floor units have it), and give you a fixed price. We schedule for a Sunday through Thursday, and for a 1-bedroom, it's two days — one for primer and prep, one for the finish coat. Here's the honest limitation: if your building's doing the FCU or water heater replacement that's been going on since late 2022, we can't paint around that — you'll need to delay until the pipework's done, or we'll have to patch and repaint after. That's just the reality of these 11-year-old towers. We use anti-mould paint in the bathrooms and kitchen for an extra AED 450 — worth it in this humidity.