Thanks for the feedback. There have been quite a few posts asking for recommendations for painters and for paint yet I remember the difficulty I had when searching this topic when I wanted to choose paint and painters. Al Berca is absolutely correct in that you get what you pay for and I thought it would be useful to lay down a variety of prices and experiences to use as a base for future reference. Maybe this should become a separate topic under paint and painters advice, those interested down the road could then pick their price point and the talents that suit their own needs. As readers of this board will know, I am very much in favor of supporting the local talent over imported talent and this is just one way we can do that.
So, in my case I am currently paying 8500 pesos for the complete job, about 2 weeks estimated work. I have no idea if that is a lot, about right, or inexpensive. That was one worker last week and three expected for this coming week. So far work starts at 9am sharp or a little earlier as we agreed, and continues until the light goes. I have a lot of house to paint with a lot of garden walls, including my dear neighbors massive 3 story Berlin wall to contend with so I supplied the products I wanted to use. Sorry, I didn't calculate the square metres (that would have been far too logical) but it took two cubetes of Fester and will likely use 5 cubetes of paint to finish all the painting, that includes one of primer used wherever bare cement was exposed. Oh, also one gallon of the silitre treatment. I have very little salitre so this is really nominal. I chose to use Home Depots top rated Behr Premium Plus Exterior Matte (using it undiluted) and the Fester 10 year white waterproofing for the roof. Only time will tell if they live up to their promises.
Ricardo has done excellent work so far. Very clean, very fast and very thorough. He is taking the old paint right down, grinding or patching where needed, new mortar and/or salitre treatment also where needed, fixing up the roof and laying down 2 coats of the impermabilizante after thoroughly cleaning off the old. So far leaving a professional finish and a spotless workplace (no splatter). If interested I'll let you know how week 2 goes. So far the completed parts look like a new house.
I am using Ricardo Sanchez Cel: (331) 832-9448.