At what point does an installer charge for seams?
Is there some sort of average $$$ per foot for those of you that add a seaming charge?
The job I am completing tomorrow is that Lees Carpet job mentioned in another topic. The customer expects invisible seams and so far that's what they are getting. I have only a 7X13 walk in closet to do to complete this job. It just got too late tonight to finish. No biggie, as the job is just a mile away from me.
The job is a manufactured home with 118 feet of thick and heavy weight nylon carpet. A cut Berber style.
This job is a whole house replacement because the customer wasn't satisfied with the previous installers seams. As an installer, I was asked to fix them if possible. I thought they were done pretty well and wasn't sure if I could re-do them and make them look better, so I left them alone. They were perfectly acceptable.
OK, so now it's my turn to re-do this entire carpet job and make it better than the nice installation that they initially got.
OK, so no stops on this one. I'm doing every trick in the book and it's turning out super duper nice. Seams are pretty much invisible including peaking even tho I am stretching hard.
Back to the seaming charges:
I did some computations for reference. It makes charging for seaming quite justified if you go all out to make them nice.
118 feet of carpet, in six rooms if the hallway is counted as a room.
All rooms including the hall are over 12 feet, so all rooms have seams, most are 13 feet or more.
Very close to 90 feet of seams on this job.
That means 180 feet of seams parted with a row finder
That means 180 feet of seam edges cut
That means 180 feet of seam edges hot sealed. (I seal all seams)
Add to that, 90 feet of seams made.
Row finding, cutting, sealing and constructing the seams means I've "handled" or worked over about 630 feet of seam edges.
I even pre-stretched the long seams to eliminate seam peaking (to non believers, this does help considerably) Doorway seams are obviously pre-stretched because its the only way to do them.
I figure this is about 12 to 18 hours more work than a home with 12 foot rooms and only a couple doorway seams............. once more, in addition to a ridiculous amount of seaming because of the layout, the customer is expecting perfection or close to it.
The shop knows I will do better than the previous installer, even tho his looked just fine.
When you have this many lineal feet of seaming and perfection is expected............. what''s fair? I have probably spent more time planning the seam construction and making the seams than stretching and trimming.
Job is worth $1000 buckaroos and I have just over $1700 in time. (not including time cutting loading and delivery or disposal)
I come up with $3.50 per foot
Is there some sort of average $$$ per foot for those of you that add a seaming charge?
The job I am completing tomorrow is that Lees Carpet job mentioned in another topic. The customer expects invisible seams and so far that's what they are getting. I have only a 7X13 walk in closet to do to complete this job. It just got too late tonight to finish. No biggie, as the job is just a mile away from me.
The job is a manufactured home with 118 feet of thick and heavy weight nylon carpet. A cut Berber style.
This job is a whole house replacement because the customer wasn't satisfied with the previous installers seams. As an installer, I was asked to fix them if possible. I thought they were done pretty well and wasn't sure if I could re-do them and make them look better, so I left them alone. They were perfectly acceptable.
OK, so now it's my turn to re-do this entire carpet job and make it better than the nice installation that they initially got.
OK, so no stops on this one. I'm doing every trick in the book and it's turning out super duper nice. Seams are pretty much invisible including peaking even tho I am stretching hard.
Back to the seaming charges:
I did some computations for reference. It makes charging for seaming quite justified if you go all out to make them nice.
118 feet of carpet, in six rooms if the hallway is counted as a room.
All rooms including the hall are over 12 feet, so all rooms have seams, most are 13 feet or more.
Very close to 90 feet of seams on this job.
That means 180 feet of seams parted with a row finder
That means 180 feet of seam edges cut
That means 180 feet of seam edges hot sealed. (I seal all seams)
Add to that, 90 feet of seams made.
Row finding, cutting, sealing and constructing the seams means I've "handled" or worked over about 630 feet of seam edges.
I even pre-stretched the long seams to eliminate seam peaking (to non believers, this does help considerably) Doorway seams are obviously pre-stretched because its the only way to do them.
I figure this is about 12 to 18 hours more work than a home with 12 foot rooms and only a couple doorway seams............. once more, in addition to a ridiculous amount of seaming because of the layout, the customer is expecting perfection or close to it.
The shop knows I will do better than the previous installer, even tho his looked just fine.
When you have this many lineal feet of seaming and perfection is expected............. what''s fair? I have probably spent more time planning the seam construction and making the seams than stretching and trimming.
Job is worth $1000 buckaroos and I have just over $1700 in time. (not including time cutting loading and delivery or disposal)
I come up with $3.50 per foot
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