The Upholstery Forum

Hey guys I get asked this questions about this a lot. This is a SUPER controversial topic but I think It worth bringing some light to the subject. I got this question yesterday.

" John, Should I figure out how many hours I think it will take to do door panels ,head liner, carpeting ,seats and if so what would be an hourly rate to charge ? thanks to your video's I've learned a lot but I don't know what to charge. So far people are liking my work thanks to you.

My response is in the next post below. Please let me know what you guys think. How do you handle the situation. There is no one right answer. But we can all learn from each others experience and opinions.

Hey that's really great to hear people are liking your work and your getting jobs now! Congratulations!

I totally understand... Its hard to set prices when your first starting and its hard even after you've been doing it after a while. I personally think all trimmers should aim to make $100 / hour on jobs. Now this is not always possible but its a good goal and lots of trimmers across the country charging that. I really don't think any trimmers should charge below $65 an hour because it just hurts everyone in the industry especially yourself. You don't want to get stuck with a reputation as being the cheapest guy in town that does good work. Because one day you'll find yourself trapped with way to much work and not enough profit on your jobs to be able to afford hiring help or move in to a bigger shop.

On small jobs I look at it in hours and on big jobs I look at it in 8 hour days or 40 hour weeks. Then build a price off that. There is always unforeseen things on the big jobs so make sure to leave your self room.

Also recommend not quoting the customer in hours. Just total cost of labor & cost of supplies. Customers get weird when you put $100 per hour on an invoice. I think because they compare that # to themselves. They dont understand that that 100 per hour is paying for all the other business expenses.

Best thing I can say is don't be afraid to charge for you time. Your time is valuable and you don't get any more of it. Some people are going to say your to expensive no matter what price you give them and that's ok. You don't have to win every job. Ive made the mistake many time doing jobs for next to nothing because I was scared to loose the customer.

I hope this info helps!
John

Very good suggestion John. Eventually your start up shop is going to grow past just yourself and a $60 shop rate per hour is not going to leave your auto trimmer with much of an hourly pay once overheads and taxes are factored into that. Everybody in my area knows that Automotive repair shops are $130 and hour and that is all shops the backyard mechanics are $65.00 an hour.

Well for us beginners this is something to make one very excited! I just got a job for a cushion seat repair in a Single axle Volvo transport 2008. I showed the guy one ebay that a new cushion may be close to $200.00. I can guarantee a good seat foam repair job. The cover is good and the customer just wants foam repair. Is this billed bout just as a hourly rate? I would not be using much foam in this as its on the drivers side that is breaking down.

I would still charge something for materials. Even if its just a few bucks. Also don't forget your not just charging for the foam repair but also the time to remove the seat and the cover and reinstall. It all adds up. Personally I only ever put the total labor on the bill. I don't break it down in to hours.

That is really good advice, every project will have a different time element to it maybe it takes an extra hour to take some rusty old staples out.

Haha yeah... your always one broken bolt away form a 10 min job turning in to an all day nightmare

Oh man have I learned this with body work on those BigRigs! One bolt rusty or eroded in the aluminum can add a whole days work. I am really surprised at how rusty the bottom of seats can get!

I do a lot of bass boat work. It's always by the job. Some boats I can make 100 bucks an hour, on the low end about 60 bucks an hour. I don't talk hourly rate, it's just not a good route to take.

Scott, do you give a quote and accept that it takes longer than it should, finish the job at a lower rate then move onto the next project and maybe balance the hours with a project that goes smoothly?

I charge by the foot. Like John says, some times that pesky nut/screw or bolt can take some time to get out. Bass have plenty of fasteners in them. Aluminum boats are the worst. People cheap out and don't use stainless, the zinc coated junk gets welded to the aluminum, it's a pain in the butt.

When you take in a project do you use stainless? It would be good marketing for your business, Built to Last!

On boats I do everything in stainless. staples , hardware, snaps, awnings and awning hardware. I don't feel the extra cost is enough to justify not using stainless.

Marine Upholstery seems to be pretty tricky! Not only in material but poor workmanship shows up quick when Vinyl is melting in the sun.

Actually marine upholstery isn't any harder than auto upholstery. I really recommend doing both because its good to have multiple streams of work. Also boats can be great money makers like @Scott D said. I really like boats because you and get really fast and efficient. If your only doing custom auto work and every job is way different from the last. Its hard to get efficient.

Boats are great jobs. Just make sure you don't whet involved with a dry rotted turd. You can end up backwards super quick on jobs like that. On older boats always make sure that the customer understands that the price will be re-evaluated once the covers are off and the carpet is out. I learned that mistake the hard way.

That is really good advice! I was not even considering boats but am now going to open that up as well.

Some great advice John...I struggle with pricing stuff all the time. It's definitely hard when your starting out to figure out a good price.

Thanks @Todds34rod! Ive seen your work before. Its really nice! You should be able to charge good prices for your work. But yeah pricing and quoting is tough. Lol I don't know whats a worse feeling. When some jerk laughs at you cuz he thinks your prices are too high or when your kicking you self for busting your ass on a job you that you under charged....

All part of the learning process....

This will be my first full car job and I have trouble knowing how long each task should take so I can't even guess at what to charge. I do know that I am committed to producing quality work so I expect to be paid an industry standard. I've been asked to trim out a 34 Coupe. 2 leather bucket seats, door, kick and wall panels. Carpet cab and trunk. Suede headliner. The other thing is that my background is furniture so I don't have a garage and have to access the car at his garage 4 miles away. Do I charge for that or is that my bad? Any words of wisdom out there?

Here's my first Coupe seat built from the foam up. This is how I got this potential work.

Hi @kl4bidn welcome to the forum! That's a really nice seat you did there

Knowing how long things will take comes with experience. I still have trouble with it as well so don't feel to bad.... Instead of trying to dissect every job down to the hour. I try to look a it in days or weeks. For example I know that seat in your picture would probably take me about 3 days. 1 day to make the frame, 1 day to do the foam, 1 day to do the cover.

To do a nice job on a normal full interior usually takes me about 2 weeks. But that can change drastically. You can spend 3 weeks on door panels depending on how crazy the design is. Are you making custom panels for the trunk. Are you making custom foam for the seats. All of that need to go into consideration.

For me I wouldn't charge extra for having to work from the customers garage. 4 miles isn't far and Its not their fault you don't have a garage. Yet!

I hope this helps.