The Upholstery Forum

Good morning everyone. I am new to this industry and pretty green. As we all know, estimating is difficult. I have been asked to quote replacing the white inserts on the following cover. Each side is about 10 feet long. Widest section is about 12 inches. I am hoping to cut the white out versus unstitching it all and just make the white insert a touch bigger. I have guessed it at 3 hours start to finish. Am I in the ballpark? If not, what are your best guesses?
Thank you.
Jim

I think you should un-stitch the white instead of cutting it out because of how the whit ends in the middle of a seam (Pic 2) also because of the vent (Pic 3).

That being said, around 3 hours seems realistic.

Thank you John. I appreciate your input. I hope your shop build is going good. Have a great weekend.

I think if you are going to unstitch that and replace you are going to be sitting at 4.5-5 hours at your skill set maybe even longer.

Thank you @BigRig I appreciate the insight. I have definitely been seeing my time guesses measurably off.

Starting out is hard. It's easy to quote too low and spend lots of time and materials, it's also easy to quote too high and lose jobs. My suggestion is to accept that the learning curve is not too profitable. For this cover, I would rip the seams. I agree 4-5 hours, is realistic for starting out. Good luck

Yes @Bohdan I just finished my first seat and I definitely lost the profit battle. Ended up needed new seat foam as the old was so badly deteriorated that there wasn’t much left to glue to. But I am happy with the results and the customer is extremely pleased. Live and learn.