Pricing Job Quotes Correctly:

DWP Carpet Binding has recently made some "renovations" to its web-site, that we are very pleased with! However, there was some information that was omitted from the new site, which I would like to use as a blog topic today!

Many potential customers call or e-mail us asking for pricing structure on one of the many binding services we offer. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as having a price for each service. Each carpet is different, requiring different services. There is a difference between your options & variables to contend with depending on the type of carpet you have.

Your options involve anything you get to CHOOSE. You choose your application, you can choose the color of the application, you choose the shape & size of your carpet.

Variables involve the factors that will increase the pricing structure for the services required to finish the job. Variables include:

• patterned carpets
• thick carpets
• existing binding/serging on the carpet 
• custom jobs for a boat , RV or airplane

If you have a patterned carpet and will have DWP Carpet Binding cut & bind it for you. The charge to cut the patterned carpets is higher than the regular cost of cutting carpet. This is because there is extra time required to cut patterned goods in order to get the pattern balanced to length & width. Of course, you have the OPTION to cut the carpet to size without concern to the pattern. That means we will cut the carpet to the size of choice, regardless of how the pattern lays out because of those cuts.

Thick carpets require power beveling. Power beveling is when the carpet fibers are cut on a 45 degree angle to allow for the binding machines to get a better hold on the back of the carpet; it is important to bevel thick pieces for this reason. If thick pieces weren't beveled, the binding application would not hold up as well as if they were beveled. Carpets with long fibers are also classified as pieces that should be beveled. Even if they are not super thick, the long fibers will need to be trimmed so that the binding application get securely fastened in place. Beveling is an extra cost when using a place for binding services.

If you have a piece that already has existing binding or serging (or any application), you have to choose whether you would like to match the application as close as possible OR if you would like to have the entire perimeter of the carpet redone. Usually when customers bring in a carpet that only needs one side done, you deal with minimum charges. However, if you decide you wanted to keep everything symmetrical and similar in nature, then pricing would be per linear foot. If you decide to have the entire piece redone with the binding application of your choice, there would be an increase in cost to remove the existing application on top of the other services requested.

Custom jobs that are related to boats, RV's or airplanes will be priced on an hourly shop rate, as well as linear footage involved. These custom pieces usually require quite a bit of time to complete. Any piece that has straight edges will be priced per linear foot, whereas the pieces that are custom shape with multiple cut-outs or interior radii will be priced per hour as they usually require hand-binding. Cutting the custom pieces to size will also be priced by an hourly figure because it usually involves trace-cutting, which takes more time.

For those of you who may be wondering about carpet base/cove base, the pricing structure changes based upon the amount of linear feet involved with the job and whether or not we will be cutting the carpet as well. The only time the cutting cost changes is if the base is patterned carpet or if the carpet is the vinyl backed peel-n-stick kind. Patterned & peel-n-stick carpets involve more labor to cut, therefore the cost to cut the carpet would increase.

Sometimes I wonder if when people call or e-mail DWP Carpet Binding about price quotes if they think I'm playing "100 Questions" with them. They call looking for an answer to what may seem like a simple question, then end up having to answer 3 - 5 questions (okay, so that's not quite 100...) for us to give them an accurate quote! Even then, the quote may not always be 100% accurate. The best way to get the most accurate price quote from any binding service is to bring the carpet into the shop so that they can see what is involved with the job. If  it's not possible or unlikely to bring the piece into the shop for an accurate quote, try to describe the carpet as best you can & ask for the highest price. It's always the worst to be quoted one price then have the actual price be quite a bit more than what you were expecting. Getting the highest possible price allows for you to be prepared.

Please keep these factors in mind when asking for price quotes for any binding service. The type of carpet you have and what you would like to have done with it changes the pricing per job. Other factors involve the amount of labor and time involved in completing a job.

DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT OUR WEB-SITE & ETSY STORE:
http://dwpcarpetbinding.com
http://www.etsy.com/people/kellygreencarpets