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Fascia Sign pricing advice please?
Hi guys
Could do with a bit of a helping hand here. I am moving on from digital print to do a bit of sign work. I have got a customer who wants a fascia done for his shop which is 4570cm x 785cm (38 square feet). With the install I have quoted him £400.00 which will be minus the outer framework and applied on to the current diabond boards.
I was just wondering if that is a fair enough price as the customer was a little too chuffed to bits which made me a little suspicious. 🙄
Would really appreciate your help.
Thanks in advance.mod-edit
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13 Replies
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You win some, you lose some, that’s the nature of the game. Your overheads are different to mine! A job is only worth what the customer is prepared to pay for it. Suck it and see. I have been in the game for 36 years and only last week someone said "Oh! I thought it would be more expensive than that" Others you quote and never hear from them again.
Sorry but there is no positive answer to your question. If at the end of the year you haven’t made any money you will know you are too cheap! 😉 -
Stuart, as Mike has already said it is a difficult question to answer as the price will depend on so many different factors which will be different for every sign shop, especially those in a different area to you.
Having said that you also haven’t given enough info really for anyone to help you to much.
For instance what is the new facsia to be like, is it a full colour print or just normal cut vinyl graphics, how many colours is a logo involved. How are the boards installed just now and how will they be installed when refitted. Do you have o clean the old boards off before you can start or is the customer doing that. All this info makes a huge difference to the time the job takes and the material costs so needs to be known for pricing.
From your post it sounds like the boards are located in a panatrim type frame at the moment and you are going to use the existing frame to refit the boards, will the frame be painted or just left as is?How did you reach the figure you quoted and if this is something that is new to you have you checked about locally to see what sort of money other sign companys in your area would charge for this sort of job. Did you ask the customer if he had had any other quotes, It might just be the case that he thought it would be a lot more than you quoted because a lot of people have no idea what sort of price a lot of signage is.
Few other things to think about if you are just starting out doing this sort of thing. Do you have all the equipment you will need to carry out this sort of work, if you haven’t then it can be quite expensive to set up. Do you have the correct insurance to do this sort of work and if not have you looked into the costs.
Are there any costs involved with this job that you haven’t thought about, some councils require you to fill out an application to work in the street. There is usually a cost associated with this and they may also stipulate what time of the day you can carry out the work. -
to add to what martin said, what about the design? do you have print ready artwork supplied or are you creating the graphics yourself?
Obviously if you are going to spend some time designing a full colour graphic then the price you quote would have to allow for that. -
For £400 the most I would want to do is turn up with some vinyl graphics on composite and screw it over the top of an existing sign.
I suspect this job has been well under priced. -
If you’re just applying graphics to existing blank dibond panels then it’s not a bad price.
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full colour print about 2-3 colours in the logo on a white background
will remove current boards and do the signwork on the reverse, leaving the
outerframe.boards to be slid through the current framework
frame cleaned but nothing more doing to it.
using contractors to do all the fitting.
design took me half an hour
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have you checked what’s behind the facia? ie, is the reverse usable? if it’s a matt surface (as is usually the case) and the surface is stained, then it may be unusable. just a thought.
i recently spent two days on a 4hr job because under the sign was four more signs, all dodged ontop of each other, the framework was all rot and not a straight edge on the whole building. ultimately it cost me another £75 for a mates labour and about £50 in timber and fixings, luckily i’d priced it ok to still make a sensible profit but, these things can happen!
that said, if it’s a simple job that goes to plan then i guess it’s not a bad price!
Hugh
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You will also need to check if there is a hanging strip on the existing fascia. If there is you cant just turn the fascia around.
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Like Hugh and Mike have already said you should have checked the back to ensure it is usable. It may be damaged, have a hanging rail and panel locks attached, might even have been used before !!
All things you need to take into account before you quote a job like this, I take it you got a price for the contractors to remove and refit the boards before you gave the customer a price.
If the back of the board is a matt finish as a lot are it won’t matter if you are applying a printed graphic but what might cause a problem as Hugh has said is if there is any staining. You may need to use a thicker white vinyl to stop the stain showing through.
As for price where are you located? if I tried to charge £400 for a job like that I would just get laughed at but that’s just the area I live in.
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quote Hugh Potter:have you checked what’s behind the facia? ie, is the reverse usable? if it’s a matt surface (as is usually the case) and the surface is stained, then it may be unusable. just a thought.i recently spent two days on a 4hr job because under the sign was four more signs, all dodged ontop of each other, the framework was all rot and not a straight edge on the whole building. ultimately it cost me another £75 for a mates labour and about £50 in timber and fixings, luckily i’d priced it ok to still make a sensible profit but, these things can happen!
that said, if it’s a simple job that goes to plan then i guess it’s not a bad price!
Hugh
Fantastic line on any quote "Final price subject to onsite inspection" :lol1: Works a treat when you explain you cant give an accurate estimate of a job because of what is hidden beneath.
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Graeme, don’t know if you remember but this has been discussed before and there were a lot of people who said that a full site survey should be done before any quote was submitted so there should be no need for any change in price at all.
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Martin you mentioned that you would get laughed at for a quote for £400.00 so are you thinking for a straight forward job that is too much?? or too less?? im in the birmingham area for this job.
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stuart theres no point in trying to get a specific price from anyone, as whats been said previously everyone is in different areas with different pricing structures…..this is one of the learning curves in signmaking you have to learn to make yourself 😀
nik
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