Hot take: Should we be charging extra for pattern matching or not?

I was at a job site in Austin last week and the homeowner had this expensive patterned carpet that took me an extra 2 hours to match up. Ngl, I charged my normal rate but part of me thinks we should add a fee for pattern work since it's way more time and waste. On the other hand, some guys say it's just part of the trade and we should price it into the base bid. What do you all do for patterned carpet jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

oliver_morgan11d ago

Man, I'm gonna go the other way on this. I did a job last month with some crazy pattern work in a living room and I just built it into my square footage price from the start. If you start nickel and diming for every little thing that takes a bit longer you're gonna have customers feeling like you're finding ways to jack up the bill.

felixlee11d ago

@oliver_morgan what square footage rate covered a room with wild patterns and no extra charges?

derekjenkins11d agoMost Upvoted

Man, "findings ways to jack up the bill" is exactly it. I did a kitchen backsplash last fall that had this insane herringbone pattern going up behind the range, and I just baked a flat "complexity fee" into my base rate for the whole job. Customer never saw a separate line item, never got nervous about surprise costs, and I still made my money. Nickel and diming over a few extra cuts or an hour of layout time just makes you look like the bad guy when the invoice comes. Plus those customers usually end up being the ones who tell everyone you're a scammer on Nextdoor.