Canvas Stretching

[Jo]

Hello,

For many months I have wondered over how much to charge for canvas stretching so finally thought it might be a good idea to ask around! I know I'm not losing money on them but keep thinking I could be making more!!

Stretching in preparation for framing is one thing but with the increased popularity in box canvas I am frequently being asked to do this and so need to make a bit of profit from the stretching alone!

For example, I have just stretched a canvas as a box, using Lion's 2 way stretcher at 1.70/m and it is 74cm square. This is one I'm doing for a friend so it will probably be cheap anyway, but what would anyone else charge for doing this for a customer?

And would you charge more to do it as a box canvas than you would if you were stretching it to go in a frame?

[absolute framing]

hi jo,

I Would charge STG£ 66. for this job. This price includes irish VAT at 21%.

You should consider investing in some pricing software. Consistant prices, hardly any customer haggeling.
I use the ESTLITE software supplied by this site, however i did reduce the pre installed price for stretching, due to the fact, that like you, i stretch mainly for frames i'm making as well.
For Box Frames i would consider charging a little more.

Hope this is of some help, Steve

[Jo]

Yes, I am using BBEst but I think I adjusted the stretching prices as they seemed high. It gives me a price of just over £50 at the moment.

[markw]

I would be charging about the same as absolute framing - I use Est to price this in a slightly different way - adjusting the stretch canvas item to allow for the price of stretchers. I have three types of stretcher item - standard size - custom size and custom size with cross bars. I ought to add a fourth item - box canvas. As absolute - I price slightly lower if I am also framing. I dont use the stretcher bar moulding as I dont find that you get as good a finish. For custom size stretchers I use Renaissance mouldings service - They have always supplied me with an excellent service even with huge stretchers - largest so far last week was 8' x 6'. Sadly they dont do the deeper box strechers and I have found getting custom sizes almost impossible.

[John]

Wow Mark,

Did you stretch a canvas on that and frame it?

Any chance of a picture?

[markw]

John - It was a carpet - I thought it was going to cause me all sorts of problems as it was so big - I used the stretcher to its full potential and treated the carpet like a canvas getting it as tight as possible, and pulled as square as i could get it. When in its frame I knocked the wedges in to get more tension and to make sure that it sat well - not the normal way I would work but it gave me a good finish and squared up the carpet. I benefitted from a well produced stretcher with two cross bars and braced cross bars allowing me to apply very even pressure to the whole unit. I had been putting this job off for weeks as I thought it was going to be a nightmare.