Hi, my name is Peps and I was wondering what would be the ideal charge for removing a 4x8 acrylic sign, removing the old vinyl and adding new, color red 6 words @ 1ft. each in script.....then reinstalling the finished acrylic??????I came up with $400.. is that a good price????
any info would be appreciated
Peps G Signgraphics Salinas, Ca. pepsg@hotmail.com pepsg@hotmail.com Posted by Ken Henry (Member # 598) on :
Hi Peps. First thing I would do is to lay this out IN SCALE, to find out exactly how you are gonna fit that copy onto that surface at the sizes you've indicated. Frankly, I just don't see how it's going to work. Miracles rarely happen, and when they do, I don't think they should come cheaply, do you?
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Hi Peps,
Welcome to the board.
There are really too many variables to give you an accurate answer.
1) How long will it take you to drive to the site, remove the panel, and bring it to your shop?
2) How long and/or difficult will it be for you to remove the old lettering?
3) What grade of vinyl will you be using? Cast or Calendared?
4) How long will it take you to cut the vinyl and apply it?
5) How long will it take you to go back to the site and reinstall the panel.
6) What is your hourly shop rate?
7) Will you have a helper?
To help answer some of these questions, there are two things I would do.
Second, go to www.estimatesoftware.com and download a free, fully-functioning demo of EstiMate. This is the program I use to calculate my pricing for my area.
I hope this helps.
Posted by Robb Lowe (Member # 2121) on :
Sounds like new acrylic would be a lot cheaper than fooling with the old stuff - that is if it's just 4x8's or some other easy dimension. Just do new ones in shop, take it to the site, swap them out.
Or, use the back of the originals.
I HATE re-using signboards of any kinds. I've yet to run into a situation where it is cheaper to strip, prep and reletter versus just using a new board.
Truck doors, etc. not applicable, of course.
Posted by ScooterX (Member # 2023) on :
Well, $400 might be a little on the shy side. The way I priced it, I just looked in the "Official Sign Contractors Pricing Guide" book, turned to the page for "Plastic Signs - Non-Illuminated Acyrilic 1/8" (page 67) and their price is $444.50 plus $6.50 for the extra word. That includes the cost of new plastic, but it does not include the installation.
I don't think you can drive out, remove, clean, scrape and prep the old sign for a lot less than 2 hours. The cost of a new sheet of 1/8" acryllic is about $60 out here. Is your time worth less than $30/hour?
If you can flip the plastic over and use the back, and if you can prep everything in the shop ahead of time and do the lettering on-site, then maybe that will help.
If you DO happen to have "excess capacity" (ie, things are slow), and you don't mind scraping plastic, or if you can flip it over and use the backside, then I'd suggest you offer the customer two prices: $400 for the re-do and $500 (or more) for a sign with a new piece of plastic. Tell them you'll guarranty the new sign for __ years but you'll only guarranty the re-do for 1 year since the material is used, and let them decide.
Posted by peps (Member # 2759) on :
Thanks guys I have a vivid idea now!
Posted by peps (Member # 2759) on :
![[Smile]](smile.gif)