I've had people bring me dirty stuff before but yesterdays job topped them all. A guy gives me a pontoon bimini to patch some dock piling rash on . When I rolled it out on the table to pattern the patch there were crab shells and claws all dried out and inside the top !! WTF !! :P
I just had one dropped off last week that was covered in dirt and dried algea. I had the crap allover me and my table by the time I finished three small repairs. Was thinking of instituting an extra charge for this kind of thing.
I do repairs for a local pool company on automatic covers they service. Most of the time the side stiching that holds the rope slides lets loose, other times I replace the whole ropes. they always deliver them folded up. both are alway covered in filth; leaves, sand, dirt, algae, and such. I can do a repair in usually 1-2 hours, I've started charging double time, because I always have to take the machine apart and clean the crap out of it, oil it, and set thread tension and stuff. The company owner asked me about the extra charges, so I told him the deal. Turns out he was just asking and didn't really care as he passes those costs onto the pool owner. Up here those who have in ground pools usually don't complain about prices anyway due to they know they have added expenses with winterizing and maintaining them.
Kyle
I quit doing repairs and restitching on used canvas. I have found that the money I charge is not worth it and used up just in my time cleaning everything afterwards.
The last canvas repair I did I ended up with sand all over on the machine, in the hook, etc. The hooks are not cheap and I had to blow everything all out, clean everything well and then re-oil the heck out of everything.
It just isn't worth it to me so I send them to a guy up the road from me. Evidently he isn't crazy about doing them either because he sent one to me a couple months ago which I refused to do. :)
Chris
Not unusual --
- millwork shops will not plane or mold lumber from outside. One stray nail can cause hundreds of dollars of damage
- portable bandsaws only cut your logs if you sign a waiver making you responsible to replace the blade if it gets damaged
- glass shops will not cut your glass. One hidden flaw and they have to replace a piece.
Back in the day, I used to keep a Pfaff 145 set up just for re-sewing trampolines.
Back then, a good trampoline would set you back several hundred bucks. So people got them re-stitched every few years. Everyone left them out year round, so they were pretty nasty.
Then Wally World flooded the market with cheap trampolines. Now people buy one that will last just long enough for the kids to get bored with it. When the stitches break, they trash it.
They would always say "It may be missing a couple of rings".
(yeah, about 2 dozen of 'em).
When i was a kis in southern california there was a buger stand that dad a cemedt deck eith trampolines msny of then and you could have lunch and go jump i never got to try it i was too small but i remember walking to town with my mother ( we walked.back then mom didnt drive)
Wed walk by kids jumping and the stone on the radio
Lawsuit nowdays for sure
I'm with Tim and the rest ---charge for it!!!! Cleaning up after that stuff takes time.
Back in my former life as a shoe maker (actually before I earned my apprenticeship and only did repairs) I kept an old butter knife under the till. That was here in Brandon : on the edge of the oil patch in farm country. If I didn't like the amount of ---uhm-- mud etc on their boots they went out behind the mall and cleaned them before I would take the job on.
My other pet peeve is people who bring their boats in for carpet or tops full of gas cans,swim noodles,life jackets,176' of random anchor rope that looks like a macrame project gone very wrong, etc... If I got cranky enough, I charged storage for all their junk I had to tuck in the corner so I could work.
On jobs I have done
I clean the item first and then charge a cleaning fee
I always warn people first that if it is dirty there will be an extra fee
Allan
If you do sew on dirty stuff you should blow it out & reoil ASAP,that dirt acts just like sandpaper on the parts.
Good reminder, blow it clean and oil it! I need to do that today, I believe there was some dust in a boat cover I sewed last week. Those Juki are expensive so need to service it properly.
Thanks for the reminder Bob,
Doyle
Lots of maple, cottonwood & alder around these neck of the woods!
Usually after Winter is over and the weather starts getting warmer I get lots of calls for repairs and I find tons of wet moldy leaves, and sometimes the remains of what appears to have a been small rodents living, and dying, in things like sail and boat covers.
Yuck! ???
Along with the subject dont know how many times ive gone to pattern a boom cover to find wasps swarming as soon as the mainsail was touched. Once even found a rats nest that had burrowed through the sail and made a nest right in the middle. when the mainsail was raised there was an 8" hole every 3' from top to bottom about a foot and a half from the luff.
Forsail, there's no amount of money that I'd do that job for!