Business Hub · Dealing With Customers
Should I upholster in fabric the customer supplies?
You can, but set the terms in writing first. You cannot guarantee cloth you did not source, you lose the fabric margin that forms part of a job's profit, and in the UK you remain responsible for the finished piece meeting fire regulations regardless of who bought the cover. Check its suitability and fire evidence before accepting it, price the labour accordingly, and put in writing that faults, shortfalls and wear in customer-supplied material are not your responsibility.
Three separate problems
Customer's own material — COM in the trade — looks like a simple request. It carries three distinct risks and they need handling separately.
You cannot guarantee it. You did not choose it, you do not know the Martindale rating, and you have no relationship with whoever sold it. If it wears through in eighteen months the customer will come back to you, because you are the one they paid.
It removes part of your margin. Fabric markup is not a swindle, it is a normal part of how the job is priced. Strip it out and the labour rate has to carry the whole job, which means a COM job should not cost the customer less than a supplied-fabric job by the full retail value of the cloth.
In the UK you are still responsible for compliance. This is the one people miss. The regulations apply to the reupholstery service, not to whoever bought the cover. A customer handing you an untested cloth does not transfer the obligation to them.
Check it before you accept it
Ask three questions before the cloth comes off the roll.
- Is it upholstery-weight? Dress fabric and curtain fabric will not survive a seat, whatever it looks like.
- What is the rub rating? Under 15,000 Martindale is not going on anything anybody sits on.
- What fire evidence came with it? Run it through the fire regulations checker and see where you stand. Usually the answer is that it needs a certificated FR interliner, which is a cost and needs to be in the quote.
If the answer to the first two is wrong, say so plainly at that point. "This is a curtain fabric and it will not last on a dining chair" is a much easier conversation before you have cut it than after.
Get the quantity right, and get it in writing
Work out the metreage with the fabric calculator and tell the customer the figure — then tell them to buy more than that.
Customer-supplied fabric runs short more often than trade-supplied fabric, because people buy the exact quantity to save money and there is no bolt left to go back to. A shortfall halfway through is your problem to solve and their fabric to replace.
Insist on one bolt, one dye lot, bought in a single order.
What to put in writing
Before work starts, in an email or on the quote:
- The metreage you asked for, and confirmation of what arrived
- That you have not assessed the fabric's durability and cannot guarantee its performance or wear
- That faults in the material, shortfall in quantity, and shrinkage are the customer's responsibility
- What fire measures you are fitting, and what that costs
- That a shortfall will pause the job until more cloth arrives, and may affect the lead time
None of this is unfriendly. It is the same information a builder gives about supplied materials, and customers who are going to be reasonable will find it reassuring rather than defensive.
When to decline
Decline when the fabric is genuinely unsuitable and the customer will not accept your assessment. You are the one who will be blamed when it fails, and no amount of paperwork fully protects a reputation.
From Learn to Upholster
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