Business Hub · Quoting Jobs
What do I do when a job turns out bigger than the quote?
Stop work, photograph everything, and speak to the customer before you spend another hour on it. A quote covers what could be seen when you gave it; genuinely hidden damage is a variation, not something you absorb. Say what you found, what it will cost, and give them the option to decline. Most people are reasonable when told early and shown a photograph. Almost nobody is reasonable when handed a bill at the end that they never agreed to.
It happens to everyone
Every upholsterer has stripped a chair and found something that changes the job. Woodworm through a rail. A frame that has been glued three times already. Somebody's 1974 repair with six-inch nails and a piece of floorboard.
This is not a failure of quoting. It is the nature of the work: you are pricing something whose condition is hidden until you have already committed labour to uncovering it. Nobody can see through a top cover.
What separates a workshop that handles this well from one that bleeds money is entirely about what happens in the next hour.
Stop before you fix it
The instinct is to crack on and sort it out. Resist it.
The moment you repair the hidden damage without telling anyone, you have made it invisible again. You cannot then charge for it, because the evidence is buried under your own work, and the customer's honest reaction will be that they only have your word for it.
- Stop work on that piece.
- Photograph what you found, in place, before touching it. Wide shot for context, close-up for detail.
- Work out what the extra actually costs in hours and materials.
- Contact the customer that day.
What to say
Keep it factual and unemotional. You are not apologising, and you are not asking for a favour.
"I've stripped the seat and found the front rail has old woodworm damage that wasn't visible under the cover. I've photographed it and I'll send it over. To do the job properly the rail needs replacing, which is about three extra hours plus timber. That's £X on top of the quote. If you'd rather not, I can put it back together as it was and only charge you for the stripping."
That last sentence matters more than the rest. Giving people a genuine way out is what makes the conversation feel like information rather than a hostage situation. In practice very few take it, because by then they want the chair done properly.
Build it into the quote from the start
The real fix is upstream. Every quote you issue should say, in plain words, that it covers what could be assessed without stripping, and that hidden damage will be reported and priced before any additional work is carried out.
Two sentences on a quote removes almost all of the awkwardness later, because the customer has already agreed to the process before the problem appeared.
The cost estimator builds in a contingency for exactly this reason. That contingency covers the small surprises — a bit of extra webbing, a joint that needs re-gluing. It does not cover a new rail, and it was never meant to.
When it is your fault
Sometimes it is not hidden damage. Sometimes you underestimated, or missed something you could have seen.
Absorb it and learn from it. Trying to reclassify your own misjudgement as a variation is how workshops get a reputation, and a reputation travels a great deal further than one job's profit.
Tools for this
Do you work at the bench? The State of the Upholstery Trade survey collects rates, bench hours and lead times from working upholsterers worldwide, so the next person setting a price has something better than guesswork. Anonymous, about three minutes. Add your workshop.