Don Stephan
Posts: 825
Joined: 2003-07-18
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
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Jeff:
Your summary is very good and is one with which I agree. The situation presented, though, sounds as if the client's wishes will be a moving target requiring a number of test panels. When the client seems to be saying "I'll know what I want when I see it" but can't or won't help narrow the focus then I feel the need to gently broach the boundaries of "free" research. I expect to spend on average $10 on veneer and an hour of labor to make a test panel for proposals, but that hour quickly is eaten up by order time, trimming and gluing, staining and finishing.
If bleaching is being considered and it's new to me, I'll first try the bleaching process with some on-hand leftover veneer. The first concern will be glue bleed-through. I'd have to try either Unibond with Blocker, or Pro-Glue with its white catalyst, OR BOTH. After bleaching, I'd certainly want to apply a full finishing schedule to confirm bleaching doesn't affect the finish products. As you point out, that's just general background investment. If that works out okay, then repeat with two or three different veneers to try to get the look the client is seeking. But there has to be recovery of some of that additional experimentation, either because the proposal is felt likely to be accepted and the job will be large enough to justify the additional time and materials, or because the client is willing to pay for some of the additional experimentation if the proposal is iffy or the scope of the job would be small.
On back-to-back jobs this spring, I lost my shirt. The first was because my "test panel" was not large enough to realistically simulate the possible problems during finishing. The second was because a 1/2" poured epoxy coating was not at all as quick nor as simple as the manufacturer said. I did not thoroughly research the poured epoxy process because of the cost of materials and time required, and lost an additional three days on a project that was from the start bid too tight because I wanted to help the client.
Now I expect to make an "average" investment of time and materials for proposal development, but share with the client how much of an investment I can afford to make and explore with him or her options to cover any cost beyond.
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