This month we’re going to start to look at how you work out the price of different flooring products. Some are priced by the unit, some by the square metre and others have to be bought in standard widths off a roll. There are also products that are supplied one way, but priced another way, and variations in the way individual businesses set their pricing. We’ll use underlay as our first example.
Carpet underlay is typically supplied in rolls that are 1.37 metres wide and 11 metres long. These may seem strange sizes, but they are the equivalents of 4’6” by 12 yards, the traditional imperial measurements. However, each roll is 15 square metres, so working out what you need is easy. If you sell underlay by the roll, or if this is a special order underlay and not a stock item, simply divide the square metreage of the area to be fitted by 15 and then round up to the next unit to give you the number of rolls needed.
Most retailers keep two or three standard underlays in stock and use a retail price per square metre, charging each customer only for the square metreage of the area to be fitted. This makes pricing simple as you can easily work out the square metreage from your measurements.
Some retailers work out the amount of carpet needed first and then price up the same amount of underlay. This is usually a bigger square metreage because of the roll widths for carpet and results in overcharging the customer to the retailer’s advantage. This is an unfair trading practice which could result in serious consequences including prosecution – and the authorities would not confine their investigation to the one customer who complained.
Underlays for other products, such as floating wood floors, do not follow the convention for carpet underlays and so the sizes may vary, and the underlays might not even come on rolls but may be packs of underlay sheets that link together. Pricing by the square metre makes these just as easy to work out, and estimators don’t need to worry about how the underlay will be cut and laid as the fitter can make the right amount of underlay fit the room whatever shape it is by cutting and joining pieces together.
It’s worth noting that on stairs the underlay must fit over the entire tread and riser, going from gripper to gripper. The full area of the staircase must be allowed for. If the underlay is cut short, or if only a stair pad is fitted (i.e. just the tread is covered), the carpet is likely to lose tufts along the hard edge of the gripper on the riser as it is bent over repeatedly because there is no underlay support.
That leads us smoothly on to ‘smoothedge’ – an old name for gripper. Gripper comes in standard lengths, usually a fraction over 1.5 metres long (5’ in imperial) and sold either by the length/stick or by the linear metre. Technically, you should add up the lengths of the walls, including alcoves and other recesses and then divide the result by 1.5 to get the number of sticks required, or simply multiply the cost per linear metre by the perimeter length of the room. Many estimators find shortcuts, such as taking the length and width of the room and multiplying by 2, ignoring any slight variances as the product is relatively cheap and fitters usually have plenty available to cover any slight shortfall. Doorways are not usually deducted to keep the calculation simple.
I’ll also add in here that the gripper must go across the full width of the back of the tread and the bottom of each riser and with modern stairs this means one piece of gripper per step is not enough, so if you’re pricing by the stick, make sure to allow enough so the fitter can do the job correctly.
British Standards require that underlay joins must be taped and only the perimeter should be tacked down with staples. Some retailers will charge for this tape and even though most don’t, it’s worth checking your company policy.
Next month we’ll move on to look at pricing carpets. Don’t forget, if you have any questions please contact us.
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