Pricing for cleaning oils

Not your average framer · Thu 07 Jun, 2007 9:16 pm

Up until now my pricing for cleaning oils has been somewhat plucked out of the air on the basis of what feels about right. As time goes on, I find that the demand for me to clean oils has steadily grown, to such a level that I should be a bit more disciplined and consistent in my pricing. I am in fact thinking of coming up with a price chart which takes into account the size of the painting with specific charges according to what needs doing. I was wondering how others approach this problem.

Roboframer · Post by **Roboframer** » Thu 07 Jun, 2007 10:01 pm

I sub it out to someone like you and add 25% plus Vat if I frame it - 50% if I don't!!!

Bill Henry · Post by **Bill Henry** » Fri 08 Jun, 2007 1:58 pm

When faced with trying to determine an equitable rate structure for almost everything do, we use a stopwatch to time ourselves for several sizes on several projects.

Say it takes you twenty minutes to clean a 50 x 60 cm canvas, that would be 50 x 60 / 20 or 150 cm2/ minute. If your shop fee is £30 / hour (£0.50 / min), you could fairly charge £ 0.50 / 150 = £ 0.00334 / cm2. Obviously, I’m making these numbers up – as the TV announcers state, “Results may vary.”

If you use “united dimensions” rather than area measurements for most of your work, you can convert linear to square cm with reasonable accuracy by taking the horizontal plus vertical dimensions of your canvas, dividing that number by two, and squaring the result. In the above example, your united centimeters would be 50 + 60 = 110. One ten divided by two is 55. Fifty-five squared = 3025 cm2 – pretty close to the 3000 we got in the first place. And this conversion always works in your favor unless the horizontal and vertical dimensions are equal.

Whether you wish to include materials such as cotton swabs and cleaning solutions into this equation is a matter of choice, I would think. Despite a primer on the VAT that you guys provided me with, I don’t pretend to understand it too well. If the cost or volume of materials is significant, you may wish to pass them along adding a mark up, of course; if not, you may wish to absorb them and save yourself the headache.

Grahame Case · Post by **Grahame Case** » Fri 08 Jun, 2007 3:10 pm

now, i fear we in Edinburgh may be missing out on a trick here.....

we just hand over the phone number of a very good conservator...

Perhaps we should come to a more formal agreement, where we act as a middle man... it seems there is money to be made!

mother will never agree though....

Post by **John** » Fri 08 Jun, 2007 3:31 pm

I'd agree with your mother on this one Grahame.

Acting as a middleman could leave you exposed to a claim if the job goes wrong.

At least for the small amount of specialist stuff that we are asked about, I am happy to build up good will with the conservator by passing it on direct.

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Sat 09 Jun, 2007 8:35 pm

Oil paintings seem to come out anywhere between £40 and £80 for a basic clean (outsourced). Although our restorer does like us to un-frame them first. watercolours, prints and paper art- clean up, de-foxing, bleaching etc usually come out around £20 to £30

we have an arrangement with our restorer (fortunately he's a neighbour) -
we recommend him and take the jobs in, but he does it for the customer, rather than for us.

we discount his framing, he recommends us for framing. Customers often ask us if we can clean oils, watercolours etc, so its handy to be able to take the picture, and they generally have it framed when they come to pick it up.

Having an outside expert handy certainly means you can sleep at night if anything goes wrong.

Not your average framer · Sat 09 Jun, 2007 9:13 pm

kev@frames wrote:Oil paintings seem to come out anywhere between £40 and £80 for a basic clean (outsourced). Although our restorer does like us to un-frame them first. watercolours, prints and paper art- clean up, de-foxing, bleaching etc usually come out around £20 to £30.

It seems my current prices are higher than yours for oils, (£75 to £150), but I generally tidy the frame if it needs it at the same time. I'm about the same for art on paper. People seem happy with my prices.

JFeig · Post by **JFeig** » Sun 10 Jun, 2007 1:53 pm

Most of our painting restoration work involves paintings that have been improperly stored in a basement or garage. Scratches, holes, and flaking paint layers are common. Cleaning is only a portion of the work in an image. There is patching, lining and inpainting as well as removing improper prior restoration attempts.

We charge(quote) a fixed fee based on an hourly rate of $100/ hr after a few tests are made and the painting is totally evaluated.