Quoting your first architectural film job
The first architectural quote most car wrappers send is too low. Not because they underpriced the film, but because they priced it like a car: one number, one surface, done. Buildings don't work that way. Here's how to build a quote for a door, a run of cabinets, a wall, or an elevator that actually covers the job.
Measure everything, then add the edges
Walk the site with a tape and a notebook or your phone. For each surface record height, width, how many, and what it's made of. Doors are both faces plus the edges if the client wants them wrapped, which they usually do once they see the sample. Cabinet fronts are drawers plus doors plus the visible end panels and toe kicks. Elevator cabs are walls, the door returns, and sometimes the ceiling.
Then add material for trim and returns. Half an inch on every side is the minimum for trimming; three inches or more where the film wraps around an edge or onto the back of a panel. Architectural film is 48 inches wide, so anything wider needs a seam, and seams need overlap. Add a waste allowance on top for pattern matching, and order all the film for one visible run from a single lot so the color and grain match across seams.
Price the film and the labor separately
Your material line is square footage times film cost, plus the waste allowance, plus samples. Your labor line is where the money is, and it's driven by three things car work doesn't have:
- Substrate prep. Filling, sanding, sealing raw or porous surfaces, removing hardware, cleaning with isopropyl. On old laminate or painted MDF this can be half the job. Price it as its own line so the client sees why the number moves if the surface is worse than expected.
- Edges and seams. A flat wall is fast. A door with two faces, four edges, a lockset, and a hinge side is slow. Quote per square foot for flat area and per linear foot or per opening for edges and returns.
- Access and downtime. Night work in an occupied hotel, a lift for a tall wall, an elevator that has to be taken out of service with a mechanic present. If the building dictates your hours, the building pays for them.
Samples before rolls, always
Put the real sample on the real surface under the room's lighting and get the client to sign off on it. Screens lie about grain scale and gloss, and "it looked different online" is not a conversation you want after the rolls arrive. Build the cost of two or three samples into the quote; it's the cheapest line on the page and it prevents the most expensive mistake.
Paperwork that belongs in the quote
Commercial jobs may need a fire-rating report for the film. Ask the distributor for the ASTM E84 report for the exact pattern series and attach it. Note in writing whether the film is interior-only, what cleaning products the finish tolerates, and what the cure window is before the client can wipe it down hard. Put your warranty terms and the manufacturer's terms side by side so nobody assumes you're covering fading on a south-facing window.
Deposits, change orders, and "matches the sample"
Take a deposit that covers the film before you order it. Define in writing what "matches the sample" means, because print lots vary slightly and a client who expects a perfect match to a two-inch swatch will find the difference. Write a change-order clause for surfaces the client adds once they see the first door done; they will add surfaces once they see the first door done. And set a payment schedule tied to milestones (deposit, material on site, completion) rather than a single invoice at the end.
Keep the quote out of your head
The mistake that follows the too-low quote is losing track of it. Measurements in a text thread, a photo on your phone, a price you half-remember, and a client who asks a month later whether the elevator ceiling was included. Once you're doing more than one of these, you need one place where the site measurements, the sample approval, the quote versions, and the deposit live together. Wrap Ally is built for exactly that: quoting and CRM for wrap installers, so the door count, the square footage, and what the client signed sit in the same record as the job. It's the difference between quoting from a system and quoting from memory.
A quoting checklist you can copy
- Site visit: every surface measured, substrate noted, photos taken.
- Material: square footage, plus trim and return allowance, plus seam overlap, plus waste, all from one lot.
- Labor: prep as its own line; flat area per square foot; edges, returns, and openings priced separately.
- Access: hours, lifts, out-of-service time, night rates.
- Samples approved and signed on the actual surface.
- Documents: fire report, care instructions, cure window, warranty terms.
- Terms: deposit before ordering, milestone payments, change-order clause, definition of an acceptable match.
Do this once properly and the second quote takes a fraction of the time. Skip it and the first job teaches you every line the hard way. The tools are the same ones you already own; the Firm squeegee that sets a wrapped edge on a bumper sets a door edge just as well. The quote is the part that's new.