Joe Banana:  A small description of the repair, the estimated cost(leave room for revisions), Space for customer phone#, in case of revisions, and cust. info.
2008-07-14 14:58:40

dbHARMesq.:  Most furniture repair people I've had dealings with will size up the damage to a given piece of furniture and, depending upon the complexity of the piece (whether it's simply an old-fashioned rocking chair or a relatively late model over-stuffed sofa/hide-a-bed assembly and tell the customer what he/she honestly believes will be required to make the piece "almost good as new" and the estimated cost for doing it (including picking up and delivering, if the customer can't provide that).
2008-07-14 15:05:52

thewrangler_sw:  For an ESTIMATE.. keep it simple... time and materials, and a quick description of the method of repair. For example, to repair a scratch in the finish of a dining table, I would provide an ESTIMATE for "repair by touch up of finish using 'xyzabc' materials", or "stripping and refinishing" of the table, using 'xyzabc' materials (depending on severity of the damage). I'd also specify if I was going to work on it at the owner's location, or if it needed to be delivered to my shop, either by the customer, or myself, and give a rough idea of how long it would take to complete the work, as well as how long the work itself would take. An example would be "6 hours labor, project finished by MO/Date/Year." (Some repair work requires 'dry time' of either finishes, or glue -- and the customer needs to be made aware of that.) Obviously, you also need to include the 'business' info, like name, address, phone, etc. Before I began work, I'd have a short contract/work-order stating what I would do to the furniture (signed by the customer), and take before/after photo's. I'd also have a provision stipulating any changes or unexpected problems would result in an increase in the cost, and I'd make the customer initial the contract for those changes. I'd include any warranty info on the contract too. Good Luck
2008-07-14 15:24:18

Tule Junqui:  I see the two extremes being 1) So terse that you can't tell if the work has been done 2) So verbose that eyes start to glaze over in details and minutiae. I try to hit somewhere in the middle -- to get an understanding of what will be done (and sometimes what won't be done) without getting into a lot of the technical details. Can you answer the question "How will I know I'm done?" Other things to include are payment terms, your contact information, etc. Unless it involves special order items, I do not break out labor vs. materials. One thing I always include on an estimate is an expiration date (30 or 60 days).
2008-07-14 18:37:32