Besides dirty rugs as a Rug Washers you see many rugs in need of repair. Even if you are not equipped to do repairs it is a great opportunity for profit.
Let us take a fairly common repair, a softball size hole. That is a 4 inch across hole with pile and foundation missing. The standard repair is to take the hole out to a square (See Peter Stone’s Oriental Rug Repair) for a 16 square inch (4 by 4) reweave. (Non-square repairs take a master restorer and cost more.) Replacing the foundation is the toughest part of the job and takes the most time. Once the foundation is in place the pile is fairly simple. Then it is trimmed and finished. In an old Persian Sarouk rug this is about a 3 to 4 day job.
For Rug Washers and Oriental Rug Dealers Wade Shehady has a wholesale program on repairs. Using the 4 inch hole I called a much respected “Big City” repair shop to get their retail price on the repair. Here is what I found:
“Big City” shop; $1600 to $2000 to reweave.
Shehady Oriental Rugs Wholesale; $400 to reweave
Wade recommends that his clients double the price (Keystone Pricing) plus shipping for their customers. This means that you can make $400 for shipping a rug. Smart guys are going to do the market research and find out what the going rate is in their area. In many areas marking the repair up two and a half to three times is very realistic. Evan at 3 times plus shipping you are still under the low estimate of the “Big City” shop.
Run the numbers on a 9 by 12 painted Sarouk rug..
Washing at $3 a square foot $324
Repair 4 inch hole $800
Total $1124 plus shipping, to the customer.
Net to the washer $700 before you sell the first extra such as moth treatment.
For information on getting started in the Wholesale Rug Repair Program call Barry at 570-580-0709
