Lead-time, FAQ, & Latest News Page

Last updated: July 1 / 2008

 What is My Lead-time?

This web site exposure has gotten me more work than I can properly handle in a swift time-line. I have tried to bring on help, but it has so far proven too difficult to find a person who is reliable and cares enough to maintain my quality standards. My wife Tia has been able to work more with me from time to time, but she has he own Doula/Hypno-birthing business. Since I am just a small shop with no employees; I would like to believe that fact makes CBD well worth the wait, since I am not just pawning off this custom work to less experienced employees.

What about Simple Projects?
I can usually work up simple projects like flashing kits, ridge caps, and small basic turret or gazebo roof caps in between major projects. Usually within a week or two. If you want a larger ornate roof cap with a weathervane or finial support pipe installed; it would need to wait for my schedule to clear.

What about Rush Orders:
It is not uncommon for me to fit in small simple fabrications in between major projects that would only take a few hours to make. Just to get them out of my hair, but there are no promises. That is more my personal choice. It does not have much to do with pressure from those clients. Getting pushy is likely to cause the opposite reaction.

Be fore warned: if you try to get me to fit your project in ahead of my clients who already paid their deposit, you would be asking me to commit a crime against those clients. In that case, you most likely would be convincing me that I cannot do business with you at all, and to return your payment canceling your project all together.

Reliability?
It could be sooner than the time listed above, but I would not want to give you false hope in case I run into unexpected complication (as is normally par for the coarse).  For example: the large Trainor chimney cap (seen above) took me over 3 weeks to design, build, and make a wood shipping crate.  It should not be later than the time listed above though.  This Internet exposure has gotten me a lot of attention from non-local clients. I normally sell about half of the projects I bid on, so my time-line can change quickly.  Feel free to write or call for the most current lead-time. I currently have no employees to speed up production, so it is simply on a first come - first serve basis.

What if your schedule changes before we work out the details?
That could certainly be a problem. If you feel confident that we will be able to work out a satisfactory deal and need to get in my cue as soon as possible; you can mail me an estimated amount for the project you want, or only half down payment for projects that will be over $500, or 1/3 deposit for larger projects over $2k, to get the ball rolling.  I will adjust the price according to the deal we work out later. If for any reason we are not able to work out a fair deal, or you just change your mind; that deposit is 90% refundable upon request. No need for an explanation and I will not debate it with you. I am way too busy for that nonsense.

Shipping time?
I have no control of the shipping time, other than to charge a small fortune for 2 day, or over night shipment, which can cost more than the custom copper fabrication it's self.  Most of these ground shipments have not been taking more than a week, so it hardly seems worth over 3 times the cost to get it a few days sooner. I have rarely had a client who was willing to pay that much for Express Shipping, but it is your call.

What about emergency service?
Other than paying a small fortune for Express Delivery, you cannot bribe me to fit your project in ahead of others who are already scheduled.  So do not even suggest this to me, or there will be a strong chance I will decline to do any work for you.

 Latest News

This is a copy of the interview for Angie's List we did for their July 2008 magazine about:

 How Do We Arrange for a Quote?

I strive to check and read e-mail at least a couple times each day morning and night time. I am prompt to respond to those e-mail within 24 hours. So this process should go swiftly.  I do have a toll free phone# listed on my Contact web page, but most often this does not help, as it tends to just slow my current progress while I am busy in the shop. Not sitting at my computer when people tend to call.

On-line Estimate:
I have personally authored this web site with real price examples and more photos than you will find else where.  I have gone to great effort in order to provide you with all this information, so you can avoid the risk of a sly high pressured sales pitch, in order for you to anonymously see if I can do what you are needing at a reasonable price.

You can e-mail me about your needs and I try my best not to to use any sort of slick sales tactics to make you feel compelled to sign-up with me. It is very helpful to list these details in your e-mail: 
(1) very close, if not exact measurements of your project, or the quote would be invalid.
(2) the type of roofing you have and the pitch of your roof
(3) diagrams (if possible) to show me what you have in mind; sent as an image file attached to your e-mail
(4) any digital photos that you can send of your house are very helpful.  You never know what I might notice that could be a serious issue.  I have DSL, so file size is not much of an issue, but it seems that it should be under 2 megs per e-mail. My PC screen resolution is 1280 x 768 pixels
(5) any cost limitation or time lines that have to be met, so I can let you know if this is workable.

The more info you send; the more chance that I can give you an accurate quote.  I will try to be as flexible as possible, but you will want a ceiling cost, so your project does not get out of hand. My final cost may be a little lower than my quote, since on large projects I will re-price the final cost to reflect only the material actually in the custom fabrication.  This way you are only paying for what you get at the quoted cost per square foot of copper actually in these projects.

On-site Estimate:
My contractors license and liability insurance is for gutter replacement in Oregon only. I could do some other work like some high end fence and deck building, but I am not able to do any roofing related work, so I could not install the custom copper roof caps and chimney caps I specialize in making. But I can assist with getting measurements if you happen to be local to us.

If you happen to live in or near the Portland Oregon Metro Area and are interested in my high-end gutter replacement, I am required by the CCB to supply potential clients with free bids within a reasonable geographical area from my location. I can usually go out to your place to write up a free estimate within a business day or two, as long as you are local to us (within 20 miles or so). If my wait time to do the actual installation (http://dmr-gutters.com/news.htm) is not a problem, feel free to e-mail me with your address, contact info, and any details you think is relevant to your needs, so I can service you with a bid.

If you feel you need to talk to me about your special needs, you can call David's mobile phone at 503 351-7082. 

 What are My Costs and What Sort of Deposit is Required?

My base rates:
From what I have heard I have some of the most competitive rates you will find. I have a small overhead working just outside of our rental home. Most custom copper work runs $20 per pound* (not including the crate and shipping charges). This translates to these rates per square foot:
$25 sq' - 20oz copper
$30 sq' - 24oz copper
$40 sq' - 32oz copper
$60 sq' - 48oz copper

Discounts:
For some simple flashing kits and ridge caps with 20oz copper I can make them for as little as $15 to $20 per square foot depending on the quantity ordered. I do not recommend the thinner 16oz copper sheet metal typically used for roof flashing and gutters. It dents too easily and will not hold up as long still looking good.

For thicker copper than my standard 20oz thickness is harder to cut, drill, and bend, so thicker metal costs a good deal more to use in projects. That is one reason I find it more cost efficient to add more bracing inside the chimney cap roof sub structures, instead of just using a thicker copper sheet metal.

Deposits:
As to the payment to secure your spot in my schedule:
Full payment is required on projects under $500
For larger projects over $500 I accept 1/2 down, with the final adjusted* payment before it ships.
For large projects of $2k or more I accept 1/3 down. The second third when I start to show you I have begun work on your project through digital photos. Then final adjusted* payment before it ships.

* For projects over $500 I work with you to set a ceiling cost on your project well before I begin, but when I am finished I can weigh it to get the actual amount of cupper used, not including the cut-off waste used (which any other shop would charge you for). I then can adjust the final payment to reflect only what you will receive, so you are not paying for more for an inflated or loosely quoted price. A detail you are able to double check after it arrives to see how honest I was.

We all know it is a scary ugly world out there full of liars and cheats.  Although, I believe my Business Integrity Award from the Better Business Bureau should give even the worst critics the confidence of my ethical responsibility and devotion to my clients.  I have had less than 5% of my potential clients express discomfort with my payment policy.  This has not been much of an issue, but if you do not trust me, you should simply not do business with me at all.

What has been happening to the cost of copper?
Besides fuel prices slowly rising from $1.50 per gallon to well over twice that amount during the Bush term; it seems that sheet metal prices suddenly rose several times in early 2006 to about twice the cost, largely due to a couple worker strikes in mines in Chili and Mexico, along with a larger demand in China for raw materials than their own mining has been able to produce. You can read more on this subject at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/markets/commodities.html

At the core of these price changes is the cost of scrap metal. Here in the Portland Oregon area I take in small pieces of scrap copper for recycling on occasion. The prices had fluctuated between $0.65 - $0.85 per pound all through the 90s and half way into this decade. Now aluminum is in that price range. At the beginning of April 2006 copper was up to an astonishing $1.70 per pound. Then up to $1.90 just 2 weeks later. Then up to an alarming $2.40 at the beginning of May. In early June it had risen to $2.60 a pound, which is triple the cost I had ever seen it in the past. I expected that drastic inflation to have dropped again to a reasonable amount once the problems of supply had been resolved, but it has held steady over the last couple years with no sign of dropping.

The prices listed on this web site for custom copper work were the actual costs of those items at that time, but do not reflect accurately how much new projects will run now. My prices have not doubled, since most of the cost is labor, but I had to compensate for these cost increases. This is of course not within my control, and I have no idea where these prices will go in the foreseeable future, but analysts do not see it going down in the next few years with large oil companies controlling governments and economies.

 Do You Accept Credit Card Payments?

I have PayPal set-up on my contact Info web page , but it is not any faster for me than the US mail and cost me 3% of your order, so I prefer you just send me a personal check. 

Also, not that I had any personal problems with PayPal, but they have had a very poor reputation for providing no customer service contact info for merchants and randomly seizing merchant's funds to help cover unrelated credit card fraud losses. I had closed my account in 2003 because of this concern and removed it from my web site for several years, just before Ebay bought them out. I more recently reestablished an account through them again (12/06), but a few clients have reporting trouble getting payments to go through.

I have looked into other sources, but they are expensive and complicated.

Another quick way is to do a funds transfer right from your Bank into my account. I know they charge me a $10 transfer fee to receive it, and I would not know what your bank might charge you. I can provide you with my bank transfer information upon request.

Over 95% of my non-local clients just snail-mail me a personal check. That seems to have worked out fine so far and I have not received any bad checks to date. I'll notify you when the check is received. Then send digital photos of the progress.  Finally, the tracking # when it ships with the personalized installation instructions. Note: I will need your daytime contact phone# for the shipping label.

 My Toll-free Phone #

If you are not calling about having me do work for you; please read over my Consultation Service described below, before calling me to assist you with problems you may have encountered from other contractors.

Non-local Client Orders
Most of my clients are near the opposite coast from us, so I have to rely on you to get me the info I need to create the project you need and so it will fit just right.  I cannot guaranty it will fit if I do not have all the info and correct measurements.  You will then need to do the installation yourself or hire a local contractor to do the installation. I do provide them with personalized and detailed installation instruction along with all the needed hardware to attach the units I build.

Below is a photo of my
Better Business Bureau's
NW Business Integrity Award
for the year 1998

I was also a 1997 finalist for this same award. See my referral web page to see how I managed to be honored with this special award

"Quality and service is not expensive, it's priceless!"

That's the Copper By Design way