How united inch pricing works in a frame shop

United inch pricing adds the frame's width and height into one number, the united inches, and prices mats, fitting labor and often moulding against that number instead of against the area or the parts. A 22 by 28 frame is 50 united inches. Moulding is priced on footage with a sliding markup off the supplier's cost per foot, glazing by the square foot, and labor by united inch bracket. Done right, two clerks quoting the same job get the same price. Done by hand, they do not. That is the whole reason frame shop software exists.

Here is the arithmetic, a worked example, and the free calculator we publish so you can check your own numbers.

Start with the frame size, not the art

Customers bring art sizes. The shop prices frame sizes.

Mat window equals the art size minus twice the overlap, where the overlap is how much the mat covers the art on each side (a quarter inch is common). Frame size, which is also the glazing, mat and backing size, equals the mat window plus twice the top mat border, plus twice the reveal for each extra mat. With no mat, the frame size is the art size.

Example: a 16 by 20 watercolor, quarter-inch overlap, a 3-inch top mat border and a second mat with a quarter-inch reveal. Mat window is 15½ by 19½. Frame size is 15½ plus 6 plus ½ by 19½ plus 6 plus ½, which is 22 by 26. United inches: 48.

Moulding: footage, corners and waste

Each mitered stick is measured on its outside edge, which is the inside length plus twice the moulding width. Four sticks give 2 × (W + H) + 8 × moulding width. Then add a waste allowance, usually 15% to 20%, for defects, saw kerf and short ends.

For the 22 by 26 frame in a 2-inch moulding: 2 × 48 is 96, plus 16 for the corners, is 112 inches, or 9.33 feet. With 20% waste, 11.2 feet. At a supplier cost of $6.50 a foot that is $72.80 in wholesale moulding.

Now the markup. Most shops use a sliding scale: a higher multiplier on cheap moulding and a lower one on expensive moulding, because a 4× markup on a $30-a-foot moulding prices the job out of the room, while 2× on a $2-a-foot moulding does not cover the labor of handling it. The curve is yours. The point is that it is written down once, not remembered differently by each clerk.

If you buy chop or join from the supplier, the stick is already cut, so the markup on that line is usually a bit lower. Some suppliers also publish per-united-inch rate charts for their moulding, which already build the waste in, so you multiply the rate by the united inches and stop.

Mats, glazing, mounting and labor

Mats are priced by the united inch: a base charge plus a rate per united inch, times a multiplier for the grade of board. Each mat is a full sheet at frame size, so a double mat is two.

Glazing is priced by the square foot of frame size (W × H ÷ 144), times a cost per square foot that depends on the glass, times your markup. The 22 by 26 frame is 3.97 square feet. Regular glass, UV-filtering glass, museum glass and acrylic each have their own rate, and the jump from regular to museum is the upgrade the live preview sells.

Mounting and backing are also by the square foot. Fitting labor is a flat charge by united inch bracket, and labor is not marked up.

Retail is materials times markup, plus mat cutting and fitting labor, rounded up to the nearest dollar or five if that is your habit.

Why this goes wrong by hand

Each piece of the math is simple. The problem is the price list behind it. Moulding cost per foot changes when the supplier sends a new file, and if the clerk is quoting off the laminated sheet from last spring, every frame in that line is underpriced until someone notices. The second problem is consistency: one clerk adds waste, one does not, one rounds the mat up, one does not, and the customer who got two quotes notices.

FrameForge prices every order this way, from the supplier's cost per foot with a visible freshness date on each price file, your markup curve, your mat and glazing rates and your labor brackets, entered once. Change a rate and every ticket follows. The workshop copy prints the cut lengths and the stick footage so nobody at the bench needs a calculator.

Try the math on your own jobs

We publish a free custom framing price calculator that takes the art size, mats, moulding width and cost, glazing and labor, and gives you the frame size, united inches, moulding footage with waste, the cost per component and a retail price at your markup. No signup. Use it to check a quote, or to see what a different waste allowance does to your margin.

When you want that done on every order at the counter, with your supplier files loaded and the cut list on the ticket, start a free 14-day trial of FrameForge. No card, no contract, $39 to $89 a month. Questions about pricing setup go to info@getframeforge.com.