Enough?

The wait, these days, to get a wallpaper order, is long. There is no competition among the suppliers so they can take their sweet time and they will not lose a customer. After a three month delay, one of our clients finally got their paper yesterday, and as promised, we came almost immediately to install it. Before I set up the tools and equipment, I always check the amount of paper to make sure there is enough. I looked at the wall and then at the rolls of paper in a small box and asked where the other box was. I saw the very troubled look on their faces immediately.

"That is all there is," was the weak reply.

"Can't be," says I, "you need twice that amount, but I will measure to make sure."

I did, and it was exactly twice as much that they needed. The architect had ordered it and had ordered the right amount, but in single rolls, not doubles.

This confusion is a throwback to the days when you paid for and ordered single rolls and they came packaged in double rolls, but if required, you could get a single roll. Now you can only get double rolls, but the pricing remains to be on a single roll.

This happens many times, but another reason for shortages is that paper is so very expensive now that the customer is reluctant to order anything at all extra. They typically do not allow anything for pattern match and waste. If there is not an adequate amount of material, I will not even start because when more is ordered to finish the project, getting the same dye lot is rare. Then one has to strip back all the paper and start over, and this drives the cost of the job through the roof.

I had an elderly lady hire me to paper her bathroom a few years ago, and I knew there was not enough paper. She insisted that I hang paper until I ran out. I did, and it was above her commode that there was about six square feet of blank wall. She told me to put the scraps and pattern match waste in there. She was serious, much to my dismay, so I consented, but on one very firm condition.

"Do not ever, ever, tell anyone that I hung the paper in this bathroom. It will ruin my hard won reputation." She consented, and I never heard from her, or her neighbours, again.