Time needed to string a large chandelier?

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jjhoward

jjhoward

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Northern NJ
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Owner TJ Electric
I am putting together a quote for a homeowner that includes many items. One of the items is a 6' chandelier, 3 tiers with many strings of crystal beads.
The info from the manufacturer lists a total of 924 items (strings of beads and some individual crystals) that must be attached.
Fortunately there is a chandelier lift to hang this thing at an accessible height while stringing up the crystals.
Any advice on estimating time to place these 924 items on the this 3 tiered fixture?
The folks who sell this thing told me about 1 hr! That is about 4 seconds per item. I don't know of you can get the beaded strings out of the packing in 4 seconds.

Thanks for your input!
 
Even at as little as 10 seconds per crystal I get almost 3 hours and depending on how hard they are to put on and how they are packaged maybe much longer.

I might call it 8 hours ....
 
Attaching the strings of crystals and individual crystals is a large part of the work.
I think there is some wiring/assembly to be done prior to attaching the crystals.
I am thinking allowing 2-3 hrs for unpacking and frame assembly.
Then we settle in for some tedium....and for some more.....924 at 15 seconds gets real close to 4 hrs.
 
The difference is whether you have to tie the beads/ crystals on strings, cut string, tie knots, etc. or if they come in strips of a dozen crystals, and I'd lean towards the later. But I'd hate to see you get screwed by the old "buy a brand new computer" and someone ships you ram, cpu, mobo, cables, psu, etc...

Can you call the company that makes it and ask what subassemblies are already done?
 
jjhoward said:
Attaching the strings of crystals and individual crystals is a large part of the work.
I think there is some wiring/assembly to be done prior to attaching the crystals.
I am thinking allowing 2-3 hrs for unpacking and frame assembly.
Then we settle in for some tedium....and for some more.....924 at 15 seconds gets real close to 4 hrs.
Click to expand...
I have done this before (only with an antique chandelier where the first and longest part of the task was to count all of the various shape crystals and all of the mounting holes on the chandelier and then figure out which ones went where and which round or square buttons went with which single crystals. The person who packed it did not label anything.:))
Don't forget that some (most?) of the crystals will be part of preassembled ropes of probably 20 or more crystals. Those will not take any longer to attach than two single crystals.
In some cases the attachment process will require threading an attachment wire into a (not always readily accessible) hole in the frame and then bending it to secure the wire.
Allow for doing the work wearing clean white cotton gloves if you do not want to have to clean the crystals to get fingerprints off once you are done. This assumes that the crystals are shipped clean, of course.
Make sure you hang them in the correct order so that installed crystals do not get in the way of mounting the rest.

Once you have gotten started, I would expect that one hour would actually not be unreasonable if the chandelier is well designed. But that would be added to the time for the rest of the mechanical assembly and the wiring.
 
Ok, white gloves: check
Pictures of us with the white gloves on: check!
I agree, it should go pretty quick ONCE all is laid out and we know where the parts are supposed to go.
But I still don't believe that we could do 924 pieces 4 seconds each. The thing is 6' tall, I am sure the chandelier lift won't have this thing sitting on the floor. So that means ~1/3 or more of these parts will be done while standing on a step ladder. I don't see me picking something off the floor, stepping on a ladder, hanging one end of the string in a eyelet, bending the wire and then inserting the bottom end of the string in another eyelet and bending the wire....in 4 seconds.
I say 10 secs would be a good time....that burns 3 hrs. + the setup time (another 3??) 6 hrs.... Buffer time for the unknown?
 
jjhoward said:
Ok, white gloves: check
Pictures of us with the white gloves on: check!
I agree, it should go pretty quick ONCE all is laid out and we know where the parts are supposed to go.
But I still don't believe that we could do 924 pieces 4 seconds each. The thing is 6' tall, I am sure the chandelier lift won't have this thing sitting on the floor. So that means ~1/3 or more of these parts will be done while standing on a step ladder. I don't see me picking something off the floor, stepping on a ladder, hanging one end of the string in a eyelet, bending the wire and then inserting the bottom end of the string in another eyelet and bending the wire....in 4 seconds.
I say 10 secs would be a good time....that burns 3 hrs. + the setup time (another 3??) 6 hrs.... Buffer time for the unknown?
Click to expand...
What I got from the initial post was that there are 924 crystals, not 924 separate subassemblies. But rereading it, you said "items". You need to confirm from the instructions just what is being counted.
(Yes, getting hold of the instructions before bidding would really be great.)
 
jjhoward said:
I am putting together a quote for a homeowner that includes many items. One of the items is a 6' chandelier, 3 tiers with many strings of crystal beads.
The info from the manufacturer lists a total of 924 items (strings of beads and some individual crystals) that must be attached.
Fortunately there is a chandelier lift to hang this thing at an accessible height while stringing up the crystals.
Any advice on estimating time to place these 924 items on the this 3 tiered fixture?
The folks who sell this thing told me about 1 hr! That is about 4 seconds per item. I don't know of you can get the beaded strings out of the packing in 4 seconds.

Thanks for your input!
Click to expand...

first off.. is it real crystal? you need to find out
your liability here.

i quoted moving, crating, cleaning this one.
it was 6' or so in diameter, and about 14' tall.
each of the pendants is a 2" x 2" x 12" fluted
square piece of crystal, beveled on the bottom,
made by baccarat.

there are two of these chandeliers, one in a casino
on lake como, and this one, i was told.
so, if you break it..... it was about $150k in the late '80's.

scissor lift, two days, two guys, including the custom
crating by a company that does fine art shipping... $8,500.

 
We did a similar fixture, just under a thousand crystals, after the fixture was hung it took 2 people 7 hours to hang the crystals with their Michael Jackson gloves.

Good luck!
 
jjhoward said:
One of the items is a 6' chandelier,
The folks who sell this thing told me about 1 hr!
Click to expand...

jjhoward said:
I am thinking allowing 2-3 hrs for unpacking and frame assembly.
Click to expand...



It can take that long to unpack and assemble. I did a couple last winter for a customer ( not quite that large) and they were a real pain. The instructions were not very good and the design was not good at all.

I have found that chandeliers are designed for the look of the thing and not the ease of assembly.
 
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