Do you charge for an underbase?

You have to charge for it, it is an extra screen and it usually uses the most ink, plus you have to flash or even print twice and flash twice.

Yes, it essentially doubles your labor costs too as it takes at least twice as long to finish a job.

We make it easy and just charge one additional color on darks.

Time is money after all and you do have much more time so my answer is yes for sure.
You just need to make the customer understand what the underbase is for, many of them do not understand. I had a woman come into my shop yesterday and wanted to know the cost for 2 black shirts with white ink. (she said I just want to get some good prices to start)I tried to explain what the differences were and told her I would do it on the dtg because the cost for 2 shirts on screen would not be worth it but if she wanted more in the furture it would be best to go that way.

What about if you're printing on a 80/20 cotton poly and you need to use a poly ink to stop bleeding? Would you still charge even though it's something the customer doesn't really want/sees the need for?

if an underlay is needed i charge for an extra screen, film, $1.00 extra per shirt. that includes a flash

I think that companies have to charge for the underprint. I don't think there is any way around it due to the time involved in burning the screens and to set-up the job itself. Additionally, there is going to be added time to the print runs due to the use of a flash

Something to consider also is the cost of the white ink. It's not as bad as dtg white ink cost, but depending on coverage, white ink can be used at 3-6 times the rate of the other colors in a design.

We charge for this, however, If the design has white in it and it makes sense, we wont.

example, a red and blue print on black, I charge 3 screens, but if its a red, white, and blue design on a black shirt, I still only charge 3 screens.

n.signia said:

example, a red and blue print on black, I charge 3 screens, but if its a red, white, and blue design on a black shirt, I still only charge 3 screens.

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I used to charge that way too. But, now I've found that I'd rather print a highlight white on these prints. So now I'm charging for 4 screens. Explaining this to past customers was a little difficult at times.

I think you should charge for an additional color regardless. You still have to p/f/p the white anyway resulting in more work.

neato said:

I used to charge that way too. But, now I've found that I'd rather print a highlight white on these prints. So now I'm charging for 4 screens. Explaining this to past customers was a little difficult at times.

I think you should charge for an additional color regardless. You still have to p/f/p the white anyway resulting in more work.

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you are right, it is more work.