The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Carpet Laying And Estimating Website
And for a pencil, use one that is not so hard that the marks are too faint to read, nor so soft that the figures smudge in ordinary handling. An illegible measurement is a great source of danger if misread, and means another trip to the site to check it—an embarrassing and costly procedure.
TECHNIQUE OF MAKING DRAWINGS
As stated a few lines back, don't attempt to make a finished, scale drawing of a room or series of rooms without first making a rough sketch of the layout based on actual measurement. In other words, as you go around the room taking measurements, don't worry too much whether your first sketch is "to scale" or not—so long as your measurements are as accurate as possible and you have clearly indicated each wall, wall opening, door, closet, fireplace, stairway, and other significant features. Include every projection, jog, extension, or offset down to about 1/2 in. in size. Write down the actual measurements in feet and inches—not what they will reduce to in the final scale drawing. A convenient way of indicating feet and inches is to write the feet large and the inches as a "superscript," thus: 17° for 17' 6".
After you've got your rough sketch covering all dimensions, then make the finished scale drawing, using a convenient scale that is easy on your arithmetic, such as one inch equals one foot, or 1/4 in. equals 1 ft. In selecting the scale to use, first do some quick figuring to see if the room drawn to that scale will fit on your 81/2 x 11 in. paper.
TECHNIQUE OF TAKING MEASUREMENTS
Don't be satisfied with a series of "over-all" measurements for each of the walls of a room; take advantage of the extra protection afforded by the "broken measurement" method, as follows: In a rectangular room, measure both pairs of parallel walls—both by the "broken measurements" and by the "over-all" method (Fig. 4.1).
In other words, make one set of measurements serve as a check on the other. All broken measurements should add up to equal over-all measurements; e.g., in Fig. 4-1, the sum of A + B + C + D + E should equal F. In many rooms, G will also equal F, but occasionally these will differ —don't assume they're equal. Another method of measurement is the cumulative or "running" measure, which is well adapted to irregularly shaped rooms or rooms broken up by a larger number of openings or offsets, as in Fig. 4.2.
