The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Estimating Frame And Brick Houses
Interior and Exterior Trim
Laying Floors.
In laying floors much depends on the width and quality of the stock. If good material is used and the stuff is inches or less in width it is worth to lay it 60 cents per square. If more than 4 inches in width, 56 cents per square is a fair price. This, of course, is for laying only with square butt joints. If the butt joints are grooved, and "feathers" or slips run in them, 85 cents per square should be charged for the wide and 95 cents for the narrow flooring per square. Hard wood flooring takes about one-third more time to lay down than pine or other soft woods, and where the blind nailing is done on every joint, as it should be in the case of hard wood flooring, from 3 to per cent extra should be added to the cost of laying. Where much cutting and fitting have to be done, as is sometimes the case in halls and rooms of odd shape, an additional 5 per cent, should be added to the cost of labor. In estimating the amount of material required for a floor, get the number of feet board measure, in the floor, then add one-fifth for matching and waste; also measure in all openings as though they were not there, including well holes, hearth spaces, chimney openings and traps. If the rooms are irregular or circular ended charge the same as if the room carried its whole width to the extreme end. The prices given herewith are for first floors. When flooring has to be handled or hauled up any number of stories 5 cents extra should be charged per square for every story it has to rise; thus, in a five-floored building, 20 cents per square extra should be added for extra handling.
Rough floors of 1-inch boards, irregular widths, are worth to lay and nail down, 20 cents per square. If dressed and the joints laid close charge 28 cents per square. If the edges are jointed and the boards narrow, charge 30 cents per square. If the floor is double—rough floor underneath, matched flooring on top and paper between—charge 2 cents per square for laying the paper. If paper is laid down on rough floor and 3/8-inch strips of wood placed over the paper on top of the joists, charge 4 cents extra per square for putting down and nailing the strips. The cost of the material forming these strips must be added to the foregoing, so also must the cost of all the nails required to complete the work.
