The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Estimating Frame And Brick Houses

With these figures and remarks before him the estimator should experience little or no difficulty in making a correct estimate of the cost of the cellar so far as we have gone, bearing in mind always that local prices in all cases should be used when obtainable in the place of those suggested herewith.

Damp Course.

It will now be in order to lay a damp course on the stone wall of either slate well bedded in cement mortar, a layer of asphalt 1/2 inch thick, or a layer of neat cement pure and simple. If slate is used, which is the best material of the three, it will take nearly two squares (195 feet) to cover the wall. These cost, say, $7 per square on the ground, and it will take about one barrel of cement and a couple of loads of sand to make the necessary bedding for the slate. The cost of these is easily obtained, and the labor of preparing mortar and laying slate and preparing wall for bricks and joists will cost one day's work for mason and one day's work for helper. Therefore, to arrive at the estimated cost, we have:

2 squares of slates, at $
2 loads of sharp sand, at
1 day's work for mason, at
1 barrel of cement, at
Total $

The blanks should be filled in with the actual cost of material and labor current in the neighborhood where the work is to be executed.

The Superstructure

We are now ready to start operations on the superstructure, as we will leave the partitions, joists and other work in the cellar to be estimated on at a later period. There is considerable stone work required for window sills, door sills, window caps or lintels and bonding stone in chimney. In the cellar there are 13 windows, each with sills 3 feet 6 inches long and 6 inches thick. These would make a total length of 45 feet 6 inches for sills required for the cellar windows. If cut from freestone and tooled, they will be worth about 80 cents per foot running measure, and something less if the stone is " rock-face." There will also be about the same length of wrought stone for lintels. This, however, will be worth from 15 to 20 cents per foot more because of its greater width, being about 1 foot in width, and in this case cut with a curve to suit the top casing of frame. If left parallel the cost will be something less.