The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Estimating Frame And Brick Houses
The most reliable method of arriving at an approximate estimate is by means of rough quantities; but it is not used as frequently as it should be because of the time in- volved. It should be the only allowable method for any large building and for competitions, the price per foot cube being ascertained merely as a check. In rough quantities the main items only are measured, and in them all finishings and labor are included. Generally, the work will be divided into sections. The foundations and walling below ground is roughly measured and priced by itself, the external walls being taken next at a price to include facings on one side and plastering and all finishings on the other. Doors and windows may be measured in with the external and internal walling, the price being adjusted accordingly; or they may be deducted and priced separately at so much each, or so much per foot super, including everything. The price for floors might include boarding, joists, ceilings, and skirtings. Staircases are often taken per tread or per foot super, the price covering strings, newels, balusters, rails, plastered soffits, etc. Roofs are priced at per square, including slates, boarding, timbers, external plumbing, eaves, gutters, and downpipes. Sanitary appliances may be numbered and priced to include fixing Water service would be better itemized, but this yy ould take up too much time and labor, and a lumpsum, decided upon, by comparison with similar plant elsewhere, and the cisterns, cesspools and other similar works, may be grouped together and lumped. Grates and ranges should be numbered and priced: hearths and mantels with fixings included. Drainage can be taken at per foot run, the price, of course, to be an average one. and to include all bends, Y.Y.S. junctions, traps, digging, filling in and making good; the manholes being priced separately at per foot depth. Fence-walls, when any, may be measured per foot super, or per foot run by an average height, the price including everything. Gas or electric lighting and bells should be priced at per point
In the preparation of rough quantities the measurements are quite a simple matter; the accuracy of the method depends chiefly on the getting together of a schedule of prices. If time permitted these to be carefully prepared for each job, then the resulting would be made about as accurate as if taken from a bill of quantities. In approximate estimates, however, this would scarcely be possible, so that the most practicable thing to do is to prepare an average schedule (which can be easily kept up to data once it is prepared), and to modify the prices to suit each particular case.
The preparation of such a schedule consists in apportioning to the man's items the value or values per unit of the subsidiary items to be included, and in the assignment of the proper fraction of lineal items to each superficial or lineal item, to each cubic foot of man's item.
