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

Estimating Frame And Brick Houses

For the verandas we have for the front, 8 x 34 feet; area, 272 feet. Left wing of front veranda, 8 x 10 feet, or an area of 80 feet. Side veranda by kitchen, 6 x 26 feet, or an area of 156 feet. Latticed porch, 6 x 13 feet, with an area of 78 feet. Porch in rear of dining room, 6x4 feet; area, 24 feet. Balcony floor in front, second story, 10 x 10 feet; area, 100 feet. Together these make a total of 770 feet, to which add 10 per cent, and we have 847 feet required for verandas and porches. Let us recapitulate :

Feet.
Flooring for first story 1,500
Flooring for second story 1,500
Flooring for attic story 1,223
Verandas, porches, etc 847
Total flooring 5,070


This is within 30 feet of 51 squares, so for convenience sake we will say the building requires 51 squares of flooring. If the stuff is less than 3 inches wide—and if hard wood it should not be any wider, and if pine it should not be more than 4 inches wide—a man will lay about 31/2 squares in a day.

If pine, and 4 inches wide, he will put down 4 squares a day. Here, then, we have the cost of labor in a nutshell. Fifty-one squares divided by 4 squares, one day's work for one man, will give the following result: 51 : 4 = 123/4. That is, it will take one man 1234 days to lay the 51 squares of flooring. Now, if we know how much per 1000 we are to pay for the flooring, all we have to do is to multiply the cost of 1000 five times and add the cost of the odd 100 feet, then add the cost of 123/4 days' labor, and the cost of nails, which in the case of flooring will be the cost of 1 pound of nails for each square of flooring, or 10 pounds per 1000 feet of flooring, face measure.