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

Estimating Frame And Brick Houses

This process is quite simple in the case of walling, because the same dimensions apply to walling, facings and plasterings, etc., so that the three separate prices per foot super have merely to be added together. When dealing with a floor, however, where lineal, superficial and cubic dimensions are found, the case becomes more complicated. The best way is to work out the amount of flooring, joists, wall plates, grounds, ceilings, cornices, mitres, etc., contained in a square of average flooring, and from this the total per foot super can readily be found.

So in the case of windows and doors—take one window of average size, and its run of linings, architraves and window boards, the value of fittings and the area of glass and painting and you have the total value per window. The total cost per foot super is found from this by dividing by the number of feet super in the window.

A little practice soon enables the estimator to work out many of these items in his head and a valuable system of estimating will have been acquired. The preparation of a standard average schedule as mentioned and its subsequent use will suggest many valuable hints and short cuts which can be utilized in this way. There is, of course, no Toyal road to estimating, either approximate or otherwise. And quick methods can only be used intelligently and safely by the man who has discovered them for himself.

The Frame Construction

In order to be able to make a correct estimate of the cost of any building, a plan of the structure is an absolute necessity. If no plan is furnished by the architect, then prepare with pencil or ink a ground plan, also a plan of the second and other stories, show ing all parts, stairs, chimneys, doors, windows or other openings. Mark in plain figures on these plans the dimensions and the measurements of everything in the building of which an estimate is desired. Let us suppose a building of any reasonable size, of balloon frame, and to stand on a stone foundation, to be the one on which an estimate is to be made. If we are expected to do the entire work we should, if possible, see the site, so as to get an idea of the amount of excavating that may be required. We shall also want to know the kind of earth to be removed, and the distance it will have to be conveyed. It requires a full day of nine hours to dig and fill into a car or wheelbarrow 12 cubic yards of common coarse gravel or clay. A sound man will wheel and unload the former material 100 yards away in one day and the latter in seven hours. Given the wages paid per day and the number of yards to be excavated, and it is a simple matter to ascertain the cost.