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

Estimating Frame And Brick Houses

There are about 600 yards of painting required, exclusive of the roof. The rules for finding painting quantities may be found in the chapter on painting in another part of the work, so it will be unnecessary to repeat here.

With the data before us, estimating the cost of a barn such as the one shown should be an easy matter, and as this type of a barn is the one that is employed over a very large area of the United States and Canada wherever timber frame barns are built, the cost of such a building should not be difficult to discover when the prices of lumber, hardware, paint and labor are known.

There are several methods adopted by barn builders for estimating the cost of barns, one of which is to figure out every item that goes into the structure, which is the most correct method, but which is laborious and costly—in time.

Another is to cube the contents of the barn, just as one might cube any other building. The rule given for this class of building is from 31/2 to 41/4 cents per cubic foot, which, of course, includes all materials, also stone foundation. For labor alone about 11/4 to 13/4 cents per cubic foot will cover the cost. The contents are obtained just the same as the contents are obtained in dwellings or similar buildings, the same rules being applied.

Another method is to find the number of feet of lumber in the whole building, and then levy a fixed sum per iooo feet for labor, which in this case will be $7 per 1000, with labor at $3 per day of nine hours. This figure is not far out of the way, but, of course, something depends on the kind of workmen employed. This figure covers everything in the wood work, and, as it is an easy matter to find the quantity of material required, and its cost, the total cost of the building is not difficult to get at.

Details in Estimating

In order to obtain an accurate estimate of any extensive contract, it is necessary that all the details of the various departments of work be considered separately as regards the cost of the production of the material, its manipulation for the particular requirement, the labor expended upon it in preparation, and in the building or fitting up in the structure to be erected. These we shall consider here in the natural order or process which is usually adopted in building operations.