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How To Remodel Basements And Attics

How To Estimate Cost Of Remodeling

AFTER THE FINAL plan view has been drawn, the next step consists of estimating all material and other costs. For estimating purposes, a carefully scaled and drawn plan view, such as Fig. 4 in Chapter 9, is invaluable. In fact, accurate and complete estimating cannot be done without such a plan view.

Carrying on the illustrative example in Chapter 9, we can assume that Mr. Jones and his family have decided upon all materials, as explained in Chapter 9 and as indicated in the final plan view. The cost of the remodeling can now be estimated. In this chapter, we shall discuss several examples of cost estimating.

COST SHEETS

In any basement-remodeling job there will be a great many items of material and equipment involved. In order to estimate costs in a logical and practical manner, Mr. Jones drew some cost sheets, as shown in Table 1. Once all material and other necessary items had been entered on these sheets, lumberyards and dealers were glad to give Mr. Jones a complete list of prices and costs In fact, any lumberyard or material dealer can actually use such sheets to both his own and your advantage.

Note 1: Here we are showing only a sample of a typical cost sheet together with some illustrative material figures. However, we can assume that Mr. Jones used several such sheets in connection with his remodeling project.

Note 2: For your remodeling project you should draw and use similar cost sheets.

PARTITIONS

Fig. 1 shows all the partitions required for the Jones remodeling project. They are lettered AB, AM, SD, DC, EF, GH, etc. Here, we shall use partitions AB, CD, JK and KL as typical examples showing how Mr. Jones went about his estimating work.