Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/133



Exterior Work. To correctly estimate, one must know that a square is 100 square feet and that a square yard is 9 square feet. He must then obtain the actual dimensions of the surface to be painted. He must know how many square feet there are in the work, the condition of the surface and the amount of labor and material required to do the work, whether one, two or three coats. He must know on which part of the work he will have to double and treble measure; that is, where the work must be measured two or three times to arrive at the amount of time necessary to paint it. After he has taken all of these points into consideration he is ready to make an intelligent estimate; however, all rules for measuring a surface to be painted will fall short of the desired result if good judgment is not used. No definite rules can be furnished which will give a basis for arriving at the exact amount of labor necessary on work which is difficult to handle and requires extra ladders, staging or scaffolding. Should the estimator misfigure, he will either lose money or lose the job.

To measure a building, take a tape line and begin at one corner of the building, measuring all of the same height together; multiply this by the height of the building, commencing at the outer edge of the cornice and running to the lower edge of the baseboard, adding 1 to $1 1/2$ feet to the height for the edges of weatherboarding. This will give the number of square feet in the building.

To measure a gable, take the length of rafters, multiply by $1/2$ of the height from the square to peak or comb of the roof. This will give the number of square feet in any gable.

This is all called plain work when painting and no extra