SQUARE OR SUPERFICIAL MEASURE Square Measure.—Square or super ficial measure is employed by carpen ters, masons, and others, in the build ing trades, in house furnishing and decoration, and notably in surveying and the measurement of land.
The ordinary square measure for carpenters, masons, and others is as follows: Carpenters, architects, and mechan ics often write 8" for 8 inches, and 5' for 5 feet. They also use sq." and sq.' for square inches and square feet.
Plastering, ceiling, etc., are com monly estimated by the square yard; paving, glazing, and stone cutting by the square foot; roofing, flooring, and slating by the square 100 feet.
Cost of Lathing.—Laths are 4 feet long, inches wide, and are laid inch apart at the sides, and close together at the ends. A bunch of lath contains 100 pieces, and is estimated to cover 5 square yards of surface.
Cost of Clapboarding and Shing ling.—Clapboards are usually cut 4 feet long and 6 inches wide, and are put up in bundles of twenty-five each.
Shingles are estimated at 9 'shingles, laid 4 inches to the weather, to the square foot. Allowing for waste and defects, 1,000 shingles are estimated to cover 100 square feet, called a square. In practice, 1,000 shingles of the best quality will cover 125 square feet.
Or to find the number of shingles required in a roof: multiply the num ber of square feet in the roof by 9 if the shingles are exposed 4 inches, by 8 if exposed 4i inches, or by 7i if ex posed 5 inches.
To find the number of square feet, multiply the length of the roof by twice the length of the rafters.
To find the length of the rafters at pitch, multiply the width of the building by .56 (hundredths); at pitch by .6 (tenths) ; at * pitch by .64 (hundredths) ; at pitch by .71 (hundredths). This gives the length of the rafters from the apex to the end of the wall, and whatever they are to project must be taken into consid eration.
By i or pitch is meant that the apex or comb of the roof is to be to the width of the building higher than the walls or base of the rafters.
lffeasnrement of Wall Surfaces.— A common application of square measure in the household is in esti mating material and labor for the treatment of wall surfaces by paper hanging, plastering, painting, or cal cimining. All of these are usually computed by the square yard.
Wall paper is sold by the roll, which is usually 18 inches wide and 8 yards in length. Or in double rolls of the same width, 16 yards long. These are counted as 9 rolls each. They economize waste in cutting.
These are thc dimensions of most wall papers made in America, and may be taken for granted unless otherwise specified. Imported papers differ as to the length and width of the roll.
Borders or friezes are sold by the yard. They vary in width from S
inches upward.
Cost of Hanging Wall Paper.--It is not possible, as b. rule, to find in advance the exact cost of papering a room. The measurement of the room will, however, assist in making an es timate of the number of rolls re quired. The actual number to be paid for can be determined only after the papering has been done. Then all rolls that have been cut must be paid for, the uncut rolls being, as a rule, allowed to be returned.
When estimating the number of rolls of paper required for papering a room of ordinary height (i.e., if the distance from the baseboard to the border is not more than 8 feet), first measure around the room, leaving out the widths of the doors and win dows; then. allow one double roll or two single rolls for every 7 feet.
Or by another method, measure around the room in yards. The num ber of strips required will be just about double the number of yards. Find how rnany strips can be cut from a roll and divide the number of strips required to go around the room by the number that can be cut from a roll. The result will be the number of rolls.
Cost of Plastering, Papering, and Calcimining. — These are measured by the square yard. Allowances are sometimes made either in whole or part for the area of openings, for baseboards, and the like. But there is no uniform rule respecting these allowances. Custom varies so greatly that it is better to make written contract to govern the final settle ment. The surfaces of the walls of a room may be found by multiplying the sum of the lengths of the four sides changed to square units by the height.
Cost of Carpeting Rooms.—Car peting and matting is in various widths, cornmonly 1 yard or of a yard in width, and is sold by the yard. Oilcloth and linoleum come in various widths and are sold by the square yard.
The number of yards of carpeting required for a room depends on the size of the room, the directions in which the strips run, and the loss caused by 'matching the figures. Hence it is necessary to decide first whether the strips shall run length wise or across the room; next, how much will be wasted in rnatching the pattern; and finally the number of strips required. The number of yards in a strip, including the waste in matching the pattern, multiplied by the number of strips, will give the number of yards required. In large carpet stores, loss in matching the figures is sometimes avoided by cut ting strips from different rolls. Waste may also occur from turning under carpets that are too wide, and from borders. If borders are put all around the carpet, the corners must be counted twice, because one half of each corner is wasted in the rnaking.