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Home & Garden Articles
Building By The Square Foot
Fri 26 Jan 2007 - 08:29
Building By The Square Foot
By Mike Merisko
How much material is it going to take to do the job? What is the labor cost for the project?
These are questions a contractor asks himself when bidding a job. In most cases a contractor
will use the square foot method to determine the answer to those questions.
This method of take off is particularly handy in figuring sheet good type materials such as
wall sheathing, plywood decking, roof sheathing and drywall. To find the square footage for
one of these areas, multiply the height or width times(x) the length. For example if you
have an eight foot high wall by 40 feet long the square footage for the wall would be 320
square feet. Most sheet goods are 4 feet by 8 feet or 32 square feet. The square footage of
the wall is divided by 32. It will take 10 sheets of plywood or insulated sheathing to cover
this wall.
This same method can be used to figure the plywood or OSB for the house deck and roof. To
figure the deck simply multiply the width of the deck by the length to get the square
footage and divide by 32. Figuring the square footage of a roof is similar but with a twist.
For the roof multiply the length of the rafters by the length of the roof. Take the result
times 2 for the total square footage for both sides of a gable roof, then divide by 32 to
get the amount of plywood to sheet the roof. The square footage of a hip roof is figured the
same way.
Drywall is also figured by the square foot. This can be an involved process. It can be
broken down into two parts. First the square footage for the ceilings can be figured. Like
the deck this is figured length times width. Then the lineal feet of all the walls is taken
times the height. Interior walls will be added in twice because they have drywall on both
sides. Labor to hang, tape, and paint the drywall is also figured this way.
Besides drywall and painting, many other labor costs are figured by the square foot. Roofing
and siding are figured by the square. A square is 100 square feet. For example if a roof is
1200 square feet, it will take 12 squares of shingles to cover it. The same unit of
measurement goes for vinyl, wood, aluminum, steel and cement sidings.
Carpentry makes use of this measurement also. The cost to frame a house is usually figured
by the square foot. Costs to build a whole house are estimated this way to help people
determine if a house or its house plans are affordable for them to build.
Flooring is also among one of those things that use the square foot method to figure labor
and materials. This includes ceramic and quarry tiles, hardwood, laminate, and vinyl
flooring, and carpeting. Most contractors and installers use a price per square foot for
their labor when calculating their costs for installation.
This information will help you understand contractor estimates and help you do your own
calculations for projects.
Mike Merisko(c) 2007 - www.sawkerfs.com
Mike Merisko has been a carpenter for 26 years. Most of those years were spent in the homebuilding and remodeling industries. He was also in business as a carpentry and general contractor. While that is his forte, he also has experience in bridge building, commercial construction, and exhibit building which is how he earns his living these days. You can browse through articles by him and others at his website http://www.sawkerfs.com or visit his blog at http://www.sawkerfs.blogspot.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Merisko
http://EzineArticles.com/?Building-By-The-Square-Foot&id=431888
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