Many a painter has dropped his profits by not taking in these little particulars. Every bead, sunken or raised panel makes an edge to paint. The edges of ordinary weather boarding add ten per cent. to the surface, to say nothing of the edges of the corner boards and window and door casings—the projections and depressions in the panels of an ordinary four-paneled door, add at least ten per cent. to the surface to be painted. Then let me say to you again, look closely for edges, projections, depressions, hollows and rounds. They all count when you paint them; and it is your fault if they are not included in the estimate. When you have multiplied the number of feet around a house by the average height and reduced it to yards you have only made a start. Measure the cornice, follow the hollows, rounds and edges with the line. There is lots of surface in mouldings. The tape-line is good as far as you can make it go, but it can’t do it all. You must use judgment in connection with it; and carefully estimate the condition of the work, what per cent. is slow to paint, or high and difficult to reach. For instance, what is the condition of the surface, is it porous and full of cracks? Is every joint gaping for putty? Is the putty on the windows rough and broken? Is the old paint cracked, blistered and scaling? Is the cornice ornamented with dentils, brackets and panels? You may lose a day or a week of extra time on a high tower or cupola if you fail to put it into your estimate as extra hard to reach. Make the price accordingly. Are the blind-slats stuck fast and difficult to paint? Is the work to be done in the busy season when labor and material are high priced and good men are hard to get; or in the dull season, when dealers will cut prices and good men are hunting for work? Bidding on specifications must be done with care. You can figure the number of yards to be painted, but there are many points which the completed job can alone disclose. A provision in your contract to cover all changes in specifications comes mighty handy on the day of final settlement. It is not safe to make anything like a close bid on specifications, until the following questions have been settled and put in your contract. To-wit: Will the building be delivered to you at a specified time, finished and cleaned out and put in good condition for the painter; or will you be expected to commence before the work is finished and paint as the work is put up, and spend as much time dusting and sweeping as you do at painting? Will the machine-dressed lumber, including mouldings, doors, window-stops, etc., be put in as it comes from the factory rough and fuzzy, or will it be redressed and made smooth and ready for the paint? These points may look to you like small matters, but they count when you come to paint the work. If you are to do a fine job stipulate in your contract that the wood-work, etc., shall be finished in good shape. If you are to paint the work as you find it have it so stated in your contract. Paste this motto in the top of your hat and read it often: “It is always better to lose a job than to get it and lose money on it.”
Two houses may be of equal dimensions, yet it may be worth 50 per cent. more to paint one than the other; hence any definite scale of prices for work by the yard is liable to be misleading. We may determine by the line how much there is of the work, but we must rely upon our judgment and experience to determine how much it will cost to do it.
ONE WAY TO MEASURE A JOB.
Find the surface measure of the entire job, including all edges and projections, and estimate how much it is worth per yard, on the basis that it is all plain work, easy to get at. Next we will proceed by what we may call special measurement. Suppose the cornice measures 60 yards, and is finished with blocks, moulded panels and brackets, and we estimate that the cost of painting it will be three times that of a plain cornice, hence we will add two measures or 120 yards to the general or first measurement. Next, suppose each window and casing measures three yards, and there are 20 of them to be trimmed in colors, we estimate the work of painting them double that of plain work; hence we add to our special measurement 60 yards. If there is a cupola high and difficult to reach we estimate that it will be worth double the cost of painting ordinary work to do it. Say, it measures 50 yards, we will add 50 yards to the general measurement, and so we will go on until we have taken in all parts of the work which will cost more than ordinary plain work.
To illustrate: The building measures 600 yards, and as plain work we estimate it worth twenty cents per yard to paint it. We amount our special measurement which we will say adds up to 300 yards, which added to the 600 yards general measurement, makes 900, which at twenty cents per yard, makes $180. The same system may be used inside.
TO SOFTEN HARD, LUMPY PUTTY.
Break the putty into lumps; put it in a kettle with enough water to cover it; add a little raw oil, and boil and stir well while hot. The putty will absorb the oil; pour off the water, let the putty cool, then work it, and your putty will be as good as new.
TACKY PAINT ON CHURCH SEATS, ETC.
During my experience as a painter, I have been called upon to repaint tacky seats in at least half a dozen churches. Such seats are an unmitigated nuisance. Tacky paint may be the result of putting too much japan in oil paint, or of using fat oil, or paint which had been mixed a long time, especially if it had very much japan in it, or by mixing oil and varnish, or by putting varnish on oil paint, especially if the paint had not been given time to dry hard before it was varnished. To harden tacky paint try this: Take one part japan and three parts of turpentine, and give the work a coat of the mixture. That will usually effect a cure, unless the paint is soft clear to the wood. A coat of shellac will sometimes do the work all right. Such seats usually seem all right until warmed by the heat of the body; hence we may be satisfied that the fault is in the oil used in the paint or varnish. It is best on that account to use but little if any oil when painting seats of any kind. Coat up with color ground in japan and thinned with turps; varnish the part which comes in contact with the body with shellac varnish.
I have painted seats this way, and never heard of any further trouble with them.