BUILDING INSPECTION 293 



To save all chance of a disappointing result, add from 

 ten to fifteen per cent, for possible changes, and you will 

 know quite definitely the maximum cost of your house under 

 any ordinary conditions that may arise. 



Building Inspection. 



An absolute essential if the above system is adopted is to hire an 

 honest, competent man, not necessarily physically able to work, to 

 whom you will pay, say three to five dollars a day to be on the job 

 every hour of each working day, but for reasons stated hired by the 

 w r eek. It will be his business to see that your orders are carried 

 out, that every scrap of material is on the ground ahead of time, to 

 check bills and keep a list of men at work in each department, and 

 to aid in weeding out the sluggards, who have a bad effect on all 

 other workers. 



I beg of you, do not get enmeshed in the friendship net. Avoid 

 the well-meaning man who says he knows all about building, and 

 will enjoy looking after the construction of your house without a 

 cent of remuneration. He is too close a friend either to be offered 

 pay or to be criticized for his judgment and methods. I went through 

 that mill once at quite a cost, and know some half dozen other 

 unfortunates. In each case, it proved a lamentable failure on both 

 sides. 



Hire some one to dog the job whom you can discharge Satur- 

 day night if unsatisfactory, and talk to like a Dutch uncle all the 

 week, if the case requires. You are to live in the house and you 

 pay the bills. 



The man for you should be a practical builder who can tell "a 

 hawk from a handsaw," has had wide experience, is quick to note 

 the value of important changes, and advise the least expensive and 

 most thorough way of making them, and can see that no material 

 is wasted nor carted away. He need not lift a hammer, in fact may 

 be incapacitated except for head work, but "drest in a little brief 

 authority," can shoulder a weight of responsibility that could not 

 be carried by a layman, or, if physically fit and amenable to reason, 

 work under direct supervision of architect or builder a portion of 

 the time and thus pay at least half his way. 



In a job of this character, the carrying away of any pieces of 

 wood, however small, except chips and shavings, until the house is 

 completed is objectionable. Crippling, forming frames for arches, 

 coving ceilings, deadening of floors and stopping fire draft at plate 

 line and floor beam ends require the very pieces that the contractors 

 or workmen usually cart away, therefore, before beginning the 

 job, have it thoroughly understood that no material is to be removed 

 except that laid aside by the inspector for that purpose. It may not 

 be so much the worth of the material as the lack of needed pieces 

 at an important time, and in a big job the "carting away habit" 



