Estimating Tables
for Home Building
by Paul I. Thomas
(Craftsman Book
Company, 1990;
800/829-8123).
Softcover, 81/2x11,
334 pages. $21.50.
Estimating whole house construction
often requires builders to choose between
the lesser of two evils. Do you spend an
inordinate amount of time considering
every item in the house, knowing that
you may lose the bid? Or do you shoot
from the hip and toss out a price, knowing
that you may lose your shirt?
In Estimating Tables for Home
Building, author Paul Thomas has
come up with a system that combines
the best of both approaches. According
to Thomas, if you know the square
footage and the perimeter of a building,
you can use the tables in his
book to work up a