Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-09-13
IL PRICES PER NJ. DELIVERED

Commenting on the above, President
Randall says:
'"rhe advance in clapboards is in my
judgment abnormal and due to this cause
For three or four years up to last fall
clapboards were made in excess of de-
mand and large stocks were accumulated
at primary points. Prices were so low
that many large mills abandoned the
manufacture entirely of clapboards,
preferring to put the large, choice logs
that are used for them into l. inch plank
orders; this surplus has been used up,
and now it is difficult to find enough for
the requirements of building. Hence the
present high price, which. however, is
not regarded as above their real value.
They will never go back to the low
prices of a few years ago
The first item N this list shows why
people are at once nearly right and yet
wrong when they say, lumber has gone
up to $50 a thousand" New York deals
are the very best grade, manufactured
entirely for export, and are not used at
all in ordinary buildings. And even they
are not up to S2J.
Examining the rest Of the list we find
a rise Of about II i-3 per cent. But, if
clapboards had risen no higher than
boards. the ris" would be about los4 per
cent So. in building your house, if you
use shingles instead of clapboards (Which
many people prefer to do any way, with
out regard to expenseJ You will make an
important saving At once.
Furthermore carpenters used to be
pretty wasteful in their use of lumber.
In, ting = LITTLE In
using second quality stuff in places
where it will do just as well as first, an
other reduction can be made.
Painters and GLACIERS supplies are up
about Is per cent. and we believe wages
are higher. If sou use shingles for
clapboards, though, you can save here,
too, for ii doesn't cost so much to dip
shingles as it does to prime and paint
clapboards.
Plumbers supplies, excepting soil pipes
and lead pipe, have not risen, nor have
wages advanced.
The greatest rise in wages has been
among the masons who all get fifty cents
n day more than in 1899.
Against the extra charge for labor.
however, can be set off what may be
saved in various ways on materials. al
though exact figures cannot be given,
since so much depends upon the plan of
each particular house, the kind and size
of the cellar and the number of chimneys.
fireplaces. etc. But here is an instance:
New brick costs about 500 per thousand
secondhand brick about $50. If you
build your chimneys with the latter
grade up to whes, they come through the
roof you will have just as good chimneys
and save almost fifty per cent on materi-
al: and so you will save if you lay the
inside course of brick underpinning with
the same. Then you can get the best
granite in the world off the dumps at
the quarries for little or nothing more
than the cost of hauling. and with it lay
up your cellar walls.
From all this you can see that the stu
alton isn't nearly as bad as was thought
which is generally the case with all stu
atoms when closely looked into-and tina t
If you build your own house you won't
ruin yourself. On the other hand, if you
have it built for you, one of our leading
contractor says he will undertake to
build as good a house as cost $1,000 three
years ago for $40 without figuring on it
at all. and in practice could probably get
the price down 10 $500 or below.
Take the average. and call the increase
$3.50. Almost all the houses built in All
gusta of late years are on lots costing
from $500 to SEQ. Lots just as good in
every way. only 4 little further from Wa.
ter street, can be had today for from $500
10 sioa Subtract the difference from
$3.50. and the remainder isn't very
alarming sum.
altogether II seems as II a man could
puiid hweilfenouslli at the present time,
and very much better than he can in the
Coming years BUILDER.