BUILDERS' PRICE BOOK AND Surveyors' Guide. GIVING THE LEADING DATA ON WHICH THE PRICES ALSO MODES OF MEASUREMENT, Mainly taken from Recommendations of the Manchester Society of Architects, and the WITH TABLES OF WEIGHTS, MEASUREMENTS, WAGES, &o., COMPILED BY RICHARD BECKETT, Contractor and Builder of over Thirty Years' Experience. TO WHICH ARE ADDED: THE EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY ACT OF 1880. SECTIONS AND SCHEDULES OF THE LIVERPOOL AND MANCHESTER INSTRUCTIONS WITH SCHEDULES FOR PARSONAGE HOUSES, AS REQUIRED BY THE ECCLESIASTICAL FORMULE, RECIPES, MEMORANDA, MEMORABILIA. SUNDRY London: E. AND F. N. SPON, 16, CHARING CROSS; AND MAY BE ORDERED OF ANY BOOKSELLER. INTRODUCTION. Ir may be asked, Where is the necessity for another Builders' Price Book, seeing there are already so many? The reply to this isthat, although there are truly enough and to spare of valuable existing ones, they are almost, if not altogether, exclusively London Price Books-inapplicable (for the most part) to the Provinces, where not only the definitions and modes of measurement, but, still more, the prices, differ widely from those prevailing in the Metropolis. So strongly was the want of a Provincial Price Book felt that some years ago it was proposed at a Meeting of Associated Builders, of whom the Compiler was one, that a joint effort should be made to formulate one, and issue it with the Association's sanction; but nothing, so far as known, came of it then or since. It is certainly remarkable that while Engineers, Architects, and Surveyors have produced Builders' Price Books, Members of the Trade itself, who surely ought to be the best qualified, have been almost silent on the question. Of course, more than reasonable average applicability is not attempted, because it is not attainable. You may as well expect all the clocks in a city to strike at precisely the same moment as that all the Builders in it should take a similar view of what particular work should cost; to say nothing of the constant variations in first cost, differing rates of carriage, varying local rates of wages, and such like. The objects this work has in view-and they are the most that such a work can hope to attain-are (1) greater uniformity in the Measurement of work, and (2) in the Pricing of it out; and it seems to me anything tending to promote that end cannot be useless. To attain the first, I have prefaced each trade with the mode of Measurement recommended to Surveyors; which, if followed, would reduce the time taken in pricing out very materially, especially when compared with that entailed by the multitudinous modes now adopted. These methods are for the most part extracted from those recommended by the Manchester Society of Architects, and by the Master Builders of Yorkshire. The second desideratum-Correct Pricing-out-I take to be best facilitated by giving the particulars on which the leading prices are computed. By this means, the Cost of Materials, Rate of Wages, Carriage, &c., being ascertained-as they must necessarily be in every case the general adaptability of the prices given is arrived at. Under this process of adjustment to suit locality and circumstances, it is hoped this work may be found useful in establishing a satisfactory standard on which works may be more generally let, on what is popularly known as "Measure and Value by Schedule of Prices"-the only strictly equitable system by which the tradesman gets paid for neither more nor less than he supplies. The prices will be found to be arranged in as concise a form as possible and in clear type. The Tables, or most of them, are from various sources, I believe, both reliable and useful. and are, There may doubtless be found oversights, which practical and critical eyes may detect. The Compiler hopes he can with truth say for himself, no one will be more ready to correct his mistakes, and he will always be well pleased when he is shown them. Any suggestions or corrections likely to make the work in future more complete or acceptable will be received with grateful consideration if forwarded to the Compiler, R. BECKETT, October, 1881. HARTFORD, CHESHIRE. |