Part 7

_Per Foot._ Plain, each coat 2 cents Bracketed, each coat 3 cents Carved, each coat 4 cents Staff beads, each coat ½ cent Edge of shelves, each coat ¼ cent

CORNICES AND COLUMNS--PLAIN.

_Per Foot._ Girth, 1 to 2 feet, each coat 3 cents Girth, 2 to 3 feet, each coat 4 cents Girth, 3 to 4 feet, each coat 5 cents Girth, 4 to 5 feet, each coat 6 cents

Plain caps on columns, add to length two feet.

Ornamental caps on columns, add to length four feet.

CORNICES WITH BRACKETS.

_Per Foot._ Girth, 1 to 2 feet, each coat 4 cents Girth, 2 to 3 feet, each coat 6 cents Girth, 3 to 4 feet, each coat 8 cents Girth, 4 to 5 feet, each coat 10 cents Girth, 5 to 6 feet, each coat 12 cents

Larger dimensions in proportion.

Dental cornices, same price as brackets.

MODE OF MEASURING.

For girth, begin at top, press line into all quirks and over each member to the bottom, and to the length add one-half the medium girth of the brackets multiplied by their number.

PRIMING OR TRACING AND GLAZING SASH.

EACH SIZE, PER LIGHT.

_Old_ _Priming_ _Glazing_ _or_ _New_ _and Glass_ _Tracing._ _Glazing._ _S.S._ 8 to 10 × 12 to 14 $0.01¼ $0.05 $0.20 12 × 16 or 18 .01½ .08 .35 14 × 24 .02 .10 .40 18 × 24 .03 .14 .50

_D.S._ 24 × 30 $ .05 $ .18 $1.00 26 × 36 .06 .20 1.30 30 × 36 .08 .25 1.65 36 × 40 .10 .30 40 × 44 .12 .35 40 × 50 .14 .40 40 × 50 .16 .50 50 × 60 .18 .60 50 × 70 .20 .75

These prices do not apply when called out to glaze one or two lights.

For back puttying add one-quarter, and for bedding add one-half, to the above rates.

In new glazing cost of glass not included.

All breakage at the risk of the owners, if glass is furnished by them. To all bills of glass furnished by the trade 20 per cent. will be charged additional.

PLATE GLASS.

Sizes same as table above, at same prices. Sizes above to 90 square feet, 5 per cent. on net cost delivered; 90 to 108 square feet, 8 per cent.; 108 square feet and upwards, 10 per cent.

Removing old glass, same as above. The owner to pay cost of taking up large glass above first floor.

Unless otherwise provided for, glazier puts glass in at his own risk of breakage, but cutting will be at owner’s risk.

SANDING.

First coat of sand equal to two coats of paint, in addition to paint.

Second coat of sand equal to three coats of paint, in addition to paint.

GRAINING--SQUARE MEASURE.

_Per Yard._

Plain oak $0.40 Plain walnut or ash .70 Plain satinwood or maple .70 Plain mahogany or cherry .70 Shaded oak .50 Penciled oak or ash 1.00 Penciled chestnut or cherry 1.00 Penciled walnut 1.00 Rosewood 1.00 Oak root 1.50

LINEAL MEASURE.

_Girth._ _Graining._ _Varnishing._ 1 to 4 inches, per foot $0.03 $0.00¾ 4 to 6 inches, per foot .04 .01 6 to 8 inches, per foot .05 .01¼ 8 to 10 inches, per foot .06 .01½ 10 to 12 inches, per foot .07 .01¾ 12 to 14 inches, per foot .08 .02 14 to 16 inches, per foot .09 .02¼ 16 to 18 inches, per foot .10 .02½

Other members in proportion.

Graining edges of shelves, per foot, 1½ cents.

Graining sash, double the price of plain painting.

MARBLING--SQUARE MEASURE.

White, per yard $0.75 Other kinds, per yard 1.00 Varnishing, each coat, per yard .12

LINEAL MEASURE.

_All members_ ----_Per foot_---- _from_ _Marbling._ _Varnishing._ 1 to 8 inches girth $0.08 $0.01 8 to 10 inches girth .12 .01¼ 10 to 12 inches girth .16 .01½ 12 to 14 inches girth .18 .02 14 to 16 inches girth .20 .02¼ Larger members in proportion.

CLEANING AND KALSOMINING.

Ceilings and walls, per yard $0.16 Plain cornices, 1 to 2 feet girth, per foot .02 Plain cornices, 2 to 4 feet girth, per foot .03

Add to the above for each color, if more than one, 1 cent per foot.

DEDUCTIONS.

The price of any work measured and not specified in this list shall be fixed by the measurer.

The measurer is hereby authorized to deduct from 5 to 20 per cent. from the price of any work that in his judgment is not first-class.

FEES FOR MEASURING.

Jobs amounting to $150 or less 5 per cent. Jobs amounting to over $150 and less than $500 4 per cent. Jobs amounting to over $500 and less than $1,000 3 per cent. Jobs amounting to over $1,000 2 per cent.

_Sign Painting._

FACIA SIGNS.

_Gold._ _Plain._ 12 feet long $ 8.00 $ 4.00 14 feet long 9.00 4.00 16 feet long 10.00 5.00 18 feet long 12.00 6.00 20 feet long 15.00 7.00 24 feet long 16.50 8.00 Above includes two coats of paint.

BRASS SIGNS.

3 × 14 inches $ 3.50 4 × 20 inches 5.00 6 × 8 inches 4.00 6 × 12 inches 4.50 8 × 14 inches 5.00 10 × 14 inches 5.00 12 × 17 inches 6.00 14 × 20 inches 7.00 18 × 25 inches 10.00 24 × 30 inches 15.00 Sill signs, per square foot 3.50 Square signs, per square foot 3.00

TO MAKE HARD PUTTY.

_For Carriage Work._

Mix equal parts of dry __________ and keg white lead with equal parts of rubbing varnish and gold size japan; mix thoroughly and pound well.

_For Hurried Work._

Mix dry white lead with equal parts of rubbing varnish and gold size japan. Keep hard putty covered in water when not in use.

TO MAKE AND APPLY KALSOMINE.

Soak one pound good white glue in cold water until soft, then pour off the cold water, and dissolve the glue in hot water. Mix twenty pounds of good whiting in water to a thick paste; dissolve one pound of alum in water, and add it to the mixture. Before mixing the glue and whiting, put in your tinting colors, which should be ground in water. Test your color by dipping in a piece of paper and letting it dry. After you put in the glue, test in the same way to see if there is enough glue to bind it well, then set your kalsomine aside to get cold.

Thin to good workable consistency with cold water.

Have in enough glue to hold it from washing up when you have to put on a second coat. Too much glue will cause the kalsomine to go on hard, and crack and scale off when dry. If it dries too fast, add two ounces of glycerine to one gallon of kalsomine. Have good staging, and two men for a good sized room. Use good kalsomine brushes, and work fast. Lay on the kalsomine freely; the beauty of the work will depend upon how you lay it off, and level it up. Put it on not as you would paint, _all one way_, but work your brush in all directions, until your work is level, then carefully lay it off with light strokes.

For a white job put in a little blue. If you have never done a job of kalsomining, and have no one to aid you, practice on the wall in your shop or any other place, until you get the knack of it. Cover a small space and see how it comes out.

Always finish lightly with the point of your brush. If an edge dries, stop and wet it with a clean brush and clear water; if careful you can join to it without showing “laps.” If you find you have missed any spots wet the edges in the same way, and carefully touch them up with kalsomine. If you find after all your precautions, a water stain has come through your kalsomine, wet the place with a solution of sugar of lead, made in proportion of 1 ounce sugar of lead to 1 quart of rain water; it may kill the stain. See article on wall sizing and water stains, page 39.

Rough places in plaster take more color than a smooth wall, hence they are liable to show spots; so it stands you in hand to make such places smooth as possible; to do this take off the rough sand with sandpaper and knife or trowel on a thin coat of plaster paris, or give the rough places an extra coat or two or size. Fill all cracks and holes, and give the filling time to dry before putting on the size, because otherwise it will take more color than the balance of the wall and your work will look spotted.

In the kalsomining season have some large tubs and mix up as much whiting in hot water as you will need for several days. Add your color, glue, size and alum to _as much only_ as you want for immediate use. In hot weather I use liquid glue.

LIQUID GLUE FOR KALSOMINE AND WALL SIZING.

For use in hot weather, a liquid glue which will not decompose and smell badly is very desirable to the workmen and the inmates of the house.

_No. 1._ To make such a glue fill a bottle a little more than half full of broken up good white glue, and fill the bottle with common whisky or equal parts of alcohol and water. Let it stand a few days and it will dissolve the glue; this glue will keep for years. Keep the bottle corked.

_No. 2._ Melt your glue in the usual way, thick as you will want it for any purpose, then put in ½ or ¾ ounce _nitric acid_ to each pound of glue used; enough to give the glue a sour taste, like vinegar. The acid keeps it in a liquid state, and from spoiling. If you melt the glue in an iron kettle pour it into a wooden vessel, before you add the acid, otherwise the acid will act on the iron and blacken the glue. When wanted for use it can be thinned as desired with cold water; a cask full of this made up and kept air tight so the water will not evaporate will be found very handy to draw from, when you want a little in a hurry for glue size or kalsomine. When you make it up in this way put in at least 1 ounce of acid to the pound of glue to make sure it will keep liquid, so you can draw it from the cask.

Acetic acid will answer the same purpose as nitric acid, but it will take more of it and make the liquid glue more expensive.

TO PREPARE AN OLD WALL FOR PAINT OR PAPER.

First cut out all the cracks V shape, clean out the holes and bevel the edges same as the cracks. Then fill with fine plaster paris mixed with thin glue size. Fill with care; when dry, sandpaper the filling smooth and level. If the wall is sandy or rough, sandpaper it smooth as you can. If the holes are large, have a plasterer stop them, if you can; if you fail in that, and the job must be done soon, fit in thin boards, fill around the edges with plaster, and paste on cloth, or extra paper; but to do a nice job you must insist on having the large holes plastered. If the _hole is up out of reach_, and too large for you to fill, cement the edges with plaster, stretch a piece of cloth, or extra thickness of paper over it, and it will look all right, because the paper will shrink tight when it dries. If you find places where the clinches are broken, and the plaster is loose, press the plaster back to its place if you can, and cut small holes through the plaster and turn small broad headed screws into the lath even with the plaster and cement around the screws with plaster paris.

If it is a smooth wall with rough, sandy patches, sandpaper down the patches a little below the level of the wall, sweep out the loose plaster, give a coat of glue size, and knife or trowel in a coat of plaster paris mixed with glue size or vinegar, and when dry, sandpaper until smooth and level.

There are several points to be considered and provided for in filling cracks in a plastered wall preparatory to painting. First, are the edges of the cracked wall level? To determine this, lay your rule across the crack, and if you find the plaster on one side of the crack higher than the other, it shows that side of the wall has sprung out of place, because the laths are loose or the clinches are broken. The first thing on the program is to get the highest edges back to “place.” Failing in that, the next best thing is to raise the other side. If that scheme don’t work, the next method is to use sandpaper on a block and rub down the highest side with a wide bevel to match the lowest, otherwise your filling will be at an angle more or less acute with the general surface of the wall, and cast a shadow or reflect the light according to which way the light falls upon it, and the place where the crack was will “show” in spite of your best efforts to conceal it. If you find one edge of a crack higher than the other, gently press against it, and if it goes back to place, cement it with plaster paris wet up in clear water, and it will set in three minutes hard enough to hold the plaster in place. If the loose edge will not go back by gentle pressure, lay a piece of board over it and push hard as you dare to and not crush the plaster. If it is still obstinate, drill out a piece and insert a bent wire or other instrument made on purpose, and see if you can feel the obstruction and remove it. Failing in this, see if you can raise up the lower side to a level with the highest and cement it fast. If the last scheme is too much for your patience and ingenuity, resort to the block and sandpaper, and rub down the high side with a wide bevel to match the other. The next point is to prevent the paint near the edges of the crack, and on the filling which we put in, from drying flat while the balance of the wall bears out a gloss. To do this we must find out the cause of the “flatting” near the edges of the crack and over the “filling.” If we examine into the matter, we will find that when the wall cracked the plaster adjacent was more or less fractured and made more porous than the uninjured portions of it. Hence, more oil is drawn from the paint near the crack than where the wall is solid. Now, for the remedy: With a small pointed brush wet the edges of the crack with linseed oil until they will take no more in. Let the oil dry, and fill the crack with plaster mixed with thin glue size, but have the top of the filling one-sixth of an inch below the surface of the wall. Let the filling dry, and with a fine pointed brush paint over the top of the filling and the edges of the crack. Let the paint dry, and finish filling with hard putty. Let the putty dry, and sandpaper the job smooth and level. If you have to bevel the highest edge with sandpaper, first fill the beveled portion with oil. Let the oil dry, and fill the pores with hard putty, because the part beveled with sandpaper will be more porous than the balance of the wall. Treat and fill all small holes by the same method. Filling cracks in this way is a little tedious, I admit; but it is the only way that I know of to stop a crack in plaster, so it will stay stopped and not show after it is painted.

HOW TO PAINT A PLASTERED WALL.

Prime with lead and raw oil, tinted like succeeding coats. Have the prime thin, not more than five pounds of white lead to the gallon of oil; add a little benzine or turps to make it more penetrating. If the room is cool, warm up your prime before you add the benzine or turps. The idea is to have it penetrate as much as possible; brush the prime well into the wall. If it is a sand wall, brush off the loose sand. If it is a smooth one, putty coated or hard finished wall, see that there are no lumps or grains of sand left on the surface. It is a good idea to pass the hand over the wall to feel the lumps, and to knock off lumps and grains of sand by going over the work with sandpaper.

For second coat use glue size, made as directed on another page.

_Third coat._ Mix so as to dry with a gloss, have the body fairly thick, and spread it well out. Mix with 3 parts linseed oil to 1 part turps.

_Fourth coat._--If this coat is to be flat, mix it thick enough to cover well; mix mainly with turps, if the weather is hot, or from any other cause the paint don’t work well, add a little linseed oil. For an egg shell gloss, use about 1 part oil _and 3 parts turps_.

If the wall is to be finished in stipple, mix the last coat half oil and half turps, rather thick, and add a little japan. To stipple strike the paint evenly and continuously with the square end of a large brush, made for the purpose; a new clean duster will do. Let the stippler follow the painters. The coat of glue size saves two coats of paint. It is put on after the prime to keep moisture and air from the glue, otherwise it would be liable to decay.

Use boiled oil in all coats except priming coat. Have only enough difference in the color of the different coats, so you can see where you have painted, and not leave holidays; especially in rooms where the light is not very good.

Some painters advocate (especially on hard finished wall) a good filling of clear linseed oil, before any paint is put on to keep the surface from fire cracking.

It is risky business to paint a _new hot_ wall; in such cases if it must be done before the lime has become somewhat neutralized, give it a coat of vinegar, and let it stand a day or so before you put on the prime. The vinegar will neutralize the lime and not hurt the priming.

TO PREPARE A ROUGH SANDY WALL FOR PAINT OR PAPER.

If you have a rough brown mortar wall to paper and want to make the job look smooth as possible, first go over it lightly with No. 2 paper to knock off the loose and most prominent grains of sand; then with No. 2 paper rub down all “cat faces” and trowel marks; level up all hollows with plaster paris wet up in thin glue size or vinegar, and you will be ready to put on the lining paper. This paper should be soft and porous so that it will quickly absorb paste and not blister; good white blank wall paper having but little color will answer very well for this purpose. Start in to hang it with half a strip in width so as to break joints with the next coat; use sufficient paste to make the paper stick to the wall; butt the edges and be sure when the paper is dry that there are no loose places. Right here is the turning point of your job for “good or for bad.”

Pound the lining paper down so closely that all the prominent grains of sand will show through, and be sure to make it stay there until dry. When the lining paper is dry, go over it with good sharp No. 1½ sandpaper and cut out all the prominent grains of sand which show through the paper, being careful to rub no more than is necessary to take out the sand; the idea being to cut through to the prominently projecting grains of sand, and rattle them out. Some walls will need a second coat of lining paper and another sandpapering, before they are smooth enough for anything like a fine job. If the owner refuses to stand the expense of putting on lining paper, glue size the wall, and when dry, knock off the prominent grains of sand with sandpaper and knife in plaster paris putty on the rough places. In either case, take extra pains with portions of the wall where there are side lights, which always magnify rough places. Sandy walls may be leveled and smoothed somewhat with a coat of kalsomine to hold light bodied paper.

Make a kalsomine of good white glue, 1 pound to 15 pounds of whiting and half a pound of alum. Dissolve the glue and alum in the usual way. When the kalsomine is dry, give the surface a thin coat of glue size to stop the suction. Let the glue size dry, then put on the paper; use light paste, and be sparing of it as you can and make the paper stick. I have often noticed that too much or too little paste is used in paperhanging; some walls and some papers require more paste than others. Too much paste on a smooth wall, or too little on a rough one, makes bad work. If you use a roller for seams have it covered with short plush. To paint on a wall covered with lining paper as above described, first put on a coat of glue size.

TO PAINT OVER NEWLY PLASTERED CRACKS IN WALLS.

When the painter has to paint over holes and cracks in walls recently filled by the plasterer, he will be likely to have to deal with plaster made in part of fresh lime. In such cases, it is always best to soak the newly plastered places _with strong vinegar, to kill as much as possible the caustic properties of the lime_. Put on the vinegar plentifully and let it soak in; when dry, give the new plaster a coat of size made of linseed oil, japan and turpentine; when dry, put on a coat of white shellac before painting.

FLASHED GLASS SIGNS.

Flashed glass is clear on one side and colored on the other; the colored glass forming only a thin film on one side of the clear glass. We can make elegant signs on this glass by etching the letter through the colored portion of the glass, making the letters clear and the background colored; or by etching out the background and leaving the letters colored. Lay out the letters on paper, and place it under the glass as a guide to work by; then, with asphaltum varnish cover the background and leave the letters free and clear; in other words, “cut around them.” If you want a clear background with colored border and colored letters, cover the letters and border and leave the background free and clear. Then melt some beeswax, and when it begins to cool, take up a small portion of it with a putty knife and scrape it off on the edge of the glass, and repeat the operation until a wall or dam is made all around the glass, to hold the acid you are about to put on the glass, from running off; then pour on a little hydrofluoric acid, and it will etch out the colored glass not covered by the asphaltum in about one hour; then you can pour the acid back into your bottle, to be used again. Next wash the glass by pouring water over it; then scrape off the wax, and take off the asphaltum with turpentine. Some painters use a varnish made by melting together equal parts of paraffine and asphaltum and thinning to working consistency with turpentine.

FLUORIC ACID, TO MAKE FOR ETCHING PURPOSES.

You can make your own fluoric acid (sometimes called hydrofluoric) by getting the fluor spar, pulverizing it and putting as much of it into sulphuric acid as the acid will cut or dissolve.

Druggists through the country do not keep this acid generally, but they can get it in the principal cities. One ounce will do at least fifty dollars worth of work. It is put in gutta percha bottles or lead bottles, and must be kept in them when not in use, having corks of the same material. Glass, of course, will not hold it, as it dissolves the glass, otherwise it would not etch upon it.

LIQUID WOOD FILLERS FOR CHEAP WORK.

Corn starch and cheap varnish are the principal ingredients of many cheap wood fillers; the corn starch is mixed with the varnish and thinned with turps until workable. _You can experiment on this idea._