The Carpenter-Work of a building includes, in general, the skeleton or frame, if a wooden building, the floor timbers, studs of partitions and walls, rafters, the covering in of the frame, with its exterior finish and clapboards, siding or shingles, the flooring, furring, grounds, and beads. This practically covers the constructive woodwork or carpentry proper, while to the term joinery belongs the outside and inside finish, windows and doors, sheathing and dado, stairs and fixtures.

In many sections the general term carpentry covers all woodworking and covering, while in others the distinction between the carpenter and the joiner is more distinctly drawn.

For the purposes of this work it will not be necessary to hold this distinction, and so for convenience, the term carpentry will be used to cover all branches of woodworking.

Two distinct elements enter into the carpenter-work of any structure; the Material and the Labor, and the cost of both is subject to fluctuation to a great extent. The trend in both is in the direction of increased cost in varying degrees in different localities, but the state of the market in both labor and materials is never quiescent, so that any printed prices must be considered as comparative only, and must be carefully compared with local and known data before being accepted as accurate or final.

The material with which the carpenter works, consists in the main of three principal divisions, the Frame, the Covering, and the Finish, and each of these has further subdivisions as will be noted.

Board Measure. All lumber which has not been wrought or moulded, is sold by "board measure" that is, the stock in each piece is reduced to a unit of a square foot of board one inch thick. This is called board measure and is expressed by the abbreviation B. M. Prices of lumber are usually rated by the thousand feet, so that the expression "Twenty-five dollars a thousand" means twenty-five dollars for a thousand square feet of stock one inch thick. To reduce stock of greater thickness than one inch, to its equivalent in board measure, several rules may be used.

A convenient method is to divide the product of the width and thickness in inches by 12, and multiply by the length in feet.

Table Of Board Measure

Example. How many feet, B. M., are there in a joist 2 in, x 9 in.,

20 ft. long?

2x9/12 X 20 = 30 ft. B. M.

When the sizes are fractional, or produce a product not easily divided by 12, the operation may sometimes be simplified by varying the process and multiplying the length in feet, and the thickness and width in inches together, and dividing the whole product by 12.

Example. How many feet are there in a joist 2 1/2 in. x 9 in.,

16 ft. long?

16x2 1/2x9/12 = 30 ft. B. M.