It is springtime again and many of us want to brighten our houses and apartments by painting, wall papering and adding new flooring. These renovations cost money and it is always a good idea to have an estimate of the costs before we start the work. To get an estimate of costs we must know roughly how much material we will need. The first thing to do is measure the size of the room. Then we may need to find out the total area of the floor, walls, and ceiling. You may also want to know the perimeter of your room if you plan on putting up a border or new molding.

In this issue of First-Time Readers we will learn about area. The following illustration explains exactly what we mean by area. It covers the total amount of space, all of the shaded area.

The mathematical formal is Area = Length x Width. Imagine you are tiling a floor. The length of the room is 12 feet and the width of the room is 8 feet. Area = 12 feet x 8 feet = 96 square feet. Assuming that each tile is one foot square, you will need 96 tiles.

If we want to know how much paint we need to buy to cover the walls of this room, several things have to be considered. The height of the room is important. Most rooms today are eight feet high. We will also need to know how many coats of paint you will require. That will depend upon the color, usually if we are using a lighter color more coats are required. Most rooms require two coats of paint. You also need to take into account the number of doors and windows in the room, less wall space means less paint.

Painting requires coverage of the whole wall, you will need to know the area of each wall to get the total. Multiply your new area by the number of coats you expect to use. Coverage by the gallon or quart is usually noted on the paint container. The supplier will also be able to give you this information.

If you have a lot of windows and doors in the room you can subtract the area of space they take up. This will give you a more exact estimate.

Remember this is the coverage needed for one coat of paint. Multiply this number by the number of coats of paint needed. This final number will allow you to find out the number of quarts or gallons you will have to buy.

Activity One:

1. You want to replace the flooring in your kitchen with new tiles. The kitchen is 14 feet long and 11 feet wide. The tiles you like are one foot square. How many will you need? ______________
   
   
2. Your living room could do with a freshening up. You decide to paint one solid wall at the end of the room. It will require three coats of paint. The measurements are 16 feet long and 8 feet high. Each quart of paint will cover 200 square feet. How many quarts of paint will be required to complete the job? ______________
   
   
3. In question one, the cost of each tile is 90 cents with tax included. How much will the new flooring cost? ______________
   
   

Activity Two:

Find the area of each of these floor plans. Remember your Formula.

Figure One:

How many one foot tiles will you need? ______________ Two foot tiles? ______________

Figure Two:

How many one foot tiles will you need to cover the area of the larger room? ______________ The smaller room? ______________