You may be worrying about to much accuracy. For a general floor plan a
fraction of a foot difference in 40 feet should not be significant for job
quoting purposes. And in your bid information a statement that the
contractor is responsible for verifying all dimensions should protect you.

"Dan_Musicant" wrote in message
...
The general contractor who I had evaluate my house before I bid on it
said I could save some money by doing my own floor plan. The house
needs:

1. foundation analysis, evaluation, rebuild, repair
2. new roof

...the list goes on and on.

Anyway, yesterday I started trying to work up my floor plan and it was
frustrating to say the least. The house is about 40' x 30', two stories
and 95 years old, and a bit weird.

I bought some graph paper, just a pad with squares on it - 43 squares in
the long dimension, so I figured that a scale of one foot/square would
do it. I figured I'd have two sheets - one for downstairs, one for
upstairs. I figured to do it in pencil and when done, go over it, maybe
in pen and then scan and print it with appropriate words here and there.

Doing a Google Groups search, I see that there's software to do
something like this, which is a total revelation to me. Yesterday, I
just started out by trying to get my outside dimensions, specifically
the depth of the house. From one side I got 40', from the other side
(which had things jutting out and breaking up the wall in several
places), I kept getting different figures:

40'
40' 3"
40' 3.5"
40' 7"
40' 10"

I'm using a 30' steel tape measure and tried fixing up something so it
doesn't come loose - a tripod with a sharp object affixed to it to hook
the tape on, but the tripod would tip over! I tried taping a small piece
of wood to the wall with a pin sticking out for the tape to hook over.

I'd appreciate any tips on how I can work this thing up satisfactorily.
Obviously, I'm only at the very start. Thanks!!!

Dan