It is necessary to allow for the item of board only when the operation is out of town and workmen must be sent to the site to live during the installation of the work. In allowing for board for the workmen the estimator must not forget that a number of trips will have to be made to the building by the contractor during the progress of the work, and that his hotel and traveling expenses are just as much items of cost as are the fixtures to be supplied. Usually an allowance of five dollars per day is made by the contractor for hotel expenses for every day he is at the building, and to this amount must be added his car fare, including a berth in a sleeper if the distance warrants it, or, at all events, a chair in the parlor car.

Car fare must be allowed for the workmen to and from the location of the work and, as they will have to go first to rough-in the building, then to set the fixtures, an allowance of two fares, going and coming, for each of the workmen who will be sent must be made. In order to determine the number of workmen that will be required at one time, the time allowance in the contract and the number of men that can be economically worked at one time must be considered.

Sometimes both board and car fare can be omitted from the estimate when the work figured on is in a large city and local workmen can be secured without trouble. When, however, a contractor has a good crew of men whose capacities he knows and on whom he can depend, he will find it more economical, as well as more satisfactory, to send his own workmen and give them the benefit of their board. On suburban work, where more than one five-cent car fare is required to take a workman to the building, car fare should likewise be allowed. The unusual distance will get the workman up earlier than usual in order to reach his work, and he should not have imposed on him this additional burden of paying extra car fare.