My wife’s family has a cemetery near where the old home place stood. The cemetery is surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. The fence had rusted to the point of needing a paint job, so my wife organized a family painting party. About three weeks ago I took a morning off to scrape and paint a test section. This Saturday we did the entire fence. Here’s the story by the numbers.
| 4 feet | the length of my test section |
| 3 feet | the approximate height of the fence |
| 1 hour | the time it took me to scrape the test section to my satisfaction |
| 30 minutes | the time it took me to paint the test section |
| 240 feet | approximate total length of the complete fence to be scraped and painted |
| 100 person-hours | my estimate of what it would take to do the whole fence, factoring in break times and a reasonable level of participant effort, but not including removal of overgrown scuppernong vines from the back fence section |
| 1 gallon | my estimate of the amount of Rustoleum Gloss White oil-based paint the entire fence would require for a single coat, based on my usage rate on the test section |
| 3 | number of gates (which require significant additional work and which I did not include in my estimates) |
| 20 people | number who replied “yes” to the official Evite |
| 16 people | the number who showed up to work on the fence (more than I expected; my Evite estimate of 50% is usually pretty close); ages ranged from midteen to senior citizen |
| 6:30 AM | arrival time for the first participants (us) |
| 5:00 PM | departure time for the last participants (also us) |
| 77F/89% | Temperature and humidity at 6:30 AM (source: Weather Underground) |
| 91.4F/68% | Temperature and humidity at the end of the day; also the max temperature; fortunately most of the day was overcast, although the sun was out between 1:00 and 3:00 PM; it did not rain until all of the painting was completed and dry |
| 8 hours | my estimate of the actual time we prepped and painted, less the 30-minute lunch break, but including other individual breaks |
| 128 person-hours | actual time it took to do the whole fence |
| 2.5 gallons | actual amount of paint used |
| 1 quart | amount of paint it appeared that the participants wore home on their clothing and various appendages (non-scientific estimate) |
| 20 | number of Chick-Fil-A sandwiches eaten during lunch break |
| 20 | number of small bags of Frito/Lay chips eaten |
| 16 | estimate of the number of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies eaten |
| 12 | gallons of ice water consumed during the whole day |
| 1 | number of watermelons eaten |
| 120 | estimate of the number of photos snapped during the day |
| 4:30 PM | approximate time the first pictures were uploaded to Facebook |
| 100 | estimate of the number of songs that were played over the day |
| 10% | estimate of the number of Allman Brothers songs |
| 28% | amount I underestimated the labor required to scrape and paint the entire fence |
| 250% | amount I underestimated the paint required for the entire fence |
| Infinity | amount I underestimated the fun we would have |
| $83 | rental price for portable toilet for the weekend |
| $61.01 | rental price for 3Kw Honda “quiet-run” generator; (Ronnie also brought a generator which he used to power a small grinder much of the day, too, and for which we are most appreciative) |
| 130 lbs | approximate weight of generator |
| 2 gallons | approximate fuel required to run the Honda generator the whole day, powering 3 or 4 small power tools, 3 fans, and a Bose iPod dock |
| Priceless | value of the generator and portable toilet |
| 20 years | estimated life of Rustoleum Gloss White paint when applied to a properly-prepared surface (source: Rustoleum Corporation customer service) |
Comments
- Yes people suggested sandblasting, and I’ll be glad to explain why we chose not to, if you really want to know.
- We plan to do a second coat of paint, combined with a cook-out, sometime later (preferably cooler) this year.
Before
This was taken near dawn, hence the relative darkness and graininess. Click on photo for slightly larger view.
After
