A study of construction and maintenance costs in relationship to true economy of school operation

The purpose of this study was to consider certain types of construction and materials used in school construc-tion to discover which were the most economical when both original cost and cost of maintenance over a period of years were considered. While it might have been desirable to make such comparisons with all materials used in the school plant, it was not practical within the scope of a single study to do so. The study was limited to the consideration of wood, concrete, asphalt tile, vinyl tile, terrazzo, and ceramic tile floors; galvanized, asphalt shingle, pitch and gravel, asbestos shingle, rolled, Spanish tile, and composition roof surfaces; wood double-hung, steel projected, wood awning, wood projected, aluminum awning, and wood austral windows; and brick, concrete block, stucco, and wood exterior walls. These were the only materials found in sufficient quantities in the cooperating school systems to justify study.