Dumbing Down

 

Twice in one day! I could hardly believe it.

After several confirming phone calls, and assurances that there was enough wallpaper, we arrived on the job site today and discovered that there was about 56 sq. ft. of wallpaper to cover 165 sq. ft. of wall! 

We packed up and came home, the morning, plus gas, wasted. Then I got a call at noon from a new client who was desperate to have a wall of paper hung because his painter wanted to finish the house on Friday and the one wall of Anaglypta paintable wallpaper was holding him up. After great assurances that there was enough material, I went to the job, only to discover that there was only one double roll (56 sq. ft.) to cover a wall 20' x 8'. A very similar situation to the morning fiasco.

Now I don't know about you, but I was taught basic math in the single digit years, before I was 10 years old. How does one calculate area? Length times width! And if there is 25 sq. ft. of usable wallpaper in a single roll, one would divide the area by 25 to determine how many single rolls are required, right? Apparently this is beyond the comprehension of some people.

Looking at it another way, if you had a 20 ft. long wall, and you had one double roll of wallpaper in your hand, could you not guess that just by looking at the roll that there would not be enough paper?

I get the comment all the time, "Can't you make it go far enough?"

I reply, "If you don't mind 5 ft. gaps between strips of wallpaper, the the answer is yes."

In this age of smart phones and hand held devices, if there isn't an
AP for it, it ain't gonna' happen. Sad!