GridControl cell merge and column widths

This must be simple and I'm just missing something. version 4.2.0.61

If I want to merge columns, I believe this is the appropriate way:

grid.CoveredRanges.Add(
GridRangeInfo.Cells(record.Row,
record.Column,
endRow,
endColumn));

Assuming this merges row 1 and columns 1 thru 4,
how can I get the new column width of column 1?

The gridControl.ColWidths(1) still shows the original value of column 1 and doesn't take into account the widths from col 2 thru 4.

I may be merging columns improperly. My end goal is to render the grid in windows kind of like an html table with row spans and column spans.

By the way, where are the Html UI control samples? Can't find 'em.

Any insight?