SOLUTION: 3. Campus Painters offers house-painting services by hiring college students to paint during their breaks between semesters. John started the business when he was in college and

Question 444235: 3. Campus Painters offers house-painting services by hiring college students to paint during their breaks between semesters. John started the business when he was in college and now he owns and manages the small service-oriented business by providing price quotes, hiring student painters, purchasing supplies, and advertising their services. He currently employs 12 painters and pays them $9.50 per hour for painting and �prep-work� (scraping old paint, caulking, cleaning and removing bugs from the areas that are to be painted).
In order to be profitable, John has learned to provide superior service to his customers, including free price quotes. He builds in his profit-margin of 25% to all quotes by first computing his total costs, then adding 25% of that number to determine how much to charge the customer. Using his knowledge of the expenses for labor, supplies, and equipment, he has developed the following information:
- 1 gallon of paint will cover approximately 400 square feet
- For every 2 gallons of paint for a wall, you need 1 gallon of paint for the trim
- John has a deal with the local paint store and can get any paint he wants for $25 per gallon
[Note: John cannot purchase � a gallon of paint.]
- Every job requires 5 tubes of caulk ($2.50 each) and 5 clean paint brushes ($5 each).
- John finds that a painter can apply a gallon of paint in about 8 hours.
a. (5 points) Martin just finished working on a job in which he spent 7 hours on Monday doing prep-work and 8.5 hours on Wednesday painting. How much money does John owe him?
Answer:

b. (5 points) The Marks family needs to get the outside of their house painted, including the siding as well as the white trim. John estimates that area of the exterior of the house is about 6,000 square feet. Based on the condition of the Marks� house he also estimates that he will need 2 workers for 8 hours to do the prep-work. How much should John quote for the cost of this job, including labor, supplies, and profit?
Answer:

c. (5 points) Write a formula reflecting the price estimate for a house based on the number of square feet that need to be painted. Assume that John can accurately estimate the painted area (in square feet) and the amount of time it takes to complete the prep-work on a job.
Answer:

Answer by benni1013(206) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The first one is easy but needs to look first at labor then profit. Under labor, we know that 7 hrs were spent for prep and 8.5 for painting. These are costed at the same rate. So the formula would be as follows:
(prep+paint)*wage rat
(7+8.5)*9.5 or $147.25
There is one last step. We need to calculate his profit. This is simple. We are told that his profit margin is 25%. So take his labor cost times 1.25 to get the price he will charge John.
(cost*(1+profit percentage))=cost
(147.25*1.25)=184.06 (Answer A)
B) This one is a bit more complicated but if you keep all the information straight you should be fine. To begin, we know that one gallon of paint covers approximately 400 square feet. If we divide the square footage of the wall by 400 this will give us the number of paint cans we need for the walls which in this case is 15. The next bit of information tells us that for every 2 gallons of paint for a wall 1 must be purchased for trim. This comes to 7.5 gallons, but in the note he can't purchase a half gallon and he can't be short so he must purchase 8 gallons. Add these two together and get 23 gallons of paint. Looking at the third note we must add the cost of 5 tubes of caulk and 5 clean paint brushes. Here is the setup to solve for supplies:
((wall paint+trim paint)*25)+((2.5(caulk)+5(paint brushes))=Supply Cost
((15+8)*25)+((2.5*5)+(5*5))==>(575+37.5)=612.50 supply cost
Next, Labor. It tells us outright that it will take 8 hours for the prep work so: (pay rate*# of prep hours)=prep labor cost or ($9.5*8)=$76. The next part is where the final not comes in. Each painter can apply a gallon of paint in 8 hours. We know that it will take 23 gallons and it takes 8 hours for a painter to go through a gallon so the amount of hours to finish the project will be
(# of gallons*hours per gallon) or (23*8)=184. Next, we can find the amount we need to pay the painters for all that labor. This is (pay rate*# of hours of labor) or ($9.5*184)=$1748.
Now that we have all the information minus the profit, lets put it together.The cost will be (Total materials+Total labor)*1.25 or (612.50+1748)*1.25 or $2950.63.

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