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 ½ 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. 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. 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. 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.