How to calculate per hour labor costs for plastering & painting of a building

This construction video tutorial is very useful for civil engineering students who will appear for Civil Engineering PE Exam.

In this video, a solution is given to the following construction problem :-

Suppose, there is a room with dimension 40 feet x 30 feet according to plan. The height of the ceiling is 12 feet. The openings for doors and windows are 85 square feet.

The rates of the crews are given below :-

Plaster and paint crew

• 1 supervisor $25 per hour
• 1 laborer $14 per hour
• 2 painters $20 per hour

Plastering production = 60 ft2 per labor hour

Painting production = 160 ft2 per labor hour

The anticipated labor cost for plastering & painting the room (walls and ceiling) is given as follow :-

• $1265
• $1480
• $1525
• $1665

The total area required for plastering and painting of the room is calculated as follow :-

Height x (area of both walls on both sides) + (area of ceiling) - openings for doors and windows :-

12 feet x [(30 feet + 30 feet) + (40 x 30) - 85 = 2795 square feet

Now, it is required to find out total hours required per labor as follow :-

25 + 14 + 40 (for 2 painters) = 79/4 = 19.75 per labor hour

To find out labor cost per hour for plastering, the calculation is done as follow :-

2795 / 60 = 46.58 x 19.75 = $920.02

To find out labor cost per hour for painting, the calculation is done as follow :-

2795 / 160 = 17.47 x 19.75 = $345.03

By summing up the above, we get 920.02 + 345.03 = 1265.05

So, total labor hour for plastering and painting = $1265.05