Running an area assessment
An area assessment captures everything that isn't a dimension — the stuff that affects your price, your crew's safety, and what the client is agreeing to. Surfacely's assessment flow is a guided set of cards, one topic at a time, so nothing slips through.
The 5 cards
- Access — how you'll reach this area. Ladder, scaffold, elevated work platform, etc. Drives hire templates and safety planning.
- Defects — pre-existing damage to the substrate. Severity (minor / significant) feeds prep. Significant defects auto-bump prep to Heavy.
- Exclusions — what you're not doing. Written into the quote so there's no dispute later ("excludes internal door painting", "excludes ceiling repair").
- Safety — hazards specific to this area (lead paint, asbestos, live electrics, slip risk, confined spaces). Used to build the crew brief.
- Notes — free-text for anything that doesn't fit a card. Always shown last.
Surfacely Assist pre-populates defects
If you've taken photos with Assist enabled, the defects card starts pre-filled with high-confidence observations. You review and confirm each one — it's faster than starting from a blank list.
Triage — don't need every card
Some areas don't need every section (an internal hallway probably has no safety concerns beyond standard). The triage card at the start lets you select only the sections that apply, so you're not clicking through irrelevant prompts.
Why it matters: the assessment is where you discover the parts of the job that would otherwise eat your margin. A "we'll sort it on the day" approach costs real money when it's scaffold or EWP access instead of a basic ladder, or when there's hidden lead paint nobody flagged. Five minutes of assessment is cheaper than a half-day of surprises.
Tip: exclusions are the single most important section for protecting yourself legally. If it's not obvious you're excluding something, write it down.