Prep levels — the bands and when each applies
Prep in Surfacely has its own production rate, in the same units as your painting rates — how much surface you prep in an hour. Pick the level that matches the condition of the surface and Surfacely works out the hours.
A slower rate means more prep. The ladder reads in the opposite direction to a percentage: Minimal is fast because there is barely anything to do, Restoration is slow because prep is the job.
Rates are shown in metric first, with the imperial equivalent in brackets:
- None — paint-ready: already primed or prepped by someone else. No sanding, no patching, no prep hours at all.
- Minimal — 75 m²/hr (800 ft²/hr) — near new: wash and light dust, the odd spot fill. For surfaces in excellent shape.
- Light — 52.5 m²/hr (565 ft²/hr) — sound paint: light sand and dust down, minimal filling.
- Sound — 35 m²/hr (375 ft²/hr) — sound surface: sand and spot fill.
- Standard — 25 m²/hr (270 ft²/hr) — typical repaint: wash, sand, fill, spot prime. The usual baseline for a normal repaint — go faster than this only when the surface is genuinely near-new.
- Moderate — 16 m²/hr (170 ft²/hr) — older surface: more filling, a few minor repairs, some scraping.
- Heavy — 10.5 m²/hr (115 ft²/hr) — neglected or peeling: widespread scraping and filling, primer spots, cracked paint removal.
- Cabinets start at Heavy. Degreasing, scuffing and filling before a coat of cabinet paint is real prep, and the per-piece handling time carries the rest. See Painting cabinets.
- Very Heavy — 6.5 m²/hr (70 ft²/hr) — flaking throughout: scrape back, fill, full prime. Weathered exteriors and failed paint.
Beyond Very Heavy, four restoration-grade bands cover the heaviest work: Extensive — 4 m²/hr (43 ft²/hr) — major repair, stripping failed areas back to substrate; Strip Back — 2.5 m²/hr (27 ft²/hr) — stripping the whole surface back; Strip & Rebuild — 1.5 m²/hr (16 ft²/hr) — stripping and rebuilding the substrate; and Restoration — 1 m²/hr (11 ft²/hr) — full heritage restoration, where prep dominates the job.
How it applies
Prep hours are the surface area divided by the prep rate. That is the whole calculation:
prep hours = area ÷ prep rate
So a 100 m² (1,076 ft²) wall at Standard prep — 25 m²/hr, or 270 ft²/hr — is about 4 prep hours. Painting it two coats at Steady (15 m²/hr, or 160 ft²/hr) is about 13 hours more. About 17 hours in all, shown in the quote as painting plus prep, priced at your labour sell rate.
Painting speed doesn't change prep
Prep depends on the condition of the surface and nothing else. Spraying a wall doesn't sand it, and a big open wall in poor shape needs the same prep as a small one in the same state — so changing the speed step, or switching to spray, leaves the prep hours exactly where they were.
Each surface type does start on the rung that suits it, though. A door starts slower than a wall, because a door in ordinary condition genuinely takes longer per m² to prep than a wall in ordinary condition. That is why the rung name on a door can read heavier than you would expect for a surface in normal shape — the rate is the thing to read, not the word.
Prep is charged once, not once per coat
You wash, sand and fill a wall before the first coat, and you do not do it again before the second. Because prep is now its own rate rather than a percentage of painting time, that is exactly how it prices: the same wall in the same condition costs the same prep at one coat, two coats or three. Only the painting hours move with the coat count.
Masking is prep
Choosing spray doesn't change the prep level. If spraying means a lot of masking, that is prep — pick a slower prep level to allow for it.
Setting your own rates
The ladder ships calibrated to the industry floor, and the slow end is deliberate — prep really is 30–50% of total labour on a normal repaint, and more on a weathered exterior. If your crew consistently beats or misses a band, you can set your own rate for any level in Settings → Company Pricing → Preparation. Clearing a value restores the system default.
Why it matters: painters who use a flat "prep included" assumption either under-charge on heavy repaints or over-charge on good-condition walls. Per-surface prep gives you per-surface accuracy — which is what wins competitive quotes on easy work and protects you on hard work.
Tip: a rate is something you can check against your own experience in a way a percentage never was. "Standard prep is 25 m²/hr" is a claim you can accept or reject after a morning on the tools. Time yourself on one wall and compare.