Wash-only surfaces and when to use them
On exterior work you'll often wash a surface without repainting it — an existing face in good condition that the client wants cleaned, the underside of an eave, a soffit that's staying as-is. In Surfacely these are wash-only surfaces, marked by setting coats to Wash only.
How to set a surface to wash-only
On an external area, open the coats picker on a surface and choose Wash only. Surfacely calculates the hours using your business's wash rate (m²/hr) and prices it with zero material. On internal areas, wash-only isn't offered — it doesn't apply.
What changes on the quote
- The surface shows "Wash only" instead of a coat count in the breakdown
- Zero L of paint is allocated
- Hours are calculated from your wash rate, not your paint rate
- The surface is excluded from the auto-generated wash line so you don't double-count
When this is useful
- Underside of eaves in good condition — "freshen up, don't paint"
- Existing brickwork you're just cleaning around paintwork
- Window frames the client wants kept natural
- Concrete driveway wash-downs bundled into the exterior quote
Why it matters: before wash-only mode, painters either skipped pricing the wash (losing the revenue) or added a vague "pressure clean" line item at a made-up number. Now every cleaned surface is priced at your real wash rate — consistent, defensible, transparent.