How a job runs, from the booked day to the last walkthrough

The slot

A booked date exists in writing on both sides

Booking is a two-sided record. The day is agreed on the walk or in writing and then written back as a confirmation, so it sits on the homeowner’s calendar and not only on the schedule it came from. Weather moves exterior dates more than anything else does, which is why a moved date travels as a message in the same thread the booking sits in — the alternative is reading the change off an empty driveway.

• The confirmation names the date and what happens on it
• A moved date is a written message, not a silent gap in the driveway
• Confirming the day and working it are one person’s job, not two

The walkthrough

The surface list comes out of a walk around the house

A walk-through is where the surface list comes from — north siding, garage trim, the two soffits over the deck, named by location rather than grouped under one word. The surfaces staying as they are get named the same way, because an exclusion nobody wrote down is the one that turns into an argument in week three. A wall that is already failing is easiest to talk about at the wall, where the reason for it is visible.

• Surfaces are named by location, not grouped under one word
• Surfaces left out of the job are written down as well
• Failing surfaces are named at the wall, not reported after the fact

Written scope

The scope is a written list of surfaces, prep on its own line

The scope is what the walk produces and what the work follows. Prep is a line of its own rather than something folded into a single figure, and product and sheen are named per surface, so one word never stands in for a whole house. What the house turns up later becomes another line on the same document, which is what keeps a change a decision instead of a number that moved.

• Prep hours appear as their own line, separate from paint and materials
• Product name and sheen are written per surface
• A mid-job addition is another line on the same scope, not a new figure

Prep and a reading

Wash, scrape to a sound edge, feather-sand, then read the wood

Prep is where the hours go and where the finish is decided. Loose paint comes off to an edge that holds, the transition is feather-sanded so it disappears under the coat, and open joints are re-caulked.

• Bare wood is read with a meter before primer — under 12 percent or the primer waits
• Bare wood is spot-primed the same day it is exposed
• Soft wood is a marked board and a line on the list, not a filled spot

Masking

Landscaping, concrete, and glass are covered before a lid comes off

Masking is a phase of its own, ahead of the first open can rather than alongside it — a cover pulled while paint is already moving arrives after the drips it was meant to catch. Beds and shrubs are covered while the work is overhead and uncovered before the day ends, because plastic left on a shrub overnight does its own damage.

• Plants covered while work is overhead, uncovered the same day
• Driveway, walkways, and patio covered under the work rather than washed afterwards
• Glass and hardware masked; cut lines at the glass are brushed, not scraped off later

Coats and cleanup

Coats go on in order, and the day ends with the site cleared

Cut lines where two colours meet are brushed by hand rather than taped. A day ends with the drop cloths up, the tools and debris off the ground, and the driveway swept — the house stays livable while the work is going on, which is why the pack-down is part of the day rather than part of the end of the job.

• Drop cloths lifted and tools cleared at the end of each working day
• Driveway and walkways swept as part of the day, not at the end of the job
• Ladders and materials stored, not left leaning against the house

Final walk

The last pass runs off the written list, surface by surface

The final walk is the document the job started on, read in daylight against what is actually on the wall. Running it off the list rather than off memory is what makes it a check instead of a look around, and it is the same list the scope, the additions, and any rot line all live on.

• The final walk runs off the written scope, not off memory
• Hardware is back on and rooms are put back before the walk starts
• A line that fails the walk goes back on the list as work still open