The Finish-Repair Scope Disclosure SOP

Purpose

This procedure guarantees that before anyone cuts, pries or lifts a finish, the customer has been told twice what will be opened, what grade of repair the price includes, and what that grade can look like in low-angle light, and has initialed or signed both times. It also fixes who approves a change once the wall is open and how a refusal is written down. Without it, the disclosure happens after the repair, when it sounds like an excuse, and the shop ends up doing the higher grade for free because the customer heard a promise nobody wrote.

Scope

Covers every job where the shop disturbs a finish to reach its work: drywall and plaster openings, trim removal, floor lifting, ceiling tiles, siding and soffit. Covers the disclosure at estimate, the confirmation on site before the first cut, changes found mid-job, refusals, and the close-out check.

It does not cover:

• How the finish-repair line is worded. Owned by How to Write the Finish-Repair Line on an Estimate.
• What the grades mean and what each material can reach. Owned by Invisible, Blended or Acceptable: The Three Grades of Finish Repair.
• Recording the finish before removal. Owned by The Pre-Removal Documentation SOP.
• Damage that exists before the shop arrives. Owned by the Pre-Existing Damage Protocol Reference.

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. At estimate, write the finish line and get it initialed. The estimator writes a finish-repair line naming what is disturbed, its size, the grade and its test, the exclusions, who does it, and what changes it, and has the customer initial that line separately from the overall signature. Acceptance: the line carries all six elements and an initial beside it. What wrong looks like: a line that reads "patch and paint," or an estimate signed on the total with the finish line blank. Stop rule: the estimate is not sent to scheduling until the line is complete; the office returns it to the estimator. Hazard: none at this step beyond the walk itself; the estimator does not climb onto furniture or into an attic hatch to look at the far side of a ceiling without a ladder set level and footed.

2. The office confirms the initialed line before the job is scheduled. Before booking, the office opens the job and checks the finish line and its initial are attached. Acceptance: the initial is visible on the job record. What wrong looks like: a verbally approved job with no signed line, common on a phone-booked follow-up. Stop rule: book it, but flag the job "disclosure on arrival," which makes step 3 a full disclosure, not a confirmation, and tells the tech not to cut until it is signed.

3. On arrival, mark the cut and walk it with the customer before any tool comes out. Mark the opening outline on the surface with painter's tape or a light pencil line, and walk the customer to it. Show the size, show what else is disturbed (the baseboard below, the shelf cleat beside it), and read the grade and its test from the line. Acceptance: the customer has seen the marked outline and says the grade is still what they want. What wrong looks like: the customer is surprised by the size or the location. Stop rule: do not cut; re-explain, and if the outline must move or the customer wants a different grade, go to step 6 before cutting. Hazard: marking a ceiling means a ladder; set it level and fully opened, keep the customer out from under it, and do not lean the ladder against the wall you are about to open.

4. Show what raking light does, on their surface, before the cut. Hold a work light flat to the wall or ceiling near the marked outline and let the customer see what it does to the existing surface: every trowel mark, tape seam and nail pop shows. Tell them in plain words what their grade looks like in that light, and name the window or light fixture in this room that produces it. Acceptance: the customer has seen the demonstration and the line's test names this room's raking-light source. What wrong looks like: you skip it because the customer seems relaxed. Stop rule: do the demonstration anyway; the customer who is relaxed at 9 a.m. is the one who calls at 6 p.m. when the sun comes in. Hazard: keep the work light's cord out of the walkway and off the ladder.

5. Get the pre-cut confirmation signed, with the time. The customer signs or initials "Confirmed before cutting" on the job record, with the time, or the tech records the change made in step 6. Acceptance: a signature or initial, and a time earlier than the first photo of the opened surface. What wrong looks like: the signature is collected at the end of the job. Stop rule: no cut until it is signed; a confirmation collected after the cut is a receipt, not a disclosure.

6. When the scope changes, stop, secure the opening and get approval in writing. If the opening must grow, a second opening is needed, a piece breaks, wet or moldy framing is found, or the customer asks for a different grade, stop work on the finish. Cover the opening with plastic and tape if dust or air movement matters; if framing is wet or shows mold growth, disturb it no further. If a cable is exposed, treat it as energized until its circuit is off and proved dead with a tester checked on a known live source before and after (NFPA 70E Article 120, 120.5 in the 2021 edition), and guard it from contact. Call the office, which prices the change in hours; any change over 1.0 labor hour or any change of grade goes to the owner. Acceptance: a written change, with hours and the new grade, initialed by the customer before more is opened. What wrong looks like: the tech enlarges the hole "while I'm here" on a nod. Stop rule: nothing more is cut until the change is initialed; if nobody can approve today, leave the opening covered and secured, tell the customer when it will resume, and record the state it was left in.

7. When the customer refuses, record exactly what was refused and how the site was left. A customer may decline to sign, decline the restore and say they will patch it themselves, or refuse a change. Write which of those it was, in their words where possible, the time, and the state you left the finish in. Acceptance: the record names the refusal and the site state, with a photo of the opening as left. What wrong looks like: "customer declined" and nothing else. Stop rule: an opening is never left with an exposed energized conductor, an unsupported fixture, or an open path into an attic or garage; close or cover it to that standard before leaving whatever the customer has declined, and ask them to sign the refusal, writing "declined to sign" with the time if they will not.

8. At close-out, check the repair against the written test with the customer present. Stand where the test says (the doorway, the sofa) in the room's normal light and show them the repair, then photograph it from the same position as the before photo. Acceptance: the delivered repair meets the test as written, and the customer signs off. What wrong looks like: the customer points to something that fails the test (a ridge, an open edge) or something the test did not promise. Stop rule: anything that fails the test is fixed before leaving or scheduled; anything outside the test is answered by reading the line, and if the customer still wants it, it is priced as new work.

The record this produces

On the job: the initialed finish line from the estimate; the office's "confirmed" or "disclosure on arrival" flag; the pre-cut confirmation with its time; every change order with hours, grade and initial; any refusal with its wording, time, photo and signature or "declined to sign"; and the close-out sign-off with the after photo. The office reads it when a customer questions the repair, the owner reads it on any dispute, and the tech reads it on the next visit to the same house.

Worked pass: a family-room ceiling opening

An HVAC technician is reconnecting a duct boot that has fallen away from its ceiling register in a family room. The ceiling is orange peel texture, painted flat, with a sliding glass door on the west wall. The estimate's finish line: "Ceiling opening approx 18 in x 18 in around the register. Patched, textured with orange peel from a can, primed and painted on the patch only. Grade ACCEPTABLE: flat and sealed, visible as a repair; it will show in low afternoon light from the slider. Excluded: repainting the ceiling." Initialed.

Step 1 passed. Step 2 passed: initial on the job. Step 3 passed: outline taped, customer walked to it. Step 4 passed:

TECH:     I'm going to hold this light flat to the
          ceiling for a second. See every line?
CUSTOMER: Those are just in the paint?
TECH:     Those are the drywall seams under it.
          Your ceiling is fine. This light is what
          the sun off that slider does around 5.
TECH:     The patch will be flat and sealed, and
          in that light you will see a square.
CUSTOMER: And with the lights on at night?
TECH:     From the sofa it should be hard to find.
          Repainting the whole ceiling gets you
          closer, but it is not in this price.
CUSTOMER: Square is fine. There's a fan there.
TECH:     Then sign here, with the time.

Step 5 passed: confirmed at 9:12 a.m., first photo of the cut at 9:20 a.m. Step 6 was triggered. With the 18 in square open, the boot's collar sat 11 in beyond the opening's edge, over a joist bay the opening did not reach. The tech stopped, covered the opening with plastic, and called the office: extending the opening to 18 in by 30 in added 0.5 labor hour to the patch, under the owner's 1.0 hour threshold and with no change of grade, so the office approved it, wrote the change, and the customer initialed it at 9:41 a.m. The tech then cut the extension, reconnected and sealed the boot, and ran the system to confirm air at the register before closing the ceiling.

Step 7 did not arise. Step 8 passed: from the sofa under the room lights the customer could find the repair only by looking for it, which the acceptable test allows, and signed off. The close-out note recorded that the slider's late light had not been seen at close-out because the tech left at 2 p.m.

References

• See related: Pre-Existing Damage Protocol Reference
• See related: How to Write the Finish-Repair Line on an Estimate
• See related: Invisible, Blended or Acceptable: The Three Grades of Finish Repair
• See related: Why a Repair Shows in Raking Light
• NFPA 70E Article 120 (120.5 in the 2021 edition, renumbered in 2024)