Coating specifications should always incorporate or reference one of the written and/or visual/photographic surface preparation standards. Such standards exist to eliminate misinterpretation, questions, disagreement, related to the quality of surface preparation desired.
The two most commonly used surface preparation standards are those published by the Steel Structures Painting Council (SSPC) and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE). Both of these standard organizations merged into AMPP. The following chart summarizes these standards.
This overview applies only to Ferrous metals.
| System | SSPC codes | NACE | CDN Govt (CGSB) | Swedish standard | British standard |
| Solvent clean | SSPC.SP1 | ||||
| Hand tool clean | SSPC.SP2 | 31 GP 401 | St. 2 | ||
| Power tool clean | SSPC.SP3 | 31 GP 402 | St. 3 | ||
| Flame clean (new steel) | SSPC.SP4 | 31 GP 403 | |||
| White metal blast | SSPC.SP5 | NACE #1 | 31 GP 404 Type1 | Sa. 3 | BS4232 First quality |
| Commercial blast | SSPC.SP6 | NACE #3 | 31 GP 404 type 2 | Sa. 2 | BS4232 Third quality |
| Brush off blast | SSPC.SP7 | NACE #4 | 31 GP 404 type 3 | Sa. 1 | Light blast to brush-off |
| Pickling | SSPC.SP8 | ||||
| Weather and blast | SSPC.SP9 | ||||
| Near white blast | SSPC.SP10 | NACE #2 | Sa. 2 1/2 | BS4232 second quality | |
| Power tool cleaning to bare metal | SSPC.SP11 |
Do you want to learn about the relevance of surface preparation?
