To be accredited, industrial contractors must demonstrate competence in these key areas:

• Management procedures
• Quality control
• Safety, health and environmental compliance

Technical capabilities

These areas are evaluated through a series of submittals describing the contractor’s business operations. Then, an impartial on-site audit of a representative active job-site and headquarter offices is performed to verify that the programs and practices are implemented and used. The on-site audit criteria can be found in both the QP 1 application and the Internal Audit Checklist. AMPP suggests the contractor perform an internal audit using the checklist to be sure all areas of evaluation are addressed prior to an audit.

CAS for QP 1 contractors

The Coating Application Specialist (CAS) Certification Program for industrial painters was established in 2008 to strengthen the qualifications of the current workforce and lay the groundwork for development of a strong industrial painter work force for the decades to follow. For more information about CAS for QP 1 Contractors click here.

QP 1 background

The QP 1 accreditation was originally organized to answer an industry need voiced by contractors, owners and others who hire industrial painting contractors. At that time, the industry did not have a national standard to evaluate the primary capability of a contractor prior to a contract award. SSPC issued the first version of the QP 1 standard in September 1989, with the accreditation program being released later that same year. Since that time, the QP 1 contractor accreditation program has been consistently reviewed and improved to meet the changing quality needs of our industry. Significant QP 1 changes are made by consensus and approved by the SSPC Standards Review Committee and the SSPC Board of Governors.