Where are we on plots 40 to 60?
On a housing site, the housebuilder's build programme depends on your groundworks. Foundations dug and poured, substructure blockwork, beam and block floor, drainage connections, service ducts, plots ready for the bricklayers. Every week their site manager wants to know which plots are at which stage, and so does their commercial team, and so does your own office for applications and job costing.
Your contracts manager rings each ganger, updates the spreadsheet on Friday afternoon, and emails it. By Tuesday it is out of date and the housebuilder's site manager is asking again.
Why plot progress is always behind
The facts are known on site, by the gangers, as they happen. They are written down in the office, by someone else, once a week. Each audience wants a slightly different view. So the same information is gathered by phone, typed, reformatted and sent out, and it is stale the moment it lands.
- Gangers report progress by phone at the end of the week.
- The spreadsheet is updated by one person.
- Housebuilders want progress in their own format.
- Your applications and job costing need the same facts in a different shape.
- Nobody has photos to back up a stage marked complete.
What stale progress costs
Contracts manager time each week gathering and typing. Housebuilders who plan bricklayers and scaffolders around your progress get it wrong, and blame you when trades arrive to plots that are not ready. Disputes about whether a plot was ready on a given date. And applications for payment that miss stages you completed because the spreadsheet did not show them.
The plot status board we build
- The site's plots are loaded with the groundworks stages that apply to each house type, from your own list.
- Gangers tick off each plot's stage on a phone when it is done, with a photo, often in a few seconds.
- The site plan shows each plot coloured by stage, so anyone can see the picture at a glance.
- The housebuilder's site manager gets a live view link, or a weekly report in their own layout.
- Plots ready for the next trade, such as ready for brickwork, are highlighted to the housebuilder when they become ready.
- Stages completed since the last application are passed to your valuation process.
- Progress against the housebuilder's programme is shown, with plots behind highlighted.
| Plot | Foundations | Substructure | Floor | Drainage connected |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | Done | Done | Done | Done |
| 41 | Done | Done | In progress | Not started |
| 42 | Done | In progress | Not started | Not started |
| 43 | Dug, awaiting inspection | Not started | Not started | Not started |
One picture for everyone
Gangers record progress where it happens, and it reaches the housebuilder the same day. The contracts manager stops rebuilding the spreadsheet and spends the time managing the work. Housebuilders plan following trades from current information. Every stage has a date and a photo, which settles questions about when a plot was ready. And your applications pick up every completed stage.
There is a quieter benefit for your own planning. When the plot board shows four plots about to be ready for oversite and the beam and block delivery has not been called off, your contracts manager sees it days ahead instead of on the morning. Gangs can be moved between plots and sites on the strength of what the board shows, not on who shouted loudest on the phone.
Is plot progress a weekly chore for you?
- Progress is gathered by phone from gangers.
- A spreadsheet is rebuilt each week for the housebuilder.
- The housebuilder often has out-of-date information.
- There are disputes about when plots were ready.
- Applications miss completed stages.