A buyer moves in on Friday, the drive is still stone
Your gangs do the plot externals on a housing site: drives, paths, patios, fencing bases, kerbing to the plot boundary. The housebuilder's sales team has agreed completion dates with buyers. On Monday their site manager rings to say plot 22 legally completes on Friday and needs the drive and paths done. The scaffold only came down on Saturday. Your paving gang is on another site until Wednesday.
The drive gets done on Thursday evening, in a rush. Two other plots completing the same week are found out about on Wednesday.
Why externals are always last-minute
Plot externals are the last groundworks on a plot and depend on scaffold, bricklayers and roofers being finished. Completion dates are set by the housebuilder's sales team with buyers and passed on to site at short notice. The groundworker is the last to know, with the least time.
- Legal completion dates are passed to you late and by phone.
- Scaffold striking and other trades' finish dates are not visible to you.
- Paving gangs are planned without a view of upcoming completions.
- Finished plots are not recorded with evidence.
- Snags on externals are found at the housebuilder's handover inspection.
What rushed externals cost
Overtime and gangs pulled from other work to meet dates. Rushed work that needs snagging, and snags found by buyers. Housebuilders unhappy with a groundworker who holds up completions, which affects your next tender with them. And plots where the buyer's completion is at risk because externals are not done, which the housebuilder will not forget.
The plot externals schedule we build
- The housebuilder shares plot target completion dates through a link or a regular export, and changes are picked up as they happen.
- For each plot, the externals required are listed from the house type and layout: drive, paths, patio, kerbs, fencing bases.
- Dependencies are recorded: scaffold struck, other trades finished, as reported by the housebuilder's site manager or your ganger.
- Plots are shown on a timeline by completion date, with the latest date the externals can start.
- Your contracts manager plans paving gangs from the timeline, with warnings when plots are close to their dates and not yet started.
- Gangs record each plot's externals finished with photos, which go to the housebuilder's site manager for their handover.
- Snags from the housebuilder's inspection are logged against the plot and closed with photos.
| Plot | Completion target | Scaffold down | Externals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | Friday | Yes | Planned Wednesday |
| 23 | Next week | No | Waiting on scaffold |
| 24 | Next week | Yes | Planned Monday |
| 25 | In a fortnight | No | Not yet planned |
Externals finished before the buyer arrives
You see completions coming weeks ahead rather than days. Gangs are planned around them, not pulled off other work. Dependencies such as scaffold and other trades are visible, so problems are raised early with the housebuilder. Finished plots are evidenced with photos, and snags are closed properly. And the housebuilder sees a groundworker that helps them complete on time.
Buyers notice the difference as well, even if they never know your name. A finished drive, clean paths and a patio laid properly on the day they collect their keys are part of the first impression of their new home, and the housebuilder's customer care team hears fewer complaints about the outside in the first weeks.
Do plot externals feel like a scramble?
- You hear about completion dates days before.
- Paving gangs are pulled off other work at short notice.
- Drives are finished the evening before a buyer moves in.
- Snags are found by buyers.
- You cannot see which plots complete in the coming weeks.