My site diary won't stand up
There is a diary, and it is even kept daily, but the entries say delayed by others, and I suspect that won't be enough.
Updated: . By Jack Butler-Kettle, Construction Claims Consultant.
What's happening?
A diary can be filled in every day and still be hard to use. The trouble is entries that record conclusions, not events: delayed by others, no access, waiting on information. Without people, places, activities, times and sources, a later reader cannot test what happened.
Other project records may tell a different story. A view on cause or effect is something to identify and back up. It is not a substitute for the facts seen on site.
Leave it, and every entry that says delayed by others is an assertion with nothing behind it. Your main contractor only has to say the entries prove nothing.
The solution
Keep the original entries intact. Read them beside the other records: allocation sheets, hoist or crane logs, handovers, minutes, drawings and correspondence. Each day is then shown as supported, contradicted or unsupported. From now on, each entry records who was there, where they worked, what happened, when, what they did instead and which record backs it up. Date any later clarification separately.
Delay & Disruption Claim values the days the other records support, and leaves the rest out with the reason stated. Delay & Disruption Loss Prevention changes how new entries are written, so the next diary can be checked without rewriting history.
Example
Illustrative example. The scenario and figures are invented.
The facts
A curtain walling subcontractor's diary has 34 days marked delayed by others. The main contractor's response to the claim says the entries prove nothing. The original diary is kept unchanged.
What happens
- The diary is read beside the labour allocation sheets, the hoist booking log, the progress minutes and the drawing register.
- On 19 of the 34 days, the hoist was booked to another trade or out of service. The allocation sheet names the gang as present and unallocated on those days.
- On 8 days the allocation sheets show the gang working productively on another elevation, which conflicts with the diary. On 7 days there is nothing behind the entry at all.
- The site manager's clarifications are written up and dated as later work, kept apart from the diary.
- New entries from that week follow a short routine. Each says who was there, where they worked, what happened and when it started and ended. It also says what they did instead and which document backs it up.
- A programming expert takes the delay question. The money for the 19 days, at £1,100 a day, £20,900, goes forward with the hoist log and the allocation sheets attached.
- The other 15 days are left out, with the reason recorded.
The days in figures
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Daily rate | £1,100 |
| 19 days put forward | £20,900 |
| 15 days agreed | £16,500 |
The outcome
The main contractor agrees 15 days, £16,500, and the diary is never argued about again.