- Recognise that the EOT clause protects the employer, not you
- Apply contractual notice deadlines correctly and consistently
- Build records that win delay claims (site diary, programme markup, notice log, photos)
- Distinguish delays caused by others from delays caused by yourself, and respond to each
- Run a pre-let meeting that flushes out programme misunderstandings
- Use the standing time clause to charge for hire that is not being used
- Manage pavement licence conditions and the licence-holder indemnity
- Identify and avoid the hoist cross-hire trap under CPA Conditions
- Plan, allocate and recover cost on shared site lifting resources, and run a scaffold logistics plan that holds up under MC pressure
1. The Programme is the Other Half of Price
The programme is a schedule, a commitment to have X scaffold done by Y time. It is a contractual document. A commitment on what scope you are going to deliver and by when, so the following trades and activities can proceed with the next sequential scope.
When you sign a subcontract that references the programme, you are committing to deliver your work by the dates shown. If you miss those dates you are in breach. If your delay causes the main contractor to miss overall project completion, you may be hit with the LADs for the daily penalty clauses. This is not a position you want to be in. You need your delay and claim paperwork in place to protect yourself.
The price is what you charge, the programme is when you have to deliver. You can price the job right on the volume and scope, but it can easily go wrong on the wrong programme. That loses money.
The most expensive mistakes in scaffolding subcontracts come from accepting completion dates that can't be met, and failing to give notice when a delay event happens.
You could find that you're doing everything right and the MC asks you to accelerate. Acceleration is a variation in time and comes with costs, which the MC may be happy to pay, but you don't have the kit or the men, so now you're ringing round to find both. That's a headache that can lead to other complications. Or at the other end, you miscalculated the erect time, you've slipped, and now you've got overlapping on-hire kit, erection and dismantle to do, and not enough men and equipment to cycle through to keep pace with the job. That is your mistake and your cost.
Schedules can be as simple as a single scaffold erected on Monday and dismantled on Friday, or as complex as green-field industrial construction with hundreds of small to medium scaffolds going up and down to provide access for electrical, piping, cladding and every other trade.
Baseline and working programmes
The baseline programme is the original plan agreed at contract start. It shows the planned start and finish dates for all activities, including your scaffold erection and dismantle. Use it as the reference document for measuring delays.
The working programme is updated regularly as the project progresses. It reflects actual progress, approved variations and delays. You revise it weekly or monthly, but it must still align with the baseline unless there has been a formal variation instruction.
Depending on how well, or how badly, the project is performing, this can change significantly from tender, to award, to mobilisation, to execution. Being on top of your programme, the deliverables of what, when, where and how, is key to project success.
2. Quick Definitions
Programme and logistics terms used through this module. Tap each to see the detail.
3. The Completion Date Obligation
Once a completion date is in the contract you are legally obliged to complete by that date. Without an EOT clause you bear all delay risk.
If the contract is silent on completion, you must complete in a reasonable time. "Reasonable" is open to interpretation, which is bad news when there is money at stake. Schedules come in different shapes: a date in an email, or a multi-page Primavera Gantt chart. However they come, you need to be clear on what is being delivered and when.
Some activities have float (spare time between when they could start and when they must finish to avoid delaying the project). Others sit on the critical path, the sequence of dependent activities where any delay delays the whole project.
Scaffold erection is often on or near the critical path. If your erection is late, you directly delay other trades. If you dismantle late, you may block access or prevent final completion. Know whether your activities have float or are critical. If you're critical, small delays matter.
Every subcontract form forces a completion date into the data fields at signature. The three forms approach it differently. JCT enters it as a Sub-Contract Completion Date in the Numerical Particulars. NEC ties it to a programme that the Project Manager has to accept. NASC populates Hand Over Certificate date, Contract Period and dismantling period as three separate fields. The differences matter because they govern what counts as completion, what triggers damages, and where the commercial advantage sits.
| Topic | JCT SBCSub/C 2016 | NEC3 ECS | NASC Scaffolding Contract 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Completion date stated in contract | Sub-Contract Completion Date in Sub-Contract Particulars (Numerical Particulars Part 1) | Subcontract Data Part Two: completion date and Key Dates | Commencement date, Hand Over Certificate date and dismantling period inserted as contract data (Clause 2.3) |
| Position if silent | Reasonable time implied, JCT silence rare in practice | Mechanism requires the data, contract cannot be silent | Standard form populates the data fields, no implied reasonable-time gap (Clause 2.3) |
| Programme regime | Master programme required but no content specified, no acceptance regime (Clause 2.9.1.2 of JCT SBC 2016) | Accepted programme regime with nine specific information requirements, formal acceptance/rejection, mandatory revision intervals (Clauses 31.2 and 32) | No programme regime in the standard form; programme is whatever the parties attach (no clause) |
| Effect of failure to meet date | Liquidated damages if stated, common-law damages otherwise (Clause 2.21) | Delay damages per Subcontract Data, common law if not set (Clause X7 if used) | No LAD clause in the standard form, MC must prove actual loss |
Reading a programme
Most programmes use Gantt charts: horizontal bars showing activities over time. Find your scaffold activities, note the start and finish dates, and understand what depends on you finishing.
Key elements to look for
- Scaffold erect start date: when you can access site and begin.
- Scaffold erect finish date: when erection must be complete and handed over.
- Scaffold dismantle start date: when the main contractor no longer needs the scaffold.
- Scaffold dismantle finish date: when the site must be fully cleared.
- Handover window: the time between erect finish and dismantle start while the scaffold is in use.
- Dependencies: what must finish before you start; what depends on you finishing.
- Kit and manpower overlap: multiple standing scaffolds at once, enough kit, multiple E&D activities happening simultaneously and the effect on resources.
NASC, JCT and NEC all require a completion date in the data. NASC and JCT operate on a fixed date; NEC adds programme acceptance as a separate obligation. Where the NASC standard form is unamended there is no LAD clause. The MC must prove actual loss in damages.
Delay events and notice deadlines: how the three forms compare
| Topic | JCT SBCSub/C 2016 | NEC3 ECS | NASC Scaffolding Contract 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying events | Relevant Sub-Contract Events listed in Clause 2.19 | Compensation Events listed in Core Clause 60.1 | Variations, ordering of further variations, weather, and reasons beyond the Scaffolding Contractor's control (Clause 13.1) |
| Notification deadline | Notify forthwith on becoming aware of likely delay (Clause 2.18.1) | Seven-week cliff from awareness; late notice loses the claim (Clause 61.3) | Notify as soon as practicable; no hard time-bar but failure to notify can defeat the claim (Clause 13.2) |
| Damages position if no EOT given | Time at large where employer-caused delay and no EOT mechanism applied | Time at large rare; CE process designed to keep the date current | Time at large where MC-caused delay and no EOT awarded; no LADs in the standard form |
NEC3's 7-week clock is the hardest time-bar in the three forms. NASC has no equivalent hard deadline but "as soon as practicable" is a real obligation, not a free ride to go slow. Diary every delay event and issue written notice within the shortest period the contract or guidance suggests.
4. EOT: Who Does It Actually Protect?
EOT clauses are for the benefit of the employer. They keep alive the right to claim damages if you fail to achieve the completion date.
Variations and change management
As we have discussed, the programme and scope in your subcontract are the baseline. But sites change. The client changes their mind, problems arise, delays happen. When that happens, the work changes and so must the dates. That is a time variation.
What counts as a variation
A variation is any change to the scope, timing or conditions in the original subcontract. Examples:
- The main contractor asks you to erect the scaffold three weeks earlier than planned.
- The client adds two extra storeys and you must support a larger load area.
- Ground conditions are worse than anticipated and you need to increase base loading.
- Access is blocked and you must use a different route to bring materials in.
- The scaffold is kept standing for an extended hire period not shown in the original programme.
If the delays are not your fault, either from other trades and forced on you by the MC, or you have documented the delays and the MC acknowledges them, you may be awarded an EOT. If you are not awarded an EOT and need to mobilise more men and equipment, raise that as an acceleration cost.
An EOT clause does not benefit you. It prevents time becoming "at large", which is the position that protects you.
What does that mean? Every EOT clause does two jobs. It lists what counts as a qualifying delay event, and it sets the notice period for getting your claim on the table. JCT, NEC and NASC each strike a different balance between the two. Where the events can be caused by anything from bad weather to bad luck, the notice deadline tends to be tight. Where the notice deadline is generous, the events tend to be narrower. Knowing how your contract sits on this trade-off is the first step to a defensible EOT claim.
| Topic | JCT SBCSub/C 2016 | NEC3 ECS | NASC Scaffolding Contract 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delay-event notice | Forthwith on awareness, further details within reasonable time (Clause 2.18.1) | Within 7 weeks of becoming aware; late notice loses the claim (Clause 61.3) | As soon as practicable (Clause 13.2) |
| Written instruction requirement | Architect's Instruction in writing; oral confirmed within 7 days (Clause 3.10) | Project Manager's instruction in writing (Clause 14.3) | Instructions in writing; oral confirmed in writing within 2 working days (Clause 6.1) |
| Dismantle notice | No specific scaffold dismantle notice, generic completion notices | No specific scaffold dismantle notice | 7 days written notice required before Contractor may self-dismantle (Clause 6.4) |
| Failure to collect dismantled material | Generic site clearance under the main contract | Generic site clearance under the main contract | 7-day collection window after dismantle, then site-removal costs charged to Scaffolding Contractor (Clause 6.5) |
The NASC standard form is unusual in pricing dismantle and material-collection notice obligations directly into the contract. Build these into the standard application and diary the 7-day windows on every job. Failure to act inside them transfers cost.
Employer-caused delay with no EOT mechanism rendered time at large; the contractor was only obliged to complete in a reasonable time.
5. Protecting Yourself from Delays Caused by Others
This is the heart of programme management. Most scaffolding delays are caused by others: the MC's slipped programme, an install that has gone late, a steel package that has not been signed off, weather, ground conditions worse than expected.
5.1 The records that win delay claims
If you cannot prove the delay, you do not get paid for it. Records are the price of admission. Keep these from day one of every job. They can be:
- Site diary, daily, with weather, gangs on site, gangs not on site (and why), instructions received, materials issued
- Programme markup, weekly, showing actual progress against contract programme. Highlight where the actual is behind the planned and why
- Notice log: every contractual notice issued and received, with date, recipient and reference number
- Photographic evidence, date-stamped, geo-tagged where possible, of site conditions at start and end of each shift
- Weather records (BBC Weather, Met Office or your own rain gauge) where weather is a factor
- Email correspondence kept in date order, never deleted
- Operative timesheets and daywork sheets signed and copied to the QS within 7 days
That can seem like a lot, depending on how strict your MC QS or commercial team are. Some are better than others, and an email may be enough. Follow these delay claims up. In contracts, silence is acknowledgement, but it can also be silence sitting unread in an inbox.
5.2 Notice mechanics
Most contracts require written notice of a delay event within a stated period. Commonly 7 to 14 days under JCT, more nuanced under NEC. Failure to give notice in time can bar the claim entirely, even if the delay was real and caused by the employer.
Concurrent delay does not wipe out your right to an extension of time where the employer's act would have caused delay independently.
What the notice must do:
- Identify the delay event (what happened)
- Identify when it happened
- Identify who caused it (the MC, the client, another subcontractor, the weather)
- Identify the effect on time and cost (work cannot proceed, gang stood down, equipment idle)
- Reserve your rights to time and money under the contract
Notice is the price of admission for any claim. Default to written notice within the shortest contractual period for any event that might cause delay. Late notice is no notice.
5.3 Claim mechanics
After the notice, you build the claim. The claim follows a structure:
- Cause: what the delay event was
- Effect: how it affected your work (productivity loss, programme push, additional resource)
- Time: how many days or weeks of delay
- Money: how much it cost you (preliminaries running on, standing time, supervision, equipment hire)
- Evidence: site diary, photos, daywork sheets, correspondence, programme markup
Each element needs supporting documents. Without them, the claim is just a number, easy to challenge.
RICS guidance on the structure of claims and the records that support them.
Detailed templates and methodology for time-impact analysis and EOT presentation. Treat it as the practitioner's standard.
6. Protecting Yourself from Delays Caused by Yourself
Self-caused delays are the ones the MC will hammer you on. This is an opportunity for them to claw back some money. They will point to the contract, demand LADs, and you have no defence.
6.1 Pre-empt at programming stage
- Don't accept a programme that doesn't allow for design submittal and review (Module 4)
- Don't accept a programme that doesn't allow for material delivery lead times
- Don't accept a programme that depends on weather windows you can't control
- Build float into your own programme even if it does not show in the contract programme
6.2 Resources
- Book the right gangs for the right work. Under-resourcing is a self-inflicted delay
- Confirm equipment availability before mobilising; check for overlapping scope or jobs
- Get written confirmation of welfare, site access and laydown location before day one
- Know the site, know the logistics, have a plan
6.3 If you do cause a delay
Own it. Notify the MC the same day. Mitigate. Resource up. Document the recovery plan. Don't try to disguise a self-caused delay as someone else's, you will lose the trust of the MC, and if it is really bad you will get caught at adjudication.
A self-caused delay you have owned and fixed costs you the time. A self-caused delay you have hidden costs you the time, the trust, the money and probably the next job.
Sort it: own vs others
Each of these is a real situation on site. Drop each one into the right bucket so the response is right.
7. Acceleration
No obligation to accelerate unless the contract says so.
If verbally instructed to make up time, confirm in writing and agree the cost before mobilising additional resources. Constructive acceleration, accelerating without instruction to recover lost time, is rarely recoverable.
You may find yourself being asked to accelerate to make up time, or because another scope is ahead and the MC wants to pull ahead on the schedule. As we discussed, you may not have kit in the yard and may need to cross-hire from another company, or all your men are out and you need to use subbies. Make the MC aware of the increased costs due to the unplanned requirement for additional resources. Let them know the challenge. Otherwise it is easy to be labelled uncooperative and trigger-happy site agents start mobilising other scaffolding firms, stating you're unable to handle the work. Whether that's correct or not can get lost in the narrative unless you have been upfront and clear about the situation.
"You have instructed us to complete erection by [accelerated date]. We understand this requires [additional resources]. The cost of acceleration is £[X] and we will proceed on this basis unless you confirm otherwise by [date]." A verbal instruction to accelerate is not binding without written confirmation, and the cost cannot be recovered without a written record.
8. What a Good Scaffold Programme Actually Shows
Most scaffold programmes on site are a bar chart with start and end dates. That's not a programme, it's a hope. A programme that protects you when things go wrong has to show specific information. The NEC contract is the only one of the three that bothers to list what. Even when you're not on an NEC job, the NEC list is a useful diagnostic.
Run your programme through these nine items. If they're not all on it, fix the programme before it goes to the MC. Tap each item to see the detail.
A programme that shows these nine things protects your position whether you are on NEC, JCT or NASC. On NEC the contract demands it. On JCT and NASC the contract doesn't, but the MC will still test your records when the claim goes in. Submit at the higher standard regardless. The cost of preparing the programme properly once is a fraction of the cost of being caught short at adjudication.
NEC (2013) Clause 31.2. JCT and NASC do not require this level of programme information.
9. NEC3: Two Time Traps
9.1 The 25% programme sanction
Failure to submit a first programme can reduce valuation by 25% until submitted.
Challenge this clause at the pre-let meeting. For temporary works dependent on the MC's progress, the 25% sanction is unworkable.
9.2 The 7-week CE rule
Notify a compensation event within 7 weeks of becoming aware. Late notice = no money and no time.
10. The Pre-Let Meeting
The pre-let is the meeting between you and the MC after award but before mobilisation. Different from the pre-contract meeting in Module 2. Purpose: confirm everything is set up to start work without surprises.
10.1 What to confirm at pre-let
- Programme: dates for erection, hire, dismantle. Get it in writing
- Phasing: which phases, what notice you need, sequence dependencies
- Attendances: welfare, task lighting, secure storage, crane access, laydown
- Permits and access: who issues, how long, what restrictions
- Design submittal cycle: who reviews, format, expected turnaround (Module 4)
- Payment: application date, payment-notice timing, retention release
- Site contacts: MC's site agent, QS, site safety officer, after-hours contact
- Programme sanction clauses (e.g. NEC3 25%): challenged or accepted
- Induction: requirements, dates, times
10.2 The minutes
Pre-let minutes form part of the contractual record. Apply the same discipline as the pre-contract meeting in Module 2: never sign on the day, take them away, respond in writing within 5 working days. Silence is acceptance.
11. Erection on Time, Hire-Period Delay (Standing Time)
The most common programme dispute in scaffolding. Erection completes on time. The MC's delay during the hire period extends the dismantle date. You may not be on site to spot it.
A common trap: erection completes on time, then the employer's delay during the hire period extends the dismantle date, and you may not be on site to spot it.
11.1 The standing time clause
Build a standing time clause into your standard terms. The clause says: scaffold remains on hire until used, and hire continues whether or not it is being used. If the MC instructs erection, the scaffold is handed over, and then the MC delays subsequent trades, hire continues to be chargeable.
"Once the scaffold has been erected and handed over to the Hirer, the hire period continues until the scaffold is dismantled, whether or not the scaffold is being used. No reduction in hire period or hire rate will be granted for periods of non-use during the hire period."
11.2 Recording standing time
- Daily log of usage: which gang on which lift on which day
- Photo evidence of empty platforms during alleged standing time
- Written notice to the MC the moment standing time is identified, with daily rate
- Weekly application capturing standing time as a separate line item
11.3 Separate dates for erect, hire, dismantle
CG3:18 recommends a pro-forma schedule for recording delay events during the hire period. Include separate dates for completion of erection, hire period and completion of dismantle as separate items in your contract programme.
12. Crane and Hoist Allocation
On most large sites the scaffolder doesn't own the mechanical handling of kit. The MC controls the tower crane, mobile cranes, telehandler and goods hoist. The lift schedule is set by the MC's logistics team, usually weekly. The scaffolder books slots in advance, and the slots get cancelled, moved, or simply never happen. Four men, three hours, watching the slings dangle on someone else's job is sixteen man-hours of cost with zero output. If you don't catch and record it, you don't get paid for it.
There are two distinct commercial situations to recognise. They look similar on site. They are handled very differently in the application.
12.1 Restricted lift windows confirmed after award (variation)
Your tender either priced unrestricted lifting and mechanical handling or didn't specify. The MC's published lift schedule shows restrictions you didn't price for: shared blocks, daily caps, banned hours, exclusion of out-of-sequence trades. This is a variation to the priced basis. Raise it under the notice mechanism in time or lose it.
12.2 Allocated slot missed or cancelled on the day (delay event)
Your gang turned up, the crane, forklift or telehandler didn't come, or it was diverted to another trade. This is a delay event. Notice, record, daywork, charge. Different route from §12.1, different evidence, different notice, but both go unpaid without records and timely submission.
12.3 The discipline
- Get the lift schedule / mechanical availability in writing at the pre-let meeting (§10), with named slots where possible
- Daily log: which slot was booked, was it delivered, if not why not, how many men idle, for how long
- Photos of the idle gang at the workface with the lift area in shot, time-stamped
- Daywork sheet signed at the time by the MC's site agent, not handed in next week
- Email confirmation to the MC's site team the same day with the daywork sheet attached
- Weekly application captures the idle-time hours as a separate line, not buried in measured work
12.4 The contract gap
Crane access is listed as a free attendance the customer provides. The phrase "crane access" does not specify quantity, frequency or availability windows.
That is exactly the gap that creates the dispute. If the contract is silent on availability, the implication is unrestricted; the MC's actual schedule says otherwise. Pre-let (§10) is the moment to pin it down before mobilisation. Make availability and frequency contract terms, not site goodwill.
12.5 Standing time and downtime, how they fit together
Standing time (§11) covers the equipment-hire side: scaffold erected and chargeable while the MC delays follow-on trades. Crane and mechanical downtime covers the labour side: gang on site, scaffold not yet up, no lift available. The two mechanisms work alongside each other on most major contracts. Standing time recovers through the hire clause; crane and mechanical downtime recovers through dayworks and the EOT and notice machinery in §5.
Treat every booked lift as a contract obligation in itself. If the lift doesn't come, that's a notice, a daywork sheet and a line on the next application, not "one of those things." Scaffolders lose more money to unrecorded crane downtime than to any other single execution-side issue on high-rise contracts.
12.6 Worded notice template
"At [time] on [date], [number] operatives of [your firm] were on site at [location/workface] for the lift scheduled at [booked slot] per the MC's weekly lift schedule dated [date]. The lift was not provided. The gang stood from [start time] to [end time], a total of [X] man-hours, evidenced by the attached daywork sheet, photographs and site diary entry. This is notified as a delay event and a dayworks charge under [insert clause reference] of the Subcontract. Please confirm by return."
13. Pavement Licences
A licence is required to erect a scaffold on or above the public highway. Section 169 Highways Act 1980. Issued by the Highway Authority.
The Highway Authority has a duty to issue a licence unless the structure would cause unreasonable obstruction.
The licence-holder indemnity trap
If you hold the licence but aren't permanently on site, ask the MC for a written indemnity from any loss arising from the use of the scaffold.
While your name is on the licence, you carry the duty. If the MC will not give you a written indemnity, the licence belongs in their name, not yours.
14. CPA Conditions: The Cross-Hire Trap
CPA Conditions are the standard hire terms used by most plant suppliers in the UK. When you cross-hire kit (e.g. a hoist) and supply it on to your client, you sit in the middle of two contracts: your hire from the owner, and your subcontract with the MC.
Cross-hiring hoists under CPA terms creates additional liability for the scaffolder.
14.1 Six CPA clauses to know
Tap each clause to see what it does to your liability.
14.2 Four solutions to the trap
- Avoid quoting for hoist supply: client orders direct
- Only supply hoists you own; no cross-hire
- Quote the hoist as a separate supply-only contract on CPA terms
- Ensure all call-out charges are notified and passed on
15. Site Logistics, Welfare, Attendances
Logistics is the part of scaffold management that everyone does but no one is taught. Site supervisors learn it by absorption. There is no contractual clause that says "plan the logistics properly." But every project that runs over time or over budget has a logistics failure underneath it somewhere. Seven decisions determine whether your scaffold package delivers to programme and to margin. None of them are optional. All of them are commercial.
15.1 Material call-off and delivery scheduling
Getting the right tube, fittings, boards, ladders, ties and beams to site at the right time without paying for double-handling or storage you don't have. Just-in-time versus bulk delivery is a trade-off, not a default. Yard-to-site sequencing matters. The MC's delivery window, typically a two-hour booked slot, is the single biggest constraint most scaffolders miss when pricing. The cost of failed deliveries is real: refused at gate, returned to yard, rebooked, charged twice. That cost destroys programme float invisibly. Build delivery windows into your method statement and price the slot constraint.
15.2 Lay-down, compound and storage
How much footprint you actually need, where on site, secured by whom, shared or dedicated. What happens when the MC moves your lay-down halfway through the job, and they will. Lay-down position is a contractual matter and should be agreed pre-contract and confirmed in writing. If it isn't, the MC can move you at will and your programme assumptions die with it. Get the location, the area, the security and the duration into the pre-let minutes. Anything less is an open invoice.
15.3 Hoist and lift allocation
Cross-reference to §12, Crane and Hoist Allocation. The planning-side point sits here: at pre-let, get the MC's lift schedule in writing and check it against what you priced. The execution-side point sits in §12. Tower cranes, mobile cranes, telehandlers and goods hoists are the most disputed shared resources on a major project. Plan for the gap between what was promised and what arrives.
15.4 Labour deployment and gang structure
Gang sizes matter. A four-man gang on a façade is not the same productivity as a four-man gang on a tube-and-fitting birdcage. Transport to site, accommodation when travelling, welfare provision, all priced or absorbed. Mobilisation and demobilisation sequences. Labour is the largest cost line and the most schedule-sensitive. Gang scheduling is logistics, not HR. Build your manning plan against the contract programme, not against an idealised yard plan, and check it weekly against actual.
15.5 Site access and working hours
Access routes for vehicles, pedestrian segregation, road closures, out-of-hours consent (London especially), Section 50/61 notices. Night working changes the cost stack: labour rates, supervision, lighting, deliveries, security. Permit-to-work systems consume hours of supervisor time that no one prices for. Build them in.
11 attendance items the customer should provide free, including hole-cutting, storage, welfare, 110V, task lighting, crane access and additional safety personnel. If the contract doesn't specify attendances, your quote should. Items the MC commonly forgets: welfare for your operatives, task lighting at the workface, secure overnight storage.
15.6 Interface management with other trades and the MC
Coordination meetings, look-aheads, hold points, sequencing with steel, M&E, fit-out. The two-week look-ahead is the standard tool. Treat it as a live contract record, not a wall poster. Where the scaffolder fits in the MC's logistics hierarchy matters. Being late to the logistics meeting costs more than being late to the progress meeting, because logistics meetings set the next two weeks of crane time, lay-down moves and delivery slots. Send the same supervisor every week. Read the minutes the day they arrive.
15.7 Dismantle and back-loading
The half of the job everyone forgets to plan. Dismantle sequence, scaffold left in place for follow-on trades, hoist availability for take-down (often gone by the time you need it), back-load to yard, materials reconciliation, returns to suppliers. Scaffold contracts routinely lose money on the dismantle even when they were profitable through the build. The fix is a dismantle plan, agreed at pre-let, with named lifting resources reserved for the take-down weeks. Without it, your gang is on site dropping tube by hand. That is the most expensive way to remove a scaffold.
Industry frameworks worth knowing
- CLOCS (Construction Logistics and Community Safety): the UK construction logistics framework, mandatory on most major sites
- FORS (Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme): vehicle, driver and operator standards; tier requirements flow down through subcontracts
- TfL Construction Logistics Plans: London projects specifically
- CDM 2015 Reg 13: principal contractor's logistics duties
16. Programme Tools
- Bar chart (Gantt), the minimum acceptable for any contract
- Critical Path Method (CPM), for projects with complex sequence dependencies
- Linked logic, predecessors, successors, lags
- Resource loading, labour and equipment by week
Cross-discipline guidance.
Templates and methodologies for programme prep, time-impact analysis and EOT claims.
Action Checklist
- Issue a written delay notice within the shortest contractual deadline for every delay event
- Maintain a daily site diary on every project from day one
- Confirm verbal acceleration instructions in writing before mobilising
- Maintain a separate dismantle-completion date in addition to erection-completion
- Build a standing time clause into your standard terms
- Request a written indemnity from the MC when holding a pavement licence on their behalf
- Pass on hoist call-out charges in writing
- Submit every scaffold programme showing the nine information items in §8 regardless of contract form
- Get the MC's lift schedule in writing at pre-let; check it against your priced lifting assumptions
- Diary booked lift slots and log every missed or cancelled slot with daywork sheets the same day
- Confirm lay-down position in writing pre-contract; flag any mid-job moves as a variation
- Build the seven logistics decisions in §15 into every tender review before pricing
Case Study: The Hospital Extension Delay
Five decisions, one per critical mechanism in this module. Three-month scaffolding contract on a hospital extension. You erect on programme. You drop the bottom lift but the rest stays up. Six weeks into the hire period the MC tells you the kitchen install is delayed by 6 weeks because the kitchen supplier has gone bust. You're not on site during the delay. The MC requests a 4-week extension to the dismantle date. No formal notice from anyone. You've also got a Manitou hoist on cross-hire under CPA terms, sitting idle.
Downloads
Programme and logistics templates. Coming soon.
Module 5 Quiz
10 questions. Pass mark is 80% (8 out of 10 correct).
Complete.
You know how completion dates and EOT clauses really work, how to build records that win delay claims, how to run a pre-let meeting and a standing time clause, and how to avoid the CPA cross-hire trap. Module 6 picks up HSE and legal obligations.
- Module 6: Managing HSE and Legal Obligations
- Module 7: Project Controls
- Module 8: Risk, Delays and Payment Rights
References
Harvard-style referencing applies throughout the course.
NASC Commercial Guidance
- NASC (2018) CG3:18 Programmes. London: National Access and Scaffolding Confederation.
- NASC (2018) CG1:18 Pavement Licences. London: National Access and Scaffolding Confederation.
- NASC (2019) CG5:19 Contractual Issues Relating to Hiring of Hoists. London: National Access and Scaffolding Confederation.
- NASC (2020) CG15:20 NEC3 Engineering and Construction Subcontract. London: National Access and Scaffolding Confederation.
- NASC (2019) CG12:19 Contract Clauses, §7 Attendances. London: National Access and Scaffolding Confederation.
Standard Forms of Contract
- Construction Industry Publications Ltd (2018) Scaffolding Contract 2018: Form of Contract for the Erection, Hire and Dismantling of Scaffolding. Birmingham: Construction Industry Publications Ltd.
- Joint Contracts Tribunal (2016) Standard Building Sub-Contract Conditions (SBCSub/C 2016). London: Sweet and Maxwell.
- NEC (2013) NEC3 Engineering and Construction Subcontract (ECS). London: Institution of Civil Engineers.
RICS
- RICS (Black Book current edn) Programming and Time Management. London: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
- RICS (Black Book current edn) Cost Reporting and Variations. London: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
- RICS (Black Book current edn) Conflict Avoidance and Dispute Resolution. London: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
CIOB
- Chartered Institute of Building (current edn) Guide to Good Practice in the Management of Time in Major Projects (TCM Protocol). Bracknell: CIOB.
- Chartered Institute of Building (current edn) Time and Cost Management Contract Suite. Bracknell: CIOB.
Industry Reports and Research
- Construction Products Association (2019) What causes delays and cost overruns on major infrastructure projects?. Available at: constructionproducts.org.uk.
- HKA (2024) CRUX Insight Eighth Annual Report: From Insight to Foresight. Available at: hka.com.
- UK National Audit Office (referenced via Construction Products Association, 2019) Major Projects Budget Overrun Analysis.
Legislation
- Highways Act 1980, c. 66. London: HMSO.
- New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, c. 22. London: HMSO.
- Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, c. 53. London: HMSO.
Case Law
- Walter Lilly & Co Ltd v Mackay [2012] EWHC 1773 (TCC).
- Rapid Building Group Ltd v Ealing Family Housing Association Ltd (1984) 29 BLR 5.