If you are managing your own build, you are running a construction site. Not a slightly ambitious DIY project. That distinction matters, because the duties that come with a construction site are real, they sit with you, and they do not depend on whether you think of yourself as a builder.
The good news is that a site run properly is also a site that runs faster, suffers fewer losses and gives you a much better position if anything is ever questioned.
Your duties as the client
Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, the client on a project has duties, and those regulations apply to domestic projects too. In broad terms you are expected to make suitable arrangements for managing the project, to allow adequate time and resource, and to make sure the right appointments are in place for planning and coordinating health and safety.
Where no principal designer or principal contractor is appointed, those duties can fall back on you. Make the appointments, make them in writing, and keep a copy.
Setting the site up
Most of the value here is in the first week.
- Define the boundary. Hoarding or fencing, with a single controlled access point. It keeps the public out and makes theft harder.
- Put up signage. Site rules, PPE requirements, emergency contact, no unauthorised access.
- Sort welfare. Toilets, somewhere to wash, somewhere dry to take a break. It is a requirement, and it visibly changes how trades treat the job.
- Plan storage. Materials out of the weather, high-value items locked away, nothing stacked where it blocks an escape route.
- Think about deliveries. Where the lorry stops, who takes the delivery, how it gets moved. Delivery days are when most damage and most disputes happen.
- Keep a first aid kit and a fire extinguisher, and make sure people know where they are.
Managing trades and subcontractors
This is where self-managed projects most often slip.
- Check their insurance before they start, and keep a copy of the certificate with its expiry date. Their public liability covers their liability, not yours, which is exactly why you need your own cover too.
- Ask for method statements and risk assessments for anything significant. Scaffolding, structural openings, roof work, excavation, hot works.
- Check competence. Cards, qualifications, memberships, and for notifiable work the appropriate registration.
- Induct everyone, even briefly. Where the boundaries are, where welfare is, what the emergency arrangements are, who is in charge today.
- Coordinate who is on site when. Two trades working above and below each other is a predictable way to hurt someone.
- Be clear about hot works. Set a cut-off time well before the end of the day and check the area afterwards. A large share of serious site fires start with hot works late in the afternoon.
The phases that need most attention
- Forming structural openings. Cutting into an existing wall is one of the most dangerous moments on any extension or renovation. Temporary support must be designed, not improvised.
- Excavation. Collapse, services, and the effect on neighbouring foundations. If you are near a boundary, read up on your responsibilities to the adjoining property first.
- Working at height. Scaffold erected and inspected by someone competent, with records of those inspections.
- The weathertight gap. Between roof structure and roof covering, a storm can do a great deal of damage very quickly.
Record keeping that protects you
Keep it simple and keep it off site.
- A site diary. Who attended, what was done, weather, deliveries, anything unusual.
- Photographs at the end of each stage, especially anything about to be covered up.
- Contractor insurance certificates, qualifications, method statements.
- Scaffold and plant inspection records.
- Delivery notes, invoices and receipts.
- Building control correspondence and sign-offs.
This file is worth real money twice over: once if you ever need to make a claim, and again years later if the quality of the work is questioned under the longer liability periods introduced by the Building Safety Act 2022.
Security and theft
Building sites are targets, and materials and plant are easy to move on.
- Time deliveries so expensive items are not sitting on site over a weekend.
- Lock plant and tools away, and mark them.
- Lighting and a visible camera are cheap deterrents.
- Keep an inventory with serial numbers, so a theft claim is evidenced rather than estimated.
Where insurance fits
Good site management reduces the chance of a loss. It does not remove it, and it does nothing about the losses outside your control. Site insurance covers loss or damage including fire, theft, storm damage, public liability, plant tools and equipment, and where there is an existing structure it covers that too.
If you are about to start on site and want to check your cover matches how the project is actually being run, call the team on 0333 456 8030 or get a quote online.
