The order the work runs in

Why the order holds

Most of the sequence on a building job is not a preference. It is there because one piece of work is physically buried by the next, or because something has to be seen before it disappears, or because a material needs time it will not give up. Those three reasons account for nearly every joint in a domestic programme.

That is worth saying plainly, because the commonest request on a live job is to bring something forward. Sometimes we can, and when we can it is because the two pieces of work never touch. When we cannot, it is not caution: the work simply cannot be done twice, and doing it early means doing it again.

Durations are a separate matter and they belong to a programme written for one plot. Ground conditions, the weather in the month concerned, the warrant conditions and which trades are free that week all move them. Nothing on this page is a duration and nothing on it is a date.

Below ground

Setting out comes first because everything else is measured from it. The boundary and the datum are fixed, profiles go up clear of the dig, ranging lines are strung, and the corners are squared by diagonal measurement. We re-check all of it after tracked plant has been on the ground, because plant moves pegs and a peg that moved is a house that is out.

Excavation follows the trench lines down to whatever depth the ground gives. Building standards see the trench open. Not until that visit is made does concrete go in, and after the pour the substructure blockwork rises to damp-proof course level.

Drainage runs go in alongside that blockwork. They share the same excavation and the same week, and both have to be finished before the oversite can close. A trench is not backfilled until the run in it has been tested.

Above ground

The shell rises in the order the loads travel. External walls go up in blockwork with the cavity kept clean, and every wall tie, cavity tray, closer and lintel is set as the courses reach it, because none of them can be threaded in afterwards.

Floor joists are hung, strutted and decked, and the deck is protected as soon as it is down. The roof is cut on site or craned in as trusses, then braced, felted, battened and covered.

Windows and external doors go in while the roof is being covered. That is the second genuine overlap on a domestic job: the openings are formed, the lintels are bedded, and the scaffold that the roofer is working from is the same scaffold the glazier needs.

Wind-and-watertight, the hinge in the middle

Wind-and-watertight is the point the whole programme turns on, and it is a narrower milestone than it sounds. It means the roof covering is on, the windows and external doors are fitted, and the building is closed to the weather. It does not mean the outside is finished: verges, rainwater goods, harling and external works can all still be outstanding on that day.

What it changes is who controls the sequence. Before it, the weather does. After it, we do. The structure starts drying out, first fix can run inside while it dries, and for the first time the order of work indoors is ours to arrange rather than the week's rainfall.

1. What it settlesThe building is closed. Internal trades can start, and the drying out that everything after it depends on begins.
2. What it does not settleHarling, rainwater goods, paths, driveway and the finishing of the external envelope, all of which run on afterwards.
3. Why it is the date to watchEvery indoor stage is measured from it, so a week lost before it is a week lost everywhere after it.

Indoors

First fix is everything that has to be buried before the walls close over it: soil stacks, hot and cold services, heating pipework and the electrical carcass. Notches and holes through joists are cut where they are permitted and nowhere else, and the runs are agreed between trades before anybody drills.

Insulation goes between and over, the vapour control layer is lapped and taped where it has to stay continuous, then plasterboard and skim. Not until the plaster has dried out in its own time do we run the heating up to temperature. Forcing it opens cracks that then have to be made good twice, which costs more than the week it saved.

Second fix begins on dry, sound walls: doors hung, skirtings and facings scribed, sanitaryware, radiators and the consumer unit connected and tested, and the kitchen fitted as a set piece with worktops templated only once the units are level and fixed down.

Completion

Decoration follows the joiner through the house, and the last coat waits until every trade that could mark it has finished and left. Floor coverings go down last of all. Outside, harling, paths and the driveway are taken forward while the inside is being decorated, so the two runs of work do not queue behind each other.

The final inspection is booked once the drainage tests, the electrical certification and the commissioning paperwork are in hand. Snagging is walked with the client, written into one list, and worked through in a single pass by the trades concerned rather than in a trickle.

Keys, warranties, the operating and maintenance information and the as-built drawings are handed over together. Anything that appears afterwards is dealt with under the defects arrangement in the contract. Questions about any of it go to works@livingstonpark.live.