Site diary
The daily record of what happened on site: weather, labour and plant on site, progress, deliveries, visitors, instructions received, delays and incidents.
The site diary is the contemporaneous record that every claim, every dispute and every investigation reaches for. A good entry for each working day records the weather (and whether it stopped work), the labour by trade and the plant on site, the areas worked and the progress made, deliveries and their condition, visitors and inspections, verbal instructions received and from whom, anything that delayed the work and why, health and safety matters (toolbox talks, inspections, near misses, incidents), and photographs. It is written on the day, by the person running the site, and it is not edited later.
Its value is entirely in being contemporaneous and specific. "Rain, no work" is worth little; "rain from 09:40, roofing gang stood down 10:15 to 14:00, 12 man-hours lost, see photo" supports an extension of time. "Client's agent instructed change to door schedule" is worth nothing without the name, the time and what was said. Digital diaries with photographs, timestamps and locked entries have replaced the A4 book in most firms because they cannot be back-filled, which is exactly what makes them credible.
Where it comes from
- The building contract: notice provisions for delay, extension of time and variations rely on contemporaneous records.
- Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 reg.15: monitoring the work.
- Employment and safety records duties that the diary evidences (toolbox talks, inspections).
Questions people ask
Who keeps the site diary?
The site manager or supervisor running the site that day, and on a package basis, the subcontractor's supervisor for their own work. Both, ideally; they corroborate each other.
How long should diaries be kept?
For the life of the contract and the limitation period for claims under it (six years, twelve for a deed), and longer where an incident occurred. Digital storage makes this easy; A4 books in a skip make it impossible.
Site diary, handled on a phone
SiteLynx puts the RAMS, permits, inspections, audits, plant checks and records behind every term in this glossary on the crew's phones, signed on site, with a PDF at the end. 14 days free, no card.
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