Evidencing delay, disruption and instructions

Cause and effect, or it didn’t happen

The weakness in most delay evidence isn’t that nothing was written down. It’s that facts and consequences were recorded separately, if at all. A diary that says “no access to Zone 2” on one page and shows a quiet labour return on another leaves the connection to be argued. A proper delay record makes the connection on the day: this event, caused by this party, stopped these resources for these hours and displaced this work. Cause tied to effect, once, at the time.

A complete delay record captures:

• What happened, in factual language
• When it started and ended (or "ongoing"), with clock times
• The cause, and the party responsible for it
• The labour and plant affected: named, with hours
• What work was displaced or resequenced as a result
• Photos or documents that show the condition or the obstruction
• Who on the client team was told, when, and their response

Disruption: the harder loss to prove

Disruption claims fail more often than delay claims because the loss is diffuse: everything got done, just less efficiently. The evidence that works is productivity data: planned versus achieved output for the affected work, recorded consistently. If your diary captures quantities achieved against activities every day (metres laid, units fixed), you automatically build the baseline and the dip: the same gang achieving 40m a day in clear areas and 15m a day while working around another trade is an argument made of records rather than adjectives.

The instruction register

Instructions (especially verbal ones) deserve their own register rather than a mention in the diary narrative, because at final account you will need them as a list, not as prose scattered across months. For each instruction, capture:

• Date and time received
• Who gave it, and in what form: verbal, email, drawing revision, formal instruction
• What was instructed, quoted or summarised precisely
• Any reference number or document it relates to
• Whether it changes scope, sequence, or cost: your on-the-day view
• Confirmation status: confirmed back in writing, awaiting formal instruction, disputed

Records are necessary; notices make them count

Keep the two jobs distinct in your head. Records prove what happened. Notices (served in the form and time your contract requires) preserve the entitlement to be paid for it. The most common expensive failure on subcontract work is having one without the other: immaculate records with a time-barred claim, or a valid notice supported by nothing. The daily habit that protects you is simple: record the event the day it occurs, tell the client’s team the same day in a form they must respond to, and check the notice clock before the week ends.

Related reading: the complete guide to site diaries and recording standing time.