Daily site diary
A full day on a UK housing site — progress by plot, delays with their cause, automatic weather capture and inspection records, all timestamped.
Sample data from Willow Grange, a fictional 48-plot development in Nantwich, Cheshire. Nothing here is editable — create a free account to run your own site.
Tuesday 11 August 2026
Light rain, gusting 34 mph · 14°C
Crane wind warning — gusts above 32 mph recorded between 11:20 and 13:40.
- 07:10
Morning briefing
H&SSite wide14 operatives on site across 4 trades. Toolbox talk covered scaffold edge protection after yesterday's inspection.
- 08:45
Roof tiling started
ProgressPlot 05Crestline Roofing began tiling to the rear elevation. Battens checked at 345 mm gauge before loading out.
- 10:20
Delay logged — materials
DelayPlot 03Plasterboard delivery short by 42 sheets. Drylining gang stood down for the afternoon. Supplier confirmed redelivery Thursday.
- 11:35
Weather delay recorded
WeatherSite wideCrane lifts suspended for 2h 20m due to wind gusts exceeding the 32 mph limit. Logged automatically against the programme.
- 13:05
Pre-completion walk
InspectionPlot 01Full internal walk completed with the finishing foreman. 11 snags raised, all photographed and issued to the relevant trades.
- 14:50
Foundation pour complete
ProgressPlot 08Trench fill to plots 08 and 09 poured — 26 m³ C25/30. Depths and reinforcement photographed before the pour for NHBC records.
- 16:30
Cavity tray inspection
QualityPlot 06Cavity trays and weep vents checked above ground floor openings. Two corrections issued to Ridgeway Brickwork.
What a good construction site diary looks like
Most site diaries fail in the same way: they record what happened but not why, and they record it days late. A diary written on Friday about Tuesday is a recollection, not evidence. Under both JCT and NEC contracts the contemporaneous record is what carries weight, which is why the entries above each carry a time and a plot reference.
The six things worth logging every day
Labour and plant on site, so productivity can be reconstructed. Progress by plot, tied to the programme stage rather than described loosely. Deliveries, including short and rejected ones — the plasterboard entry above is exactly the kind of detail that later explains a two-week slip. Weather, captured automatically. Inspections and instructions, with who attended. And anything health and safety related, because that record is the first thing requested after an incident.
Weather delays: the entry that pays for itself
In the example above, crane lifts were suspended for two hours and twenty minutes with gusts over the 32 mph limit. ProPlot records the hourly wind data for the site postcode alongside the entry, so the delay is backed by a source rather than a site manager’s memory. Across a winter, unrecorded weather days are routinely the largest unclaimed cause of programme slip on UK sites.
Why the diary belongs with the programme
A diary in a notebook, photos on a phone and a programme in Excel are three records of the same day that never quite agree. Keeping them against the same plot means marking a stage behind can require the reason and the photograph at the moment it happens, and the export that goes to the board is assembled from the same source the site manager was already updating.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a site diary a legal requirement in the UK?
- There is no single statute requiring one, but a contemporaneous daily record is the evidence that decides delay and extension-of-time claims under JCT and NEC contracts, and it is routinely requested by warranty providers and insurers. In practice it is the cheapest insurance on site.
- What should go in a daily site diary?
- Labour on site by trade, plant, deliveries, weather, work completed by plot, delays with their cause, instructions received, visitors and inspections, and any health and safety matter. The test is whether a stranger reading it in two years could reconstruct the day.
- How is the weather recorded automatically?
- ProPlot pulls hourly conditions for the site postcode and attaches them to the day, so wind, rain and temperature are on the record without anyone typing them. Gusts above the crane limit raise a warning and can be logged as a delay against the affected stages.
- Can I write the diary offline?
- Yes. Entries, photos and delay records are captured on the device and sync when signal returns. That matters because the moments worth recording — a pour, a failed inspection, a stood-down gang — happen out on the plots, not next to the office router.
- Can I export the diary?
- The full history exports to Excel or PDF for any date range, including photos and GPS references. That export is what gets attached to a delay notification or handed to a contracts manager preparing a claim.
Run this on your own site — free
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