In this guide 6 sections
A good site diary records the same ten things daily. They are weather, labour by trade, equipment, work done by location, deliveries, instructions received, visitors, delays, safety events and photos tied to drawings. Keep it to one page. Sign it before leaving.
Why a daily record earns its time
Months later, a claim for extra time or a quarrel about who ordered a change will rest on what was written that day. Memory is a poor witness. A dated entry made at 5 pm is a good one.
The diary also helps tomorrow. The next morning’s plan starts from yesterday’s entry: which gang finished the shuttering, which pour is booked, which delivery never arrived.
Record people, plant and weather
List labour by trade and by employer: mason, bar bender, carpenter, electrician, with the contractor’s name beside each count. Add supervisors and staff separately. Headcounts by trade explain productivity far better than a total.
Note equipment on site and whether it worked: tower crane, concrete pump, excavator, scaffold sets. Idle plant is a cost, and breakdowns are evidence. Record weather in plain terms, such as rain from noon to three, wind stopped the crane.
- Labour by trade, with contractor name
- Supervisors and visiting staff
- Equipment present, working or idle
- Rainfall, wind or heat that stopped work
- Hours lost and the reason
Describe work by location, not by activity alone
Write where the work happened: block B, third floor slab, grid 4 to 7. “Slab reinforcement continued” says little. “Third floor slab, grids 4 to 7, bottom mat tied, top mat not started” says exactly where things stand.
Add quantities when you can: cubic metres poured, wall area plastered, trench length excavated. Numbers let the project manager compare against plan and spot slippage in days, not weeks.
Capture deliveries, instructions and visitors
Log each delivery with supplier, material, delivery note number, quantity and whether it was accepted, rejected or short. A rejected cement load noted that day is a strong position in any dispute.
Instructions deserve a separate block. Write who gave the instruction, to whom, in what form (verbal, drawing revision, email) and which drawing it affects. Verbal instructions that are not written down are the origin of most variation arguments.
- Supplier, material, delivery note number, quantity
- Accepted, rejected or short, with reason
- Instruction giver, receiver and form
- Drawing number and revision affected
- Inspectors, consultants and client visits
Tie photos to drawings and close the day
Photos only help if you can place them. Name each by drawing number and grid or room, and include something for scale. Ten tagged photos beat a hundred from the camera roll.
Finish with delays, safety events and tomorrow’s plan. The site engineer signs, the project manager reviews next morning. If entries are typed on a phone in the evening, they stay accurate and searchable.
Daily site diary form
A one-page form in six blocks. Block one holds date, weather and hours lost. Block two holds labour and equipment tables. Block three lists work by location with quantities, and block four lists deliveries. Block five covers instructions and visitors. Block six holds photo references, safety notes, tomorrow’s plan and two signatures.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Who should write the site diary?
The site engineer or section engineer, every working day. The project manager reviews it. Delegating it to a clerk usually removes the detail that makes it useful.
How long should an entry take?
About fifteen minutes with a fixed form. If it takes longer, the form has too many fields or entries are being reconstructed from memory at week end.
Are paper diaries acceptable?
They can be, but they are hard to search and easy to lose. A digital form with photo upload keeps the date stamp and lets head office read it the same evening.
What if nothing happened on site?
Record that too, with the reason: rain, strike, awaiting drawings or material. Days of no work with reasons are exactly what an extension-of-time claim needs.