How to Create a Construction Programme, Step by Step
The short answer
To create a construction programme, list every stage of the job, give each a realistic duration, link the stages that depend on each other, add material lead times and inspections, leave float before the finish date, then share it with the client and update it every week.
- A programme is a promise with dates. It tells the client, your site lead and every subbie what happens when.
- Seven steps: stages, durations, dependencies, lead times and inspections, float, baseline, weekly update.
- Start from the finish date and the long-lead items. A spreadsheet bar chart is enough for jobs under about £250K.
- Update it every Friday and send the client the changes with the reason.
Most small builders run jobs from a start date and a rough idea. The client asks "when will you finish?" and gets a guess. Then the windows are eight weeks out, the plasterer is booked elsewhere and the finish date slides one excuse at a time.
A construction programme fixes that. It is the schedule of the job: every stage, how long it takes, what depends on what and the key dates. Craftex writes a programme for every project it runs.
Here is how to create a construction programme in an afternoon, with a layout you can copy. Want us to look at how you plan your jobs? Book a free strategy call.
What a good construction programme does
- For the client: shows when each stage happens and when they must make decisions (tiles, kitchen, sanitaryware).
- For your site lead: shows what comes next and what must be ready for it.
- For your subbies: gives them dates they can book you in for, weeks ahead.
- For you: shows early when a job is slipping, while you can still act, and supports any claim for extra time.
If you run several jobs, the programme is the backbone of the routine in how to manage multiple building projects.
Step 1: List every stage of the job
Walk the job in order from site set-up to handover and write each stage as a line. Break big stages down until each line is something one trade or gang does. "First fix" becomes "first fix electrics" and "first fix plumbing".
Include the stages builders forget: skip and welfare set-up, client decisions, inspections, deliveries, drying times, cleaning, snagging and handover.
Step 2: Give each stage a realistic duration
Use your own past jobs, not hopes. Ask the subbie how long they need for this job, then check it against what happened last time. Count working days, and allow for drying and curing times (screed, plaster) that nobody can rush.
Step 3: Link the stages that depend on each other
Some stages cannot start until another finishes: no plastering before first fix, no kitchen fit before the floor. Note for every line which stage it waits for. The longest chain of dependent stages from start to finish is your critical path. Any delay on that chain delays the finish date. Stages off the critical path have some slack.
Step 4: Add lead times, inspections and client decisions
Work backwards from when each item is needed on site:
| Item | Put on the programme |
|---|---|
| Windows, doors, rooflights | Order date = needed date minus supplier lead time |
| Steels and structural items | Engineer's drawings, fabrication, delivery |
| Kitchen, bathroom ware, tiles | Client decision deadline, order date, delivery |
| Building control inspections | Each stage your building control body needs to see |
| Party wall, utilities, scaffold | Notices and bookings before work starts |
Long-lead items often decide the whole programme. Put them in the day the contract is signed, and give the client a written deadline for every decision.
Letting the client choose tiles and the kitchen "later". Late decisions are the most common cause of delay on residential jobs, and without a written deadline the delay is yours.
Step 5: Leave float before the finish date
Do not promise the client the date your perfect programme gives you. Leave a buffer before the completion date for weather, late deliveries and the unknowns you find when you open up walls. Show the client the completion date, keep the float as your own.
Want us to look at how you plan your jobs?
Book a free call and we'll go through a live programme with you.
Step 6: Draw it and save the baseline
A spreadsheet is enough for most jobs under about £250K. Use one row per stage and one column per working week (or day on short jobs):
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Stage | First fix electrics |
| Who | Subbie or gang name |
| Waits for | Studwork complete |
| Start | Date |
| Duration | Working days |
| Finish | Date (formula) |
| Weeks across | Shade the cells the stage runs in |
Mark milestones (structure complete, watertight, plastered, handover) and the critical path in a different colour. Save a copy as the baseline: the programme the client signed up to. Every future version is compared with it.
Step 7: Update it every Friday
Each Friday, mark actual progress, move the stages that are affected and check the completion date. Send the client the updated programme with their Friday update: done this week, next week, decisions needed and any change in dates with the reason. A programme nobody updates is decoration.
Example: a single-storey rear extension
Example only. Your durations depend on the job, the team and the site.
| Stage | Example duration | Waits for |
|---|---|---|
| Set-up, scaffold, welfare, skip | 2 days | Contract signed, notices served |
| Strip-out and excavation | 4 days | Set-up |
| Foundations and inspection | 4 days | Excavation |
| Drainage and inspection | 3 days | Foundations |
| Brickwork and blockwork to plate | 10 days | Foundations |
| Steels installed | 2 days | Engineer's drawings, delivery |
| Roof structure and covering | 6 days | Walls to plate, steels |
| Windows and doors | 2 days | Roof on, supplier lead time |
| First fix electrics and plumbing | 5 days | Watertight |
| Plastering and drying | 8 days | First fix |
| Floor screed and drying | 3 days plus drying | First fix |
| Kitchen fit | 5 days | Screed dry, client choices made |
| Second fix and decoration | 8 days | Plaster dry, kitchen in |
| Snagging, clean and handover | 3 days | All trades complete |
Some of these run in parallel; the bar chart shows which.
Help putting it into practice
Programmes are one part of running jobs without you on site. Sviat Jay runs Craftex, a London design and build company, and mentors owners one-to-one himself. He starts where your business leaks most, whether that is planning, pricing or sales.
The flagship is one-to-one, by application; smaller firms start in small groups (max 10–20) with regular one-to-ones. Built for results in about 4 months, not 1–3 years. To start with your jobs, book a free strategy call.
Take the 4-minute Construction Business Scorecard to see which system to fix first. Need programmes produced for a tender? Our estimating and pre-construction service covers them.
Ready to run jobs on a programme, not on hope?
Book your business assessment.
Write your programme this week
- List every stage of your next job, including inspections and decisions
- Ask each subbie for their duration and check it against your last job
- Put every long-lead item in with an order date
- Leave float before the date you tell the client
- Book Friday 30 minutes to update it
