Dayworks: when they apply and what the sheet must show

Only when the work cannot properly be valued by measurement. The contract sets an order and dayworks sit at the bottom of it.

1. 01Contract rates, where the character and conditions are the same.
2. 02Contract rates adjusted, where the work is similar but the conditions or quantity differ.
3. 03Fair rates and prices, where nothing in the contract is comparable.
4. 04Dayworks, where the work cannot properly be measured at all.

Typical genuine cases: opening up to investigate an unknown, chasing an unmapped service, attendance on somebody else’s trade, or works so fragmented that measurement would cost more than the work.

Difficult to measure is not the same as impossible to measure. A quantity surveyor will reprice on rates whenever measurement was available, and the daywork sheets then become supporting evidence rather than the claim.

• Date and location. The day, and where on the site.
• The instruction it relates to. Reference number, and who gave it.
• Operatives by name and trade. Not "3 men". Named, with their trade and hours, split between normal and overtime.
• Plant. Item, hours on the work, and whether it was standing or working.
• Materials. Quantities and description, with invoices to follow.
• A description of the work done. Enough that somebody who was not there understands it.
• Signature of the employer’s representative. With the date signed.

NoteA signature confirms the resources were on site as recorded. It is not agreement that the work is properly valued as daywork, and most sheets say so in the wording above the signature line.

The prime cost is the actual cost of labour, plant and materials. Percentages are then added for incidental costs, overheads and profit, and they are tendered rather than fixed.

The labour addition looks large and is not generous. The RICS and BCIS definition builds an all-in hourly rate covering employer’s NI, holiday, pension, sick pay, training and severance, and the percentage on top covers supervision, small tools, consumables, overheads and profit.

1. 01The work could have been measured. The most common reason, and the hardest to answer after the fact.
2. 02Sheets were submitted late. Many contracts require submission within days, and some make it a condition.
3. 03No signature. Or a signature from somebody without authority.
4. 04Names missing. "4 labourers" cannot be checked against site records; four named people can.
5. 05Hours that do not reconcile. Against the site attendance record, the gate log or the timesheets.
6. 06No instruction referenced. Work nobody instructed is work nobody has to pay for.

Points four and five are worth pairing. Where site attendance is recorded, hours on a daywork sheet can be checked against who was actually on site that day, and a sheet that reconciles is very hard to argue with.