The order of work is set by what gets covered up

Before anything is brokenpaper first

Commencement is a legal event as much as a physical one, and it can be triggered by a trial pit as easily as by a digger. Before it happens the discharge decisions are in hand, building control is engaged on a full plans application or an initial notice, liability for the infrastructure levy has been assumed in writing and the commencement notice served. Serving a commencement notice late, or not at all, carries consequences that no amount of good building work undoes.

The appointments are made and recorded at the same time. A principal designer and a principal contractor are appointed in writing where the project calls for them, and the construction phase plan exists before the site opens rather than after the first delivery.

Below groundpoints 2, 3, 6

Set-up and hoarding come first, then demolition and clearance, then the ground investigation and whatever remediation it calls for. Excavation is inspected before concrete goes in and the foundation concrete is inspected before it is built off. Drainage is laid, inspected and tested before it is covered, and where a public sewer runs near the works the build-over agreement with the water authority is settled first rather than negotiated around an open trench.

Substructure then rises to the damp-proof course, with the oversite inspected before the slab is laid and the damp-proof course inspected before the wall goes over it.

Above grounddry trades

Superstructure, roof and openings make the building watertight. First fix follows: the carcassing, the pipework and the cabling that will be inside the wall. Insulation and the air-tightness line are checked before they are closed, then plaster, then second fix, then the finishes. External works and the drainage connections are completed alongside, and the services are commissioned and tested rather than merely connected.

Handovercertificate

Practical completion is recorded, the snagging list is worked and signed off, the defects period runs and retention is released against it. The as-built information, the manuals, the test certificates and the warranties are collected into one file at handover, because that file is what the letting stage, a surveyor or a lender will ask for and reassembling it later is slow and incomplete.

Points at which building control is notified

No.	Point	Before
1	Commencement	Any work on site begins
2	Excavation	Concrete is placed in the trench
3	Foundation concrete	The substructure is built off it
4	Oversite	The slab is laid over it
5	Damp-proof course	The wall rises over it
6	Drains, laid and on test	They are backfilled

A final inspection and the completion certificate follow the last of these. Correspondence about works in progress goes to acquisitions@haixor.space or to the registered office, which is an address for service and not a delivery point.