Episode 164 of The Subcontractors Blueprint sees Jacob Austin explain the obligation to proceed regularly and diligently, and what it does not require of you. Running late because the trade in front of you ran late is not a failure to proceed diligently, and a main contractor cannot shorten your period by reissuing his programme. Jacob covers where the obligation genuinely bites, why constructive acceleration rarely succeeds under English law, the narrow route that has worked, and the paragraph to send when somebody at a site meeting asks you to put more men on it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
What regularly and diligently actually measures, and why being late is not the same as being in breach.

When a reissued main contractor programme becomes your obligation, and the one paragraph that stops it.

Why the cost of speeding up without an instruction is close to unrecoverable.

The four things a successful acceleration claim has needed, and the one nobody ever does.

Why cutting your gang back in protest hands the contractor a claim against you.

How ninety minutes of correspondence protects a five-figure sum.

BEST BITS

"Money that you spend speeding up when nobody's specifically instructed you to speed up is really hard to recover."
"Lateness caused by somebody else's delay is not a failure to proceed diligently."
"A main contractor cannot unilaterally shorten your programme by redrawing the bar chart."
"Being helpful without covering your back is going to cost you money."
"Whether a notice goes down like a lead balloon or whether it's received like a helpful piece of advice is all in the wording."
"That single habit could save you a fortune."

HOST BIO
Jacob Austin is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor with over a decade of experience in UK construction, having worked across education, health, and residential developments from £1,000s to over £300m of concurrent projects with some of the industry's leading contractors. Through The Subcontractors Blueprint podcast and The Subcontractors Blueprint Academy, he's on a mission to give the UK's 1 million SME subcontractors the commercial knowledge they need to protect their margins, manage risk, and build stronger businesses. His approach is direct, practical, and grounded in real contract experience — no theory, no fluff.

LinkedIn — www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-austin/
Instagram — www.instagram.com/subcontractorsblueprint/
www.subcontractorsblueprint.uk/all-links

Episode 163 of The Subcontractors Blueprint sees Jacob Austin take apart the daywork sheet, starting with the six words printed beside the site manager's signature. For record purposes only is not the insult subcontractors take it for. It is an accurate description of the only thing he can verify, which is who was there and for how long. Jacob works through where daywork sits in the valuation hierarchy, the percentage additions nobody revisits after tender stage, the six places subcontractors lose credibility, and how to build a record set that a quantity surveyor cannot pick apart.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

What a site manager can honestly sign, and the two arguments his signature never touches.

Where daywork sits in the valuation rules, and why a surveyor pushing for measurement is applying the contract rather than being difficult.

The percentage additions you inherited years ago, and what they actually need to cover.

Why eight hours written down every line of a sheet costs you the credibility of the whole file.

What to do with a sheet that comes back unsigned, or never comes back at all.

Why recording the days you did not work on dayworks makes the days you did far more believable.

BEST BITS

"Daywork is not a way of working. It's a way of valuing the work."

"A daywork sheet was never the whole claim."

"The signature isn't the claim, but it's a demonstration that there's an approved record."

"Record, actually, what happened to the nearest half an hour."

"Every sheet needs a description, at least a sentence."

"Find and eliminate duplications before the QS does."

HOST BIO

Jacob Austin is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor with over a decade of experience in UK construction, having worked across education, health, and residential developments from £1,000s to over £300m of concurrent projects with some of the industry's leading contractors. Through The Subcontractors Blueprint podcast and The Subcontractors Blueprint Academy, he's on a mission to give the UK's 1 million SME subcontractors the commercial knowledge they need to protect their margins, manage risk, and build stronger businesses. His approach is direct, practical, and grounded in real contract experience — no theory, no fluff.

LinkedIn — www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-austin/
Instagram — www.instagram.com/subcontractorsblueprint/
www.subcontractorsblueprint.uk/all-links

Episode 162 of The Subcontractors Blueprint sees Jacob Austin deal with verbal instructions, and what to do when you are told to move something on site and nothing ever arrives in writing. Standard form subcontracts require instructions in writing, but they also provide a route when one is given face to face. You confirm it yourself, and if the contractor does not dissent within the stated period, it takes effect as an instruction anyway. Jacob covers who actually has the authority to instruct you, the six ways subcontractors lose that protection, and the four minute email that turns a site conversation into a valuation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Why the contractor's silence, rather than his signature, is what makes a verbal instruction stick.

Who on site can actually instruct you, and why the engineer who designed the change cannot.

What to put in the email so it is still worth something nine months later.

Why confirming work that was always in your scope gets you nothing at all.

Why a contractor who does dissent has done you a favour.

The six ways a confirmation fails, starting with sending it to the wrong person.

BEST BITS

"Nobody's memory is any good nine months later, including yours."

"You need to be specific, almost to the point of being boring about it."

"You're not building a case against a site manager that you like."

"A confirmation doesn't have to read like it's a big contractual argument or a warning shot."

"It's no longer an argument over somebody's memory. It's a pure valuation exercise."

"It's four minutes on a Tuesday afternoon."

HOST BIO

Jacob Austin is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor with over a decade of experience in UK construction, having worked across education, health, and residential developments from £1,000s to over £300m of concurrent projects with some of the industry's leading contractors. Through The Subcontractors Blueprint podcast and The Subcontractors Blueprint Academy, he's on a mission to give the UK's 1 million SME subcontractors the commercial knowledge they need to protect their margins, manage risk, and build stronger businesses. His approach is direct, practical, and grounded in real contract experience — no theory, no fluff.

LinkedIn — www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-austin/
Instagram — www.instagram.com/subcontractorsblueprint/
www.subcontractorsblueprint.uk/all-links