A practical guide to preliminaries in construction

What are preliminaries in construction?

Preliminaries are the part of the tender and contract information that describes the project as a whole and sets out the general requirements for carrying out the works. They deal with matters that apply across the project rather than to one particular trade or element.

Most people in practice simply call them prelims. The shorter name is harmless. Treating the document as a minor formality is not.

They also allow the contractor to price the resources and arrangements needed to deliver the works which do not become part of the finished building. Typical examples include site management, welfare, temporary services, security, protection, scaffolding used generally across the project, cleaning and site records.

This is why the word can mean two related things:

1. The written preliminaries, meaning the project information and requirements issued to tenderers.
2. The contractor’s preliminaries, meaning the costs attached to managing, servicing and supporting the works.

The distinction matters. The written requirements tell the contractor what must be allowed for. The pricing schedule gives the contractor somewhere sensible to show the resulting cost.

RICS NRM 2 reflects this by dividing preliminaries into information and requirements, followed by a pricing schedule. LexisNexis similarly describes preliminaries as items necessary to complete the works which do not usually become part of the finished works, together with a summary of contractual requirements and services.

Why do preliminaries matter?

The physical work is only part of what a contractor prices. The manner and circumstances of carrying it out can be just as important.

Replacing a roof on an empty building with unrestricted access is not the same proposition as replacing the same roof above an occupied school. Repointing an isolated elevation is different from repointing above a busy public entrance. Refurbishing an empty office is not the same as working one floor at a time while the client continues to operate below.

The measured work may be similar, but the access, protection, supervision, phasing and temporary arrangements can be entirely different. If those differences are not stated, each tenderer will make their own assumptions. The prices may look comparable, but they will not be based on the same obligations.

Good preliminaries help to:

• explain the project and the site clearly;
• define responsibilities and interfaces;
• identify restrictions affecting method or programme;
• make project wide requirements visible and priceable;
• reduce avoidable tender queries;
• support comparison of tenders on a common basis;
• provide clear requirements for managing and completing the works; and
• reduce arguments about what the contractor was expected to provide.

They are not background reading. They influence the price, programme and management of the job.

Are preliminaries part of the contract?

They can be, and commonly are, but the answer depends on the procurement route and the documents incorporated into the particular contract.

Under a traditional procurement arrangement, preliminaries may appear at the front of the bills of quantities or form a separate document within the tender package. Once the contract is executed, their contractual status depends on the agreement, the list of contract documents and any stated order of precedence.

The title on the cover is not enough. If a requirement is intended to bind the contractor, the document must be properly incorporated and coordinated with the contract conditions, specification, drawings, schedules and other contract information.

Preliminaries should not casually amend a standard form of contract. Changes to the contract conditions should be made through the proper contractual mechanism and checked by someone competent to advise on them. Hiding an amendment in the middle of a preliminaries clause is poor document control and a reliable way to create ambiguity.

What should preliminaries contain?

There is no single correct length or contents list. A modest repair project may need a concise document. A phased refurbishment in an occupied building may need considerably more detail. The test is not page count. The test is whether a competent contractor can understand the project wide obligations and price them without inventing missing information.

Project particulars

State the project title and address, identify the client and professional team, and explain who will administer the contract. Check that names, roles and contact details agree with the other tender documents.

The site and existing building

Describe the site, access points, boundaries, adjoining property, existing occupation and known constraints. Identify the information available on existing services, asbestos, structure and other relevant conditions, without pretending that reports provide certainty beyond their stated scope.

Description and extent of the works

Give a short, accurate overview so the contractor understands the project as a whole. The detailed work belongs in the drawings, schedules and specification. The preliminaries should orientate the reader, not become a second and potentially conflicting scope of works.

Access, occupation and phasing

State restrictions on working hours, deliveries, parking, storage, noisy work, shutdowns and access through occupied areas. Explain any required phases, sectional completion arrangements, decant periods or areas that must remain operational.

For work in schools, healthcare premises, housing and public buildings, generic phrases such as “minimise disruption” are rarely enough. State the known restrictions and the outcome that must be maintained.

Contract and document requirements

Identify the proposed form of contract, relevant particulars, the documents forming the tender package and how information is to be used. Tender submission instructions should normally sit in separate conditions of tender because they govern the tender process rather than performance of the eventual contract. RICS NRM 2 makes this distinction expressly.

Contractor design and submissions

Identify any elements for which the contractor is to take design responsibility. State the required design information, evidence of competence, calculations, drawings, coordination, review periods and final records. Do not transfer design responsibility through vague wording such as “contractor to complete all necessary design.”

Programme, management and communication

Set out requirements for the master programme, short term planning, progress reporting, meetings, notices, site supervision and coordination. Ask only for information that the project team will genuinely use. A requirement for an elaborate monthly report on a four week project benefits nobody.

Quality, samples, inspections and testing

Define the project wide procedures for submissions, samples, benchmarks, inspections, testing and records. The technical acceptance criteria should remain in the relevant work sections, with the preliminaries setting out the common process and responsibilities.

Health and safety information

Coordinate the preliminaries with the pre construction information and the duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. The documents should make known constraints and client requirements clear, but they should not attempt to write the contractor’s construction phase plan or dictate every working method.

The Health and Safety Executive stresses that information available at tender stage should allow time and resources for health and safety risks to be properly priced and planned. That is a useful test for the tender package as a whole.

Site establishment and temporary arrangements

State any requirements affecting hoardings, welfare, offices, temporary water and power, security, temporary access, scaffolding, lifting, storage, waste facilities and temporary protection. Make clear what the client will provide, what the contractor must provide and any limits on location or use.

Protection, cleanliness and environmental controls

Describe the required protection of retained buildings, finishes, occupants, neighbours, roads and landscape. Address dust, noise, vibration, water, mud, waste, pollution and cleaning where relevant. “Protect as necessary” merely hands the important decisions to the tenderer.

Completion and handover

State the requirements for commissioning, demonstrations, training, operating and maintenance information, as built records, keys, spares, cleaning, making good, removal of temporary works and handover. Set realistic submission dates which allow the information to be reviewed before completion, not assembled hurriedly afterwards.

Pricing schedule

Provide a clear place for the contractor to price the preliminaries and return a useful breakdown. Without this, a single lump sum tells the tender assessor very little about what has been allowed for.

What preliminaries are not

Preliminaries sit alongside several other documents and are often confused with them.

There will be interfaces between these documents, but duplication should be controlled. Copying the same requirement into three places does not make it three times stronger. It gives it three opportunities to become inconsistent.

How should preliminaries be priced?

Contractors price preliminaries in different ways depending on the project and their own estimating system. The tender documents should nevertheless make the required allowances visible and allow sensible comparison.

RICS NRM 2 provides for a detailed pricing schedule and distinguishes between fixed charges and time related charges.

Fixed charges are costs which do not vary directly with the duration of the works. Mobilising to site, erecting a hoarding or bringing in and later removing a particular item of plant may include fixed elements.

Time related charges continue for as long as the relevant resource or arrangement is required. Site management, welfare hire, security, temporary services and some plant costs may fall into this category.

Some items contain both. A temporary site cabin may have delivery and removal costs as well as a weekly hire charge. A clear breakdown makes that visible.

A single percentage allowance for preliminaries can be useful during early cost planning, but it is a poor substitute for a project specific tender breakdown. The problem is not that a percentage is always wrong. The problem is that it hides the assumptions. Two projects with the same measured work value can have very different access, programme, security and management requirements.

At tender stage, ask the contractor to identify the principal allowances and state how unpriced items are to be treated. A blank entry should not be left to interpretation. The tender instructions can require it to be marked as included elsewhere, no charge or not applicable.

If delay or disruption occurs, the contractor’s tendered preliminaries breakdown may become relevant when assessing cost. It does not, by itself, establish entitlement to payment. That depends on the contract, the cause of delay, the relevant notices and the applicable valuation provisions.

An example of the difference clear wording makes

Consider this familiar requirement:

Allow for maintaining access and minimising disruption to the school.

It sounds reasonable, but it leaves nearly everything undecided. Which access? For whom? During what hours? Can deliveries use it? Must pupils be segregated? Who controls shutdowns? What does “minimising” disruption actually require?

A useful project requirement would be closer to this:

Keep the school operational throughout the works. Maintain the signed pedestrian route between the main entrance and teaching block during school hours. Physically segregate pupils, staff and visitors from the working area. Do not make deliveries or move vehicles within the shared entrance between 08:15 and 09:15 or between 14:45 and 15:45. Agree any interruption to existing services with the Contract Administrator at least five working days in advance.

The exact wording would depend on the project, but the principle is straightforward. State the required outcome, define the important limits and give the contractor enough information to price the obligation.

Common problems with preliminaries

Starting with the wrong project

Old preliminaries are useful as a checklist, but dangerous as a finished answer. Requirements left over from a new build, an unoccupied site or a different form of contract can create contradictions and unnecessary cost.

Including everything, just in case

More clauses do not necessarily mean more protection. Irrelevant requirements hide the important ones and make the document look unreviewed. Delete what does not apply.

Using vague risk transfer

Phrases such as “allow for all necessary measures” may sound robust but often fail to identify the actual constraint. Contractors will price different assumptions, add contingency or qualify their tender.

Repeating the contract conditions

The preliminaries should apply and supplement the contract, not paraphrase it badly. Repetition creates a risk of conflict, especially when a standard form has been amended.

Prescribing the contractor’s method unnecessarily

The designer should state required outcomes, constraints, interfaces and acceptance criteria. The contractor should normally retain control of construction methods, subject to the contract, design responsibilities and legal duties. Overprescription can transfer risk in the wrong direction.

Mixing tender instructions with contract requirements

“Return a programme with the tender” is a tender instruction. “Maintain and update the accepted programme during the works” is a contract requirement. They belong in coordinated but different places.

Omitting a pricing structure

If the contractor is given no breakdown, the client receives a lump sum which is difficult to compare and harder to interrogate when the programme changes.

Treating a small job as a simple job

A short contract period does not remove the need for preliminaries. Minor works in an occupied school, listed building or live healthcare setting can have demanding access, protection and sequencing requirements. The document should be proportionate, not absent.

A practical test for every requirement

Before keeping a preliminaries clause, ask:

1. Does it apply to this project?
2. Is the responsibility clear?
3. Is the required outcome or constraint clear?
4. Can the contractor make a sensible allowance for it?
5. Does it duplicate or contradict another document?
6. Will the project team actually administer it?

If the answer to the first question is no, delete it. If the answer to any of the others is uncertain, rewrite or relocate it.

Preliminaries checklist before issuing a tender

Check that:

• the project title, address, parties and contract details are correct;
• the description of the works agrees with the drawings, schedules and specification;
• site access, occupation, working hours and delivery restrictions are stated;
• known information on existing buildings, services, asbestos and other hazards is identified;
• contractor design duties are explicit and limited to the intended elements;
• phasing, programme and completion requirements are achievable and consistent;
• quality, samples, inspection, testing and record requirements are coordinated;
• temporary services, welfare, security, protection, waste and cleaning responsibilities are clear;
• handover information and submission dates are defined;
• tender instructions are separated from contract requirements;
• irrelevant clauses from the source template have been removed;
• cross references and defined terms are correct; and
• the contractor has a clear preliminaries pricing schedule to complete.

Frequently asked questions