You will need to contact the Building Inspector (or whoever is doing your Local Authority inspections). These people will usually want about a week’s notice of the start of work. – Even though they won’t usually be needed on site until at least a few days after the start (to check the foundation dig), they require this notice for their records and to prepare themselves so they are "up to date" or the details of your particular project.

If you forget to contact them to give them this notice, you may still be able to get them to come to site when you need them, but in some cases they say that they can’t attend site at short notice. – If you have dug your foundations, want to pour concrete and bad weather is forecast for the next few days, the last thing you want is to have to lose a week’s progress and to leave the foundations open to the weather and to the possibility of caving in (costing you money to then clean out again), just because you forgot to make a phone call or fill in the relevant "notice" form.

2) Structural Warranty provider:

Pretty much the same usually goes for whoever is providing your structural warranty as does for the Building Inspector. – These people are not sitting in a office waiting for the phone to ring, they are normally busy people who have their diaries full for 2 – 3 weeks ahead. - The more notice you can give them of your intended start date, the better.

If you have an idea of the time you want them on a particular day, by booking well in advance you will also stand a better chance of getting that particular time slot, which can mean the difference between the men getting on with another job in the afternoon, or waiting around all day for an inspection and doing nothing else productive.

Sometimes, if you are lucky, the Warranty providers will be based close at hand, but if you are using one of the larger organisations, you will often find that one Inspector covers quite a large geographical area. – He / she may have to travel 50+ miles to your site, which again, makes forward planning all the more important.

I have put both of these together because often, if you are using either an independent Project Manager, or one of the larger companies, they will often do the initial setting out. Otherwise, you will either be planning on doing it yourself, the groundworker will do it, or you will hire in a “Site Engineer” for a day or two to do everything needed.

Whichever option you are going for, as with the inspectors, remember that these people are probably booked up for up to 2 or 3 weeks ahead, year round, - so let them know your plans as early as possible. – If you initially give them more than a couple of weeks notice, make sure that after that, you keep them updated regularly with any changes in the plans, and confirm with them a week or so before you start, that they are needed that everything is still ok for the planned date.

When you start on site, you will normally have the groundworkers working with you for the first 2 – 4 weeks in one capacity or another (site clearance / footings / concreting / drains etc).

Bearing this in mind, common sense says that their previous contract could have been very similar to yours, in other words, once they start a job, they can easily be stuck on it for the next few weeks. 

Some Contractors will have enough of a workforce to be able to move people around from site to site to keep 2 or three going at once, but if they don't and you ring them one week to ask them to satrt the next week, don't be suprised if they can't. 

Try to give your groundworkers at least 4 – 5 week’s notice of your intended start on site. – EVEN if you are not totally sure of the actual date yourself. – Tell them “We’re hoping to start on “xxxx” date, so can your pencil us in for then, and we’ll keep in touch with you to let you know how we are getting on". – That way they will be able to allow for manning your project on that date before they start to think about taking on any other work around the same period. – If your plans change, let them know as soon as possible so that they can reorganize to still fit you in (and so you don’t appear to be messing them about).

This is not normally a critical action prior to staring work, unless you live in a very remote location and your deliveries are going to take up a substantial amount of the delivery wagons time each day that you need deliveries. – They may need to bring in extra trucks for those days, and that could need some forward planning. 
Get your prices fixed before you get to the stage of giving them this notice to start (and, by the way try to get “part load charges” stopped, - at least after the first load –see other sections for more info on this subject). You should have shopped around for the best prices well prior to thinking about starting on site.
 

Quite often your groundworkers will also be responsible for building your brickwork up to dpc level. If that is the case they will programme their own brickies in for when they are needed and you won’t need to worry about it (part from maybe getting the materials to site at the right time).

If you are using a separate bricklaying gang for all of the brickwork, you will need to make sure that you “programme them in” so that when they are needed by the groundworkers, they are available.

Once the concrete footings are poured, you will need to let them “go off” (set) for a couple of days. After that, the bricklayers can usually get going on building the “brickwork to DPC” so that the groundworkers can then start to form up the slab.

What you don’t want, is for the footings to be poured on a Monday, and the bricklayers not to be available for a week or more after that. – Not only does this slow down your completion time, but the Groundworkers probably won’t be very happy. – They will usually have a plan of how long they want to be working on your project, and may have others lined up. – If you suddenly tell them that you have no work for them for 2 weeks while you wait for the bricklayers to finish another job, you may find yourself quite unpopular, and you may also find that you have a very quiet site with nothing being done for a couple of weeks!!

So, 4 – 5 weeks (at least) before you plan on starting, speak to your chosen bricklayers and give them your “target” start date, so that, just as with the groundworkers, they can plan their work schedule to free up the people they need, when you need them. – Then, make sure you keep them in touch with any changes in your plans.
 

Think through all your materials supply requirements well in advance of starting on site. – If there is anything that you think will, or could present problems in respect of delivery, give it attention early on, to make sure it doesn’t cause you problems later. For example:  Will you be using anything in the first 4 – 6 weeks that could be on a long delivery period? – If so, get it ordered (some specialist items may be on a lot longer delivery period) – so, let those suppliers know your start date, and tell them when you will be expecting to need that particular item.

For items like bricks, unless they are kept in stock, you should give the merchant an idea of how many you will need, and when they will be needed so they can arrange for them to be collected (and possibly brought into stock) in good time for them to get to you when you need them.

Two months, or a month before you start work on your project you will probably not be thinking of giving the painters or kitchen fitters a start date. These are trades you can give definite dates to a bit nearer the time they will be needed, after you see how things go early on.

However, you should still make every effort, prior to starting work, to decide who you will be using when the time comes.

If you contact a few painters and kitchen companies etc well in advance, you can discuss with them things like: At what stage do they want to come in for their part of the project? How long will they need to complete their work? etc. -  You can also get final "fixed prices" sorted so that you don’t suddenly find yourselves haggling prices for a kitchen or a decorator 2 weeks before you need them!

The other trades you DO need to contact prior to starting work will be the Joiners (or timber frame company), Window Manufacturers / Installers and possibly the roof truss company (these are often included as part of the timber frame package, but make sure you know what is and what isn’t included if you use a timber frame – different comanies offer different packages).
If your project includes an unusual activity like thatching, you will probably need to bear in mins that this is a lengthy process and they will probably spend quite a long time on each job, so give them plenty of notice of when you think you will be ready for them.

As I mentioned at the head of this section, the list above gives you the main people you need to contact prior to starting on site, but don’t just read it and think that those are the only areas you need to think about “up front”. With these projects it is critical that you keep your wits about you at all time and think ahead constantly.

You should always bear in mind whilst you are doing your planning, that one single item or trade who doesn’t turn up and do what they are supposed to can have a major knock on effect on the whole of the project, losing you a lot of time and a lot of money in the process.

For example, If the lintels don’t turn up for the bricklayers to build in (maybe because you forgot to order them), they will have to stop work. – If they do, they will probably not only be very annoyed, but they will also probably have to go to another job - and may not be able to get back for 2 weeks. – If that happens you will need to cancel other deliveries (bricks, trusses. Roof tiles etc) and possibly postpone other trades who are supposed to follow on from the brickwork.

Every time you have one of these “hiccups” the knock on effects can easily “compound”. The roofers may have taken a booking for two weeks after they were due to start your project, so after losing two weeks with the bricklayers, you may then lose another 3 with the roofers – and so on. – Keeping strict control of your programme is vitally important on a Self Build or Renovation project.

If you are using a Project Mor Site Supervisor, they will take on most, if not all of the responsibility of programming the works.

If, however you are doing the Management yourself, then you need to be able to draw up a programme of the works that you can constantly refer to and amend as required, as the job progresses. – There is a section in this guide which shows you how to prepare a programme for the works. – Make sure you read and use it. – It could save you weeks or months on your project’s timescale and it could easily save you thousands of pounds in extra costs by helping you plan ahead and not fall into the traps that many Self Builders and Renovators encounter.