Module Storage When A Site Is Not Ready

Factory construction and site works run in parallel, which is where most of the programme saving comes from.

It also creates a failure mode that traditional construction does not have: the building can be finished before the ground is ready for it.

Why the site is usually the one that slips

Fabrication runs on a controlled schedule in a controlled environment. Site work runs on weather, authorities and whatever is found in the ground.

**Approvals,** where a condition of consent has not been discharged or a certificate is outstanding.

**Authority connections,** which run on the utility's timeline rather than yours, and which are the most common single cause. That exposure is set out in [utility connections and authority approvals](/blog/utility-connections-and-authority-approvals).

**Groundworks,** where the ground was not what the geotechnical report suggested, per [groundworks and foundations for modular](/blog/groundworks-and-foundations-for-modular).

**Weather,** which stops earthworks and concrete rather than factory production, and which is the asymmetry described in [weather and programme risk](/blog/weather-and-programme-risk).

**Access,** where the crane position or the delivery route is not available on the planned date.

What storage actually involves

A finished module is not simply parked.

**Supported correctly,** on bearers at the designed points, so the frame is not left bearing in a way it was not designed for over months.

**Sealed,** with every opening closed and weather protected. A module with a temporary cover is a module relying on that cover holding for the whole period.

**Services capped,** so nothing is open to water or vermin.

**Secured,** against theft and interference, which for a dwelling full of new appliances and fittings is a real exposure.

**Inspected periodically,** because a sealed module left for three months can develop moisture problems that nobody sees until installation.

Done properly, storage is uneventful. Done as an improvisation in a corner of a yard, it produces rectification work that costs more than the storage did.

The cost sits in the contract

The commercial question is who pays and from when, and it is answered before it happens rather than argued afterwards.

Which means the contract identifies a site readiness date, the consequence of missing it, a daily or weekly storage rate, and the point at which risk transfers. Without that, a delay produces a dispute on top of a delay.

Where the delay is caused by something inside the builder's control, it sits with the builder. Where it is an authority connection or a consent condition, it usually does not. Those allocations are part of what [what a turnkey contract covers](/blog/what-a-turnkey-contract-covers) has to be explicit about, and part of the risk picture in [insurance and risk in modular delivery](/blog/insurance-and-risk-in-modular-delivery).

Insurance is the other half. A completed module in storage needs cover, and the policy that covers work in a factory may not cover it sitting in a yard.

Managing it rather than suffering it

**Track the site critical path as hard as the factory one.** The dates that matter are the authority connection application date and the consent condition discharge date, both of which are months earlier than people expect.

**Sequence the fabrication to the site,** not to the factory's convenience. On a multi module project the order is chosen so the first modules to be built are the first ones needed, which is the discipline in [staging deliveries across a large project](/blog/staging-deliveries-across-a-large-project).

**Hold the site establishment date firm,** because that is the commitment everything else measures against, per [site establishment before modules arrive](/blog/site-establishment-before-modules-arrive).

**Decide early if a delay is long.** A two week wait is storage. A three month wait may be better handled by slowing fabrication than by storing finished buildings.

What it does to handover

A module stored for a long period arrives on site needing more inspection, not less: seals checked, services tested, finishes reviewed, moisture readings taken.

Which goes into the record rather than being quietly absorbed, because a provider taking handover is entitled to know the building was stored and that it was checked. That belongs with the rest of [handover documentation and as-built records](/blog/handover-documentation-and-as-built-records).

MADEmodular / MADEbetter.

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