What actually happens between an approved plan and a set of keys, and roughly how long each part takes.
Clients are rarely told the order of a build in plain terms, which makes it hard to know whether a project is behind or simply in a slow-looking stage. Here is the sequence.
1. Site establishment and setting out
Access, water, storage, security, and the physical setting out of the building on the stand. Nothing visible rises, and it still needs to happen properly: a building set out wrong is corrected in concrete.
2. Foundations and slab
Excavation, footings, foundation walling, fill and surface bed. Progress looks fast, then appears to stop while concrete cures.
3. Superstructure to wall plate
Walls up, openings formed, lintels and wall plate set. This is the most visually satisfying stage and it misleads people into thinking the build is nearly done. It is roughly a third of the cost.
4. Roof
Roof structure, then covering. The milestone that matters here is getting the building watertight, and if there is a rainy season to work around, this is the date the whole programme is built backwards from.
5. First fix services
Electrical conduit and plumbing chased in before walls are closed. Changes made now are cheap. Changes made after plaster are not.
6. Plaster, screed and ceilings
The building starts reading as rooms. Drying time is real and cannot be compressed without consequences for finishes.
7. Second fix and finishes
Fittings, joinery, tiling, painting. The longest-feeling stage, because progress is distributed across many small items rather than concentrated in one visible move.
8. External works and handover
Driveway, drainage, boundary treatment, snagging, and the handover documentation: plans as built, what was installed, what it cost.
A build is not behind because a stage looks quiet. It is behind when a stage that blocks another one has not finished.