Concreting around the weather, without losing days

Concreting runs on weather in a way most trades escape. A pour needs a window, and the window closes without asking you.

The lost day is rarely the wet one. It is the two dry days either side that nobody could use, because the whole week hung on one pour.

Separate the work that needs weather from the work that does not

Your week holds two kinds of job. A pour needs a dry window and a crew. Formwork, preparation, stripping and cutting mostly do not.

The grouping should be deliberate rather than by customer order. A week with two pours and three days of preparation survives a wet Tuesday. A week with four pours does not.

Book the pour against the window, then confirm

The customer gets a pour day, and a confirmation two days beforehand. Most customers accept that, because the alternative is a pour in the rain.

The confirmation matters more than the booking. A customer who hears from you on the Monday forgives a move to Thursday, and the same customer left in silence does not.

Keep a wet weather job ready

One job should run in the rain: a strip, a cut, or a small formwork set up under cover. Your crew then has somewhere to go on the morning a pour collapses.

That job earns its keep the first time you use it. A crew stood down for a day costs you the same as a crew working.

Tell the customers the moment the week moves

A moved pour affects the customer whose slab you pushed and the two customers behind them. All three need to hear a new date from you.

Rebuild the week once and send each person their run rather than ringing round. Planning the day's runs covers how that ordering works when a day changes at short notice.

Price the standby, or stop absorbing it

Most concreters absorb the cost of a cancelled pour and call it weather. Your crew, your pump booking and your concrete order all have a cost that day.

A short cancellation clause in the quote covers a pour the customer moves at short notice. Weather stays yours, and a customer changing their mind on the morning does not.

Count the days you lost, and why

A line per lost day carries the reason: rain, a late slab, a supplier, or a customer. One quarter of that gives you a pattern.

Most concreters expect rain to lead and find that it does not. The reasons you can actually fix usually sit above it.

A pour needs people as well as a dry day

Weather gets the blame for pours that actually failed on labour. A window opens, and the crew who were stood down yesterday have taken other work.

The crew hears the likely day as early as the customer does. Casual labour needs more warning than that, not less, and a pour confirmed at four for the next morning usually finds nobody. They then keep it free, and a confirmed pour finds its people.

Casual labour needs more notice than that, not less. A pour confirmed at four for the next morning usually finds nobody.

A pump booking needs the same notice. Losing the pump costs you the pour even when the weather holds and the crew arrives.

What to change first

• Each week balances its pours against its dry work
• A pour day gets booked, then confirmed two days beforehand, every time
• One wet weather job waits ready for the crew
• Every affected customer gets a new date the moment the week moves
• A short notice cancellation clause sits in the quote
• Every lost day carries its reason, read back each quarter