Facility Grounds Maintenance Contract Conversation Checklist

Walk the site and list every feature that is doing a job beyond looking well, including anything you were told at handover.

Most of what is vulnerable here looks exactly like ordinary grounds, which is precisely the problem.

Mark every such feature on a plan of the site, showing its extent rather than a point, and keep that plan with the briefing.

Where a feature ends is obvious to whoever designed it and invisible to whoever is holding the machine.

Go back to whatever was handed over and pull out anything describing what a feature is for or what would stop it working.

The instruction usually exists somewhere in a project file and has never reached the person doing the work.

Ask the designer, installer or supplier about any feature whose purpose you cannot establish, and record what you are told.

An unexplained feature is briefed as ordinary grounds by default, which is the outcome to avoid.

What a feature is and what it requires is established by the people who designed or supplied it for this installation.

List the surfaces built to behave in a particular way, including anything built to let water through rather than shed it.

These surfaces receive the same treatment as ordinary paving unless somebody says otherwise.

Note anything easily damaged that is not obviously delicate, such as an access cover, a marker, an edge or a young planting.

Damage on grounds contracts is overwhelmingly caused by things being invisible rather than by carelessness.

Divide the site into areas on the plan and describe what is wanted in each, rather than describing tasks across the whole site.

A contractor works area by area, and an instruction organised by task gets applied uniformly.

Write down which areas are included and which are not, including edges, boundaries, car parks and anything beyond a fence.

Areas outside the obvious grounds are where both parties assume the other is dealing with it.

Say how often each area is expected to be attended, and note where that frequency varies at different times of year.

Uniform frequency across a site is how features needing seasonal treatment get cut at the wrong time.

Describe what you want each area to look like in plain words, including any area you want left looking less tidy.

Naming the untidy areas as intended is the only way they stay untidy for longer than one visit.

Note what other work happens on the site and who else has responsibilities, so the boundaries between them are clear.

Tasks between a grounds contractor and site staff are reliably done by neither.

Ask the contractor to report anything they notice rather than acting on it, and say who that report should go to.

The person on the ground every fortnight is the best early warning the facility has, if there is a route for it.

Identify any feature that must not be strimmed, cut or edged in the way the surrounding grounds are, and mark its extent on the plan.

A planted drainage feature looks like rough planting, and rough planting is exactly what gets tidied.

Identify any surface that must not be pressure-washed or treated in the usual way, and say so before the first cleaning visit.

A surface built to let water through is cleaned very differently from one built to shed it, and it looks the same.

What cleaning method or equipment a surface tolerates is established by its supplier and a specialist contractor rather than from how it looks afterwards.

Identify anywhere arisings, soil or materials must not be piled, including over a store, a feature, an access cover or a route.

A temporary heap on the wrong spot buries an access point or loads something that was never meant to carry it.

Identify any hollow, channel or dip that must not be levelled, filled or improved, and give the reason in one line.

A dished area reads as a fault to a tidy eye, and correcting it is an act of good service.

Identify any feature where topsoil, mulch or soil improvement must not be added, and say what may be used instead if anything.

Improving the ground is the most instinctive kind act available and is the one that disables these features.

Identify where treatments must not be applied, and ask the contractor to confirm what they would otherwise have used.

Asking what they would have used surfaces the prohibition that mattered and one you had not thought of.

What may be applied on or near any surface, planting or drainage feature is confirmed with its supplier and the relevant authority.

Agree where arisings go, whether they leave the site or remain on it, who arranges that and how often it happens.

Unagreed, they accumulate in the least visited corner, which is frequently where a drainage feature is.

Say plainly where material must never be tipped, including over a feature, near a ditch, against a boundary or into a hollow.

The convenient tipping spot and the invisible drainage feature are the same place on a great many sites.

Agree what happens to leaf fall, where it is taken and how quickly it is removed, particularly near gratings and channels.

Autumn generates more material than the rest of the year together and is when the arrangement is tested.

Agree where material may and may not be blown to, since blowing moves the problem rather than removing it.

Material blown neatly off a surface lands in something, and what it lands in is rarely considered.

Agree what happens to silt and sweepings taken off surfaces, and confirm locally what may be done with that material.

Material from a surface or a drainage feature is not always ordinary green waste.

What may be done with arisings and material removed from surfaces or drainage is confirmed with the local authority, and varies by location.

If material is stored on site at all, agree where, how long, and what must be kept clear of it.

A temporary heap becomes permanent within a season and takes the ground beneath it with it.

Agree the routes machines and vehicles take across the site, mark them on the plan, and note any ground they must not cross.

The sensible route is chosen on the first visit and used for years unless somebody chose one earlier.

Agree what happens when the ground is soft, including which areas are not crossed at all in those conditions.

Ground crossed by machinery when wet carries the consequence for the rest of the season.

Agree where vehicles stand and park during a visit, and identify any ground that must not take a vehicle at all.

Standing is a heavier duty than passing, and the standing spot is chosen for convenience.

Whether any ground or surface may take a vehicle is established by a qualified professional for that construction rather than from its appearance.

Mark every access cover and inspection point on the plan and say that nothing is parked, stored or piled over them.

An access point lost under a heap is found again at the worst possible moment.

Agree how the contractor gets in and out, who holds keys or codes, and what is left secure afterwards.

Access arrangements that were never agreed become the reason a visit did not happen.

Agree when work happens relative to when the facility is in use, and who is told about a change.

On community sites the clash between a machine and a session is the complaint that arrives fastest.

Ask what the contractor needs from the site, including water, power, somewhere to park and whether anything is expected of your own staff.

Arrangements that were never discussed become the reason a visit is shortened or a task is quietly dropped altogether.

Put the briefing on one page alongside the marked plan, rather than in a long document or a series of conversations.

A page and a plan reach the person on site; a document reaches the office.

Put what must not be done at the top of the page, before anything about what is to be done.

The prohibitions are what protect the site, and they are the part read if only the top is read.

Give a one-line reason for each prohibition, since somebody told only what not to do will eventually decide it looked wrong.

A reason survives a change of crew in a way that a bare rule does not.

Ask the contractor to confirm what they have understood and to say what they would do differently as a result.

The answer occasionally reveals that the briefing did not land, which is worth knowing before the first visit.

Ask that whoever actually attends the site is given the page, including cover staff and anybody sent once as a replacement.

The one-off visit is where this goes wrong, because briefings are aimed at the regular arrangement.

Go through the page with the contractor after a full season, noting what did not work and what was misunderstood.

A season is long enough for every seasonal job to have happened once, which is when the gaps become visible.

Agree that the briefing is given again whenever the contract is retendered or the contractor changes, and decide who holds it meanwhile.

Everything protecting these features lives in a briefing, and a new contractor arrives on site knowing none of it.