Plant and Ground Protection Planning Checklist

Ask what machinery is expected to come onto the property during the project, at which stages, and roughly how often each would move.

A single delivery and a machine working for weeks put very different demands on the same piece of ground.

Ask for the route machinery would take to be marked on a sketch of the property, including where it would turn and where it would stand.

Turning and standing areas take far more punishment than the straight stretches, and they are rarely discussed separately.

Walk the marked route and note where a machine would need more room than the path or drive actually offers, such as at corners.

The route in use is wider than the route on a plan, and the extra width is taken from whatever is beside it.

Record what the route is surfaced with along each stretch, noting where one surface meets another and where it becomes bare ground.

The point where one surface meets another is where damage typically starts, and it is easy to photograph beforehand.

Ask whether any alternative route exists, even a less convenient one, and note what each of those options would have to cross.

A route chosen for convenience early can be changed cheaply; one discovered to be a problem later usually cannot.

Note where the route stays soft after rain and where water stands, and say so even if it looks firm when you are asked.

Ground that is perfectly firm in dry conditions frequently becomes the main access problem once work is under way.

Write down everything you know or suspect lies beneath the route, including old tanks, a cellar, a lightwell, a soakaway or filled ground.

Owners hold knowledge about a plot that appears on no drawing at all, and it is only useful once written down.

Note anything a previous owner, neighbour or earlier contractor told you about what is underground, marking it clearly as second-hand.

Second-hand knowledge is still worth recording provided its status is clear to whoever reads it later.

Walk the route looking for surface clues such as a line of different growth, a settled strip, an old cover or a patched surface.

Surface evidence of something buried is visible to anyone who walks slowly and is invisible on a plan.

Look for any drawing or paperwork you hold showing what was laid at the property, including from earlier work by previous owners.

Records of earlier works are often still in the house, and they are the nearest thing to a service record most properties have.

Give what you have written to whoever is running the work and to any designer, rather than mentioning it once in conversation.

Information passed verbally on a site visit does not survive into the arrangements that actually get made.

Never assume what is buried. Locating existing services is work for qualified people with the right equipment.

Ask what is proposed to establish what is under the route before machinery uses it, and record the answer.

Asking the question puts the matter into somebody's hands, which is the point at which it stops being an assumption.

Mark every drainage cover, inspection chamber, gully and service box on or near the route, and photograph each one in place.

Covers set into a drive are routinely driven over without anyone ever having asked what is underneath them.

Ask a qualified professional what should be established about any cover or chamber before loads pass over or stand on it.

Note whether the property has a private drainage system, a treatment plant, a septic arrangement or a soakaway, and roughly where it sits.

These are usually invisible from the surface and are exactly what an excavator will stand on if nobody says otherwise.

Note where rainwater from the roof and the surfaces actually goes, and whether any of that route passes beneath where machinery would work.

Owners often know where water goes from watching it in heavy rain, which is knowledge no drawing holds.

Note any private supply running across the property, such as a water line to an outbuilding, a garden tap or an electrical feed.

Private runs laid by previous owners are not on any provider's record and are found only by being broken.

Ask what is proposed to protect each cover and chamber that cannot be kept out of the route altogether.

Where something cannot be avoided the question becomes what is done about it, which should be answered before the day.

Ask how damage to a buried system would be noticed, and what you should look out for during and after the works.

Buried damage is discovered months later, which is precisely why an owner should know the early signs.

List every tree and mature hedge you intend to keep, note where each stands relative to the route, and photograph them.

Writing the list is what makes the trees visible in the arrangements rather than incidental features of the garden.

Ask the relevant local authority whether any tree at or near the property carries protection, and record what you were told and when.

Protection status is not visible on a tree and is discovered by asking, which owners frequently never do.

What protection any tree carries and what a root area requires are matters for the local authority and qualified professionals.

Note any tree on a neighbour's land whose canopy or root area extends over the route, and mark it on the sketch.

A neighbour's tree affected by your works is both a horticultural problem and a neighbour problem at the same time.

Identify planting close enough to the route that it would probably not survive, and decide in advance whether it is being accepted as lost.

Deciding what is expendable in advance is far easier than discovering afterwards that something you valued was flattened.

Ask what is proposed where the route passes over or near a root area, and record the answer rather than the reassurance.

A specific answer can be checked on the day; a general assurance that trees will be respected cannot.

Photograph each tree you intend to keep, including the ground around its base, before any machinery arrives, and date the images.

Ground condition around a base is the evidence that matters, and it is only meaningful photographed beforehand.

Ask what protection, matting or temporary surfacing is included in the work, for which stretches, and who provides it.

Protection included in the arrangement happens; protection discussed as a good idea frequently does not.

Ask when protection would be put down relative to the first machine arriving, and confirm that it is before rather than after.

Protection laid after the first few movements has already missed the damage it was there to prevent.

Ask what happens at the edges of any protected route, since machinery straying off the edge is where most damage occurs.

The edge of a protected route is its weakest point, and asking about it is how the route gets defined on the ground.

Ask how the agreed route would be marked physically on the ground, so that a driver who has never been here can follow it.

A route agreed in a meeting and unmarked on site is a route that will be interpreted differently by everyone who uses it.

Ask who checks and maintains the protection during the works, and how often, and record who accepted that responsibility.

Protection degrades in use, and without a named party it stays as it was on the first day for the whole project.

Ask what is explicitly not being protected during the works, and write that list down alongside the list of things that are.

The unprotected list is what an owner is actually accepting, and it is almost never stated unless asked for.

Agree, surface by surface, what putting it back would mean, and write that down before anything heavy comes onto the property.

Reinstatement means different things to different trades, and the word alone settles nothing.

Ask who would carry out each reinstatement, whether it sits in the main work or with somebody else, and confirm it is in a scope.

Reinstatement frequently sits between packages, which is the same reason the damage happened in the first place.

Identify which surfaces are being replaced as part of the project anyway, since those need no protection and can carry the route.

Routing across ground that is being dug up anyway is the simplest solution available, and it is frequently overlooked.

Ask whether any part of the route would be left permanently changed, such as compacted ground in a lawn or a planting bed.

Some ground does not come back, and knowing which is what lets an owner choose a different route while they still can.

Agree when reinstatement would happen, and confirm that it is not left until after everybody else has finished and left.

Reinstatement left to the very end competes with completion, and it is the item most often abandoned.

Keep the reinstatement agreement in writing with the rest of the project record, and make sure whoever runs the work has the same copy.

A written agreement is what the closing walk round is checked against, and a verbal one is not checkable at all.

Photograph the whole route and every standing area before anything arrives, in both directions, and keep the images dated.

Two directions of view answer most later questions without anyone having to remember what a surface looked like.

Photograph each cover, chamber, edging, step and garden feature along the route individually, close enough to see its condition.

General views do not show condition, and condition is what a later question will be about.

Note the date, the recent weather and how the ground was underfoot when the record was made, since all of it changes what is visible.

A route photographed in dry conditions can mislead badly if the work happens while the ground is wet.

Keep a short dated log of when heavy machinery was on the property and what route it used, noting anything you observed.

An owner's contemporaneous log is more useful than a perfect memory and takes a minute a week to keep.

Photograph the route again at intervals during the works, particularly after a spell of wet weather or a period of heavy movements.

Intermediate images show how damage developed, which is far more informative than a matched pair.

Report anything you notice promptly and in writing, with the dated photographs, rather than saving it all for the end.

Something raised while it is happening can be changed; the same thing raised at completion can only be argued about.

Do not open, lift or investigate any cover or buried system. Report what you observed to a qualified professional.