Civil contractors encounter differing site conditions on almost every job. Most document them in daily reports. Almost none submit change orders. Here is the process that converts field conditions into billing.
Civil contractors encounter differing site conditions on almost every job — utility conflicts not on the drawings, rock at depths not shown in the borings, groundwater where the contract documents said there was none. Most of these are legitimate differing site conditions under the subcontract. Most generate real costs — extra equipment hours, crew delays, changed installation methods. Almost none become change orders because nobody built the documentation process that converts field conditions into billing events.
Most civil subcontracts require written notice of a differing site condition within 24–72 hours of discovery. Verbal notice to the GC superintendent does not count. An entry in the daily report is better but not the same as a formal written notice. Without timely written notice, the GC can — and often will — deny the change order claim at closeout on the grounds that notice requirements were not met, regardless of whether the condition was legitimate.
The crew hits rock at 4 feet in a trench designed for 6-foot depth. The foreman calls the GC. They agree to blast. The blast happens. The trench continues. Nobody photographed the rock face before the blast. Nobody documented the equipment hours and crew standby time. The daily report says "rock encountered, blasted, continued installation" with no cost detail. At closeout, the GC has no basis to approve a change order because there is no documentation of cost impact.
Even when the condition is documented, the change order proposal often never gets submitted. The foreman documented it. The superintendent knows about it. Everyone agrees it happened. But nobody sat down and wrote the formal change order request with a cost breakdown. By the time the job closes, the condition is 8 months old, the GC's project team has turned over, and the documentation is scattered across daily reports that nobody compiled into a claim.
The moment a field condition is identified as potentially different from the contract documents, a written notice goes to the GC — not a phone call, a written notice. SPM provides a template that identifies the location, the condition encountered, how it differs from the contract documents, and the anticipated impact. The GC receives it in writing. The clock on their response starts. The contractor's claim rights are preserved.
Before the rock is blasted, the utility is rerouted, or the groundwater is dewatered — photograph the condition. The photograph should show the location, the condition, and ideally a measurement reference. Once the condition is remediated, the evidence is gone. A photograph before remediation plus a photograph after is the single most powerful piece of changed condition documentation. It is also the piece most often missing.
Every day impacted by the changed condition: hours of each crew member, equipment hours, materials consumed, and a description of the work performed and why it differs from the base contract. Get the GC superintendent to sign the daily report. A signed daily report is informal acknowledgment of the conditions described. It is not a change order approval — but it is the strongest contemporaneous evidence available.
As soon as the scope of the changed condition is understood, submit a cost proposal — labor hours at burdened rate, equipment hours at standard rate, material at cost, and markup. Submit it as a line item on the next pay app as pending. Force the GC to respond in writing — approved, denied, or under review. Never let a change order request go unacknowledged for more than 30 days without a follow-up.
At engagement start, SPM reviewed all active jobs for open change conditions. Two jobs had documented changed conditions — utility conflicts and unexpected rock — with daily reports showing the impact, GC superintendent signatures on those reports, and zero formal change order submissions. The conditions were 4 and 6 months old respectively.
The total AR recovery at engagement start included $67,000 in changed condition change orders submitted for the first time at engagement — conditions documented in daily reports that had been sitting unsubmitted for months. The GCs paid them. The documentation was solid. The change orders just had not been written.
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