Sitework contractors are asked for extra grading passes, additional topsoil stripping, phasing changes, and grade adjustments constantly. Most say yes without a change order. Here is how to stop.
The GC or owner asks for an additional grading pass to fix low spots. The crew does it. Nobody writes a change order. The extra 4 hours of grader time at $180/hour equipment cost plus $38/hour operator cost is $872 — absorbed silently. On a 6-month sitework project with 8–12 similar requests, the total absorbed scope creep is $7,000–$10,000 in equipment and labor with no corresponding billing.
The specification said 6 inches of topsoil removal. The actual depth required by site conditions is 14 inches. The extra 8 inches over a 3-acre site is 3,200 additional cubic yards of material removal and disposal. At $18/CY that is $57,600 in work not in the original bid. It is also a differing site condition under most sitework contracts — billable when documented correctly.
When an owner or GC changes the construction phasing mid-project — moving the contractor off one area before it is complete to start another — production rates fall. Equipment moves cost time. Partial completion of phases reduces efficiency. The production rate the bid was built on no longer applies. The additional cost is real and often significant. It is also almost never documented as a change order.
The moment extra work is requested — verbally, by email, by text — the response is: 'I can get that done. Let me get you a change order request first.' Not after. Before. The request takes 10 minutes to write: description of the extra work, estimated time and material, and a request for approval. Send it to the GC in writing. Wait for written approval or a signed daily report before mobilizing.
Every day of extra work is itemized in the daily report: equipment hours by machine, operator hours, material used, and a description of what was done and why it differs from the base contract scope. Get the GC superintendent to sign the daily report. A signed daily report is informal acknowledgment of the extra work. It is not a change order approval — but it is evidence that the work occurred and was witnessed.
For sitework, every unit of material moved — cubic yards of cut, fill, topsoil, and unsuitable material — is tracked against the original quantity estimate. When actual quantities exceed the estimated quantities on a unit price contract, additional billing is automatic. On a lump sum contract, quantity overruns become a changed condition claim supported by quantity logs.
SPM tracks every submitted-but-not-approved change order by job in ControlQore. Monthly review shows which change orders have been pending longer than 30 days. GCs who have not responded get a formal written follow-up. Change orders that stall at the GC level for 60+ days are escalated — formal demand letter, with lien rights preservation as the backstop.
This contractor had four active sitework-scope jobs with $28,000 in scope creep absorbed across all four — extra grading, phasing changes, topsoil depth overruns — all documented in daily reports and none submitted as change orders.
In the first 30 days of engagement — change orders that were already documented, just never formally submitted.
Collected in month one including sitework change order recoveries.
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