Temporary Structures for Construction Sites: What Project Managers Need to Know
Every construction project gets to the point where the site needs somewhere to work, somewhere secure to keep materials, and somewhere for the workforce to eat, wash and take a break, in line with welfare regulations. How well you plan that space has a real effect on how smoothly the rest of the programme runs, whether it looks like it or not.
We covered the bigger picture on temporary buildings on site in our article on the role of temporary structures in construction projects. This one is about the actual decisions a project manager has to make.
Have you actually left enough time for site accommodation?
It is easy to treat site accommodation as an afterthought when you are putting a programme together, because it never feels as urgent as the build itself. But delays to the office, welfare or storage tend to push back everything that depends on them. Trades cannot mobilise without welfare in place, materials cannot arrive early without somewhere secure to put them, and the site cannot really be managed without somewhere to run it from.
Treat it as a milestone in its own right rather than something that sorts itself out, and it stops being the thing that quietly delays your start date.
Can the office grow and shrink as the programme moves?
Project teams rarely stay the same size for the whole build. The office needs to grow as the team grows, and shrink or move once a phase wraps up. Our modular buildings are clear-span, so they can be laid out as open-plan offices, meeting rooms, or a mix of both, and changed as the project moves through its phases instead of locking you into one layout from day one.
The same flexibility works for satellite or project-based office space away from the main site, which we go into in our piece on modular buildings for remote work and satellite offices. If you are running several sites or phases, being able to move the same building rather than sourcing a new one each time can save a fair bit over the life of a contract.
Are the welfare facilities working with the site, or against it?
Toilets, washing facilities, a canteen and somewhere to rest are a legal requirement, not a nice-to-have, and they need to be in place before other work can safely start. Temporary welfare units can go exactly where the site plan needs them and move as the site changes, which is much harder to do with a fixed permanent building.
On bigger sites it is worth putting offices, welfare and storage together in one area, sometimes called a site village, rather than scattering them wherever there happened to be room. It cuts down on people and materials crossing the site unnecessarily, and makes visitors and deliveries far easier to manage. A typical site village usually includes:
- Site offices and meeting rooms
- Welfare units with toilets, washing and rest areas
- A canteen and drying room
- Secure stores for tools, plant and small equipment
- Larger enclosed storage for palletised materials
- Covered working areas or canopies for trades affected by weather
What happens to your materials when the weather turns?
Poor storage is one of the most common causes of avoidable delay on a construction site. Damaged materials, missing tools and stock that needs reordering all eat into a programme that has no time to spare. Temporary storage buildings keep materials close to the work and out of the weather, and can be as small as a single bay or as large as a full enclosed structure for a major infrastructure job.
Covered working areas do the same job for the trades themselves, letting work carry on through conditions that would otherwise stop it dead, which matters most on refurbishment or fit-out jobs where there is no roof up yet.
Ground conditions vary a lot from one site to the next, and the foundation matters just as much for a storage building as it does for an office. Our guidance on temporary building foundations covers what we check before installing anything, particularly on sites where the ground has already had heavy plant driving over it.
Is your supplier actually cleared to work on your site?
Any temporary structure supplier coming onto your site needs to meet the same bar as every other contractor on your list. Ask for MUTA full supplier status, SafeContractor, CHAS, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and BSI certification, and be wary of anyone who cannot show you current paperwork when asked. We hold all of them, with the details on our about us page. Our structures can also be built to meet full UK Part L building regulations if you need something longer-term or insulated.
What happens to the buildings once your phase ends?
Construction programmes rarely go exactly to plan. Buildings that can be extended, shrunk, moved or taken away without a long reinstatement job give you room to react as the site changes, instead of being stuck with space that no longer fits. We offer flexible payment options, including short-term hire, leasing and outright purchase, so the commercial side can match the shape of your programme rather than the other way round.
If you are running several sites, buildings can also be moved from one project to the next once the work is done, which spreads the cost across contracts instead of writing it off against just one.
So when should you actually start this conversation?
It depends on the scale of the job. A single welfare unit for a small site can usually be sorted on a fairly short timeline. A multi-building site village for a large infrastructure project needs to go into the programme early, alongside groundworks and access planning. As with most temporary structures, unusual layouts and bigger footprints take longer to design and build, so raise site accommodation when you are planning enabling works, not once mobilisation is a few weeks away.
Planning temporary structures into your next project
Have a look through our case studies to see storage, office and welfare buildings we have delivered for construction and industrial clients, or read what clients say on our testimonials page. If you are planning site accommodation, welfare or storage for a project, get in touch, and we will talk through what will actually work for your site and programme.