Civil construction
Substructure, frame and external works — the part of a building nobody photographs and everything else stands on. Done badly it is the only defect you cannot fix later, and the one the law holds against us for ten years.
- ScopeSubstructure to superstructure
- CodeSaudi Building Code, 2024 edition
- LiabilityTen years, structural
- RecordsPour, cube and survey, per element
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Why this page is about records
Concrete is a process, not a product
From infrastructure to large-scale developments, our civil construction expertise ensures precision, quality, and adherence to the highest industry standards. We manage every phase, delivering robust, sustainable, and cost-effective solutions for all types of civil engineering projects.
You cannot inspect a finished column. Once the formwork is off, everything that matters — the cover to the steel, the lap lengths, the compaction, the cure — is already inside it and invisible. So the quality of civil work is not what it looks like at the end. It is whether somebody checked and signed at each of the moments when it was still possible to look.
- SubstructureExcavation, shoring, foundations
- FrameIn-situ reinforced concrete
- ReinforcementScheduled, bent and fixed to drawing
- ConcreteMix designed, cube-tested per pour
- SurveySet out and verified per element
- ExternalHardstanding, drainage, retaining
It starts as steel
A reinforcement cage is the most honest image civil work has. Everything that will be asked of that column for the next fifty years is decided by bars you can still count, in a cage that is still open.
- Bar schedules taken off the drawing and checked against it, not assumed from the last job
- Lap lengths and cover measured and signed before the pour, because after it they are a matter of faith
- Couplers and starter bars set for the element above while this one is still accessible
Formwork decides the finish
Fair-faced concrete is not a mix, it is a shutter. The joint pattern, the tie positions and the release agent are the finish, and all three are decided before any concrete is ordered.
- Shutter layout drawn, so the form lines land where the architect intended rather than where the panels happened to end
- Alignment and plumb verified by survey before the pour, not corrected by grinding after it
- Props and loads checked for the pour rate, which is where formwork failures actually come from
The pour, and the hour after it
In this climate the critical window is not the pour, it is the first day. Ambient temperature, placing rate and curing decide whether a slab reaches its design strength or reaches a crack pattern.
- Mix designed for the conditions, with placing temperature controlled rather than hoped for
- Cube samples taken per pour and tested, with the results filed against the element they came from
- Curing regime specified and policed — the cheapest activity on a civil site and the one most often skipped
- Construction joints planned, so a joint is a detail and not an accident of when the truck stopped coming
A frame, element by element
The frame goes up as a repeating cycle, and the whole programme is the length of that cycle multiplied by the number of floors. Shortening the cycle by a day is worth more than any single clever decision made elsewhere.
- A repeating cycle: set out, fix, shutter, pour, strike, prop — measured and improved each floor
- Setting out verified per floor against the primary grid, not against the floor below it, or the error accumulates
- Staged SBC inspections booked into the cycle, so an inspector arrives while the work is still open
And the external works nobody budgets for
Levels, drainage and hardstanding are the last thing on the programme and the first thing a visitor walks on. They are also where a project that was going well discovers it has nowhere to put the rainwater.
- Falls and drainage designed to the levels on site, which are never quite the levels on the drawing
- Retaining and boundary structures designed for the ground actually found, after the excavation says what it is
- Utility routes coordinated before the hardstanding goes down, because the alternative is cutting it open again
How a civil package runs
Six stages, each with a record
Every stage below produces a document. That set of documents is what structural liability actually rests on — and in the Kingdom it rests for ten years, jointly on the contractor and the supervising designer.
Survey and set out
Topographic survey, boundary check against title, and the primary grid established and recorded.
Permit and structural review
Stamped structural drawings filed on Balady and reviewed against the Saudi Building Code.
Substructure and reinforcement
Excavation, shoring, foundations, and reinforcement fixed and inspected before any concrete arrives.
Concrete and curing
Designed mix, controlled placing temperature, cube samples per pour and a policed curing regime.
Superstructure cycle
The frame as a repeating floor cycle, with setting out re-verified against the primary grid each level.
Testing and acceptance
Cube results, survey records and staged inspection sign-offs, compiled per element for handover.
Scope
What a civil package covers
Carried by us
- Topographic and setting-out survey
- Excavation, shoring and dewatering where required
- Foundations: pads, rafts, pile caps, ground beams
- In-situ reinforced concrete frame
- Reinforcement scheduling, bending and fixing
- Blockwork and in-fill
- Waterproofing and tanking
- External works: drainage, hardstanding, retaining
- Cube testing and survey records, per element
Yours, or priced separately
- Geotechnical investigation and the soil report it produces
- Piling by a specialist, where the ground requires it
- Third-party structural checking engineer, where appointed
- Statutory fees and utility connection charges
- Ground contamination or obstructions not disclosed before works
- Permanent dewatering after practical completion
What you are buying
Three things that cannot be added later
Structural liability for defects runs ten years past handover in the Kingdom, jointly on the contractor and the supervising designer. That is the reason the records on this page are the product.
Cube samples are taken and tested for every pour and filed against the element they came from. A strength result that cannot be traced to a column is not a result.
Design review at permit stage, staged inspection during the works, and the occupancy certificate before use. We plan the inspection into the floor cycle so nothing is inspected through a finished surface.
Interior Fit-Out
Inside the shell: ceilings, partitions, finishes and the pieces people put their hands on.
Send us the structural drawings and the soil report.
Those two documents are enough for a real price and a real programme.