---
id: KB-CN-010
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/construction/structural-material-acceptance-on-site
idioma: en
categoria: sector-construccion
subcategoria: estructuras
audiencia: usuario
nivel: avanzado
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-IU-007, KB-CN-006]
citadoPor: [KB-CR-017, KB-IU-014]
---

# Structural material acceptance on site

_What to check when the lorry arrives, because afterwards it is already installed._

**Responde a:** material acceptance control on site · structural steel certificates · supplied concrete documentation · what to check when material arrives on site

Structural material has one feature that sets it apart: once it is in place, checking it costs a hundred times more. Anything not looked at during unloading becomes a demolition problem, not a paperwork one.

## What arrives with the material and must be captured

| Element | What it evidences | If missing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Delivery note identifying the consignment | What arrived and from which heat or batch | Without it, nothing else can be linked to anything |
| Product certificate | That the material meets the specification | Request it from the supplier, and it takes time |
| Marking and labelling on the material itself | That what is on site is what the paper says | Visible at a glance, if someone looks |
| Test results, where applicable | What was checked and with what result | The lab issues them later: they must be chased |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The fourth row is the one left pending that nobody chases. Results arrive days after unloading, when the lorry has gone and the works have moved on — and if nobody linked them to the specific consignment, they turn up loose in an inbox and evidence nothing. A test without the consignment it belongs to is a nice-looking piece of paper.

## How to do it without slowing unloading

1. **Photo of the delivery note and the marking, at unloading** — Thirty seconds on a phone, linked to the site and the date.
2. **The consignment as the thread** — Heat, batch or lot: it is what later links material, certificate and test.
3. **Pending tests, recorded as pending** — With who issues them and by when. Unrecorded, they are never chased.
4. **And rejections recorded too** — If something is sent back, that record is worth as much as the accepted material's.

> [!WARNING]
> The expensive blind spot is material arriving when the responsible person is not there. A seven-in-the-morning or Saturday delivery is received by whoever is present, and without a two-minute route to record it from a phone, nothing remains: no photo, no legible note, no record of who accepted it. That is the gap through which nothing can be reconstructed later.

## What gets asked months or years later

**En corto**

- Which specific material went into which part of the works.
- Its certificate and tests, linked to that consignment.
- Who received it and what they checked that day.
- And what was done with anything that failed.

All four are answered from the site file if they were captured at unloading, and are unreconstructable otherwise. There is no middle ground: either it was caught then or it does not exist.

> [!NOTE]
> It applies equally to structural steel, supplied concrete, precast elements and structural safety components. The tests and who signs them change; that the filing unit is the consignment, not the order or the invoice, does not.

**What if the supplier sends certificates at month end?**

That is normal: hence recording them as pending on the day of delivery.

**Is it needed on small jobs?**

The obligation depends on the project; the cost of doing it is the same and low.

**Who should sign for acceptance?**

Whoever holds that role on site, and their name should be recorded.

## Ejemplos

**A site receives steel on a Saturday and the test results arrive by email two weeks later.**

- Photographs the delivery note and marking at unloading, linked to the consignment
- Records the tests as pending with an expected date

→ When the supervising engineer asks, the test is tied to the consignment actually installed.

**Material arrives and the delivery note is signed in a rush.**

- Captures the note as it is signed

→ The paper stops being the only copy.

**Material arrives without its documentation.**

- Puts on record what is missing the same day

→ The claim goes out while it is easy.

**Nobody notes which area each consignment went to.**

- Records what was unloaded and where it was used

→ The data nobody else holds is kept.

**At close-out, eight months of delivery documentation is requested.**

- Keeps each delivery with its date

→ The handover is prepared in an afternoon.

**A different reference to the one ordered arrives.**

- Notes the difference on receipt

→ The discrepancy is resolved before installation.