The Scope Gap Index / Division 03
Division 03 · Concrete · Q3 2026
125 Division 03 packages across 24 projects, generated between 17 July and 30 September 2026 for Provision customers, ranked by how often each job got flagged. Model flags, checked by a person on fewer than one item in a hundred. Where to look, not proof.
Division 03 packages across 24 projects, 17 July to 30 September 2026
of 125 had at least one flag from Scope Agent
flags in total: 500 inferred, 1,232 coordination
of flags were coordination flags, work sitting between concrete and another trade, the highest share of any division
Inferred means Scope Agent judged the job necessary and found no scope naming who does it. Coordination means it judged the job to sit between two trades. Neither is a confirmed omission on that project.
Ranked
Scope Agent flagged an anchor, embed or connection in 84 of 125 concrete packages, and in 64 of those as work sitting between concrete and another trade. Concrete is the division other trades cast things into. The steel sub’s embed plates, the electrical sub’s sleeves and the mechanical sub’s anchor bolts all land in the concrete sub’s pour, and the documents often show them without saying who buys them, who sets them and who checks them before the truck arrives.
| Job flagged | Packages | Inferred | Coordination | Share flagged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchors, embeds and connections44 inferred · 64 coordination | 84 of 125 | 44 | 64 | 67% |
| Penetrations, sleeves and firestopping28 inferred · 52 coordination | 65 of 125 | 28 | 52 | 52% |
| Sealants, flashing and waterproofing joints14 inferred · 56 coordination | 58 of 125 | 14 | 56 | 46% |
| Blocking, backing and support14 inferred · 47 coordination | 57 of 125 | 14 | 47 | 46% |
| Temporary protection38 inferred · 29 coordination | 54 of 125 | 38 | 29 | 43% |
| Openings, cutting and patching5 inferred · 47 coordination | 50 of 125 | 5 | 47 | 40% |
| Tolerances, joints and trade interfaces21 inferred · 35 coordination | 49 of 125 | 21 | 35 | 39% |
| Removal, demolition and disposal25 inferred · 18 coordination | 39 of 125 | 25 | 18 | 31% |
| Testing, inspection and certification22 inferred · 13 coordination | 32 of 125 | 22 | 13 | 26% |
| Utility and service connections10 inferred · 20 coordination | 28 of 125 | 10 | 20 | 22% |
| Shop drawings and submittals11 inferred · 16 coordination | 27 of 125 | 11 | 16 | 22% |
| Scaffolding, shoring and access13 inferred · 8 coordination | 21 of 125 | 13 | 8 | 17% |
| Cleaning20 inferred · 1 coordination | 20 of 125 | 20 | 1 | 16% |
| Hoisting, lifting and delivery17 inferred · 4 coordination | 20 of 125 | 17 | 4 | 16% |
| Maintenance, warranty and spares12 inferred · 0 coordination | 12 of 125 | 12 | 0 | 10% |
“Inferred” and “coordination” count packages with that kind of flag, and a package can have both, so the two columns can add to more than the total. The generic supply-versus-install topic (96 of 125) is left out; see the method note.
Beyond the ranking
Across all 1,290 packages, inferred flags outnumber coordination flags by three to two. Concrete runs the other way: 1,232 coordination against 500 inferred, seven flags in ten. Read that as the shape of the trade. A concrete package rarely leaves its own work out. What it leaves out is the hand-off, because the slab is the one surface every other trade has to get something into or through.
Fifty packages got a flag for openings, cutting and patching, and 47 of those were coordination flags against five inferred. Nobody disputes that the opening is needed. The flag is about whether the concrete sub forms it, the mechanical sub cores it later, or the GC pays for both when the sleeve drawing never got signed.
Temporary protection drew 38 inferred flags against 29 coordination, and cleaning 20 inferred against one. Curing blankets, keeping the framer’s lifts off a finished slab, and washing out before the flooring sub tests for moisture: the documents call for the result and name nobody for the work.
The items in detail
The eight jobs flagged most often, after the generic supply-versus-install topic. Check your own documents before assuming a flag is right.
Usually points at embed plates for structural steel, anchor bolts for columns and equipment, cast-in sleeves and inserts for hangers, and the dowels that tie a later pour to an earlier one. The structural drawings show the embed and the steel sub assumes concrete sets it. Put the embed and anchor bolt schedule in the concrete scope, name who supplies each item and who surveys it in, and require a sign-off before every pour.
Sleeves through slabs and walls for mechanical, plumbing and electrical, block-outs for ducts and shafts, and core drilling after the pour when a sleeve was missed. Say that the concrete sub installs sleeves supplied by each trade, require a combined sleeve drawing before the pour, and state who pays for coring when a sleeve isn’t there. Firestopping the penetration afterwards belongs to someone too.
Waterstops in cold joints, joint sealant in slab control joints, the sealant at the slab edge where the waterproofer’s membrane turns up the wall. Fifty-six of the 58 flags were coordination flags. Name the trade that installs waterstop, say whether control-joint sealant is the concrete sub’s or the flooring sub’s, and tie the waterproofing hand-off to a substrate inspection.
In concrete this means supports for cast-in items: anchor bolt templates, sleeve supports, chairs and bolsters for rebar, and the bracing for formwork around embeds another trade supplies. The electrical sub drops off a conduit stub and expects it held in place through the pour. Say who supports what another trade supplies.
Curing and protecting the finished slab: blankets in cold weather, keeping the framer’s scissor lifts and the drywall sub’s stacked board off a slab that’s three days old, covering architectural concrete until the end of the job. Thirty-eight of the 54 flags were inferred, so the documents asked for the protection and named nobody. Put a duration and a responsible trade on it.
Forming block-outs for doors, louvres, shafts and equipment, cutting openings the drawings added late, and patching core holes and form tie holes to a finish the painter will accept. Forty-seven of the 50 flags were coordination flags. Decide whether the concrete sub forms every opening on the drawings or only the structural ones, and who patches what the mechanical sub cores.
Floor flatness and levelness numbers, the anchor bolt placement tolerance the steel erector will hold the concrete sub to, and the surface the flooring and waterproofing subs will accept. Thirty-five of the 49 flags were coordination flags. Specify FF and FL by area, say who measures and when, and say who grinds or fills if it’s out.
Stripping and removing formwork, hauling off excess concrete and washout, and removing existing slabs on renovation work. Twenty-five of the 39 flags were inferred. State that formwork removal and disposal are in the concrete scope, name a washout location, and put demolition of existing concrete in the demolition sub’s scope or the concrete sub’s, not neither.
Method
125 scope packages classified to MasterFormat Division 03, generated by Scope Agent between 17 July and 30 September 2026 on all 24 projects in the quarter’s cohort. Division 03 is several trades, not one: concrete finishing (18 packages), formwork (17), concrete supply (17), rebar (16), coring (15) and precast (13) each carry their own packages, alongside 13 labelled simply concrete, building, site or structural concrete and two for lightweight concrete and gypsum underlayment. Fourteen more carried a customer-specific label we couldn’t map to a standard trade; they’re counted here because the package itself was coded to the division. A package is one trade on one project, as it stood at quarter end, so a project typically contributes five concrete packages. An item counts when Scope Agent flagged it as inferred or coordination. We grouped the items into sixteen topics by keyword, and one item can land in more than one topic.
125 packages on 24 projects is the second-largest division sample on the Index, so one package moves a share by less than a point. The bigger caution is composition: a concrete supply package and a rebar package get flagged for different things, and this page blends them. These are Provision customers’ projects, and the numbers describe this sample only. A flag is Scope Agent’s judgment, checked by a person on fewer than one item in a hundred, so some flags will be wrong. We’ll update it every quarter.
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