Cultural background has an influence on people's behaviour and their way of living. Therefore, the way in which people perform their duties and deal with others can differ from one culture to another. The paper examines the way in which some cultural issues in Saudi Arabia control people's daily time schedules, and it explains how this affects the scheduling of maintenance work. The occupiers' influences on the execution times for maintenance work are discussed, and an arrangement to organise the work schedule so as to minimise these effects is proposed. The outcome of this study is expected to be useful for both clients and contractors, because the problem will make them aware of scheduling difficulties. Data was collected from one of the largest housing projects in Saudi Arabia that was used as the basis for a case study.