There are four types of construction delays that matter once money is at stake: non-excusable, excusable non-compensable, excusable compensable and concurrent. Non-excusable gets you nothing and may cost you liquidated damages. Excusable gets you time. Compensable gets you time and money. Concurrent usually gets both sides time and neither side money. Which bucket a lost day lands in is rarely settled when it happens. It is settled months later by whoever kept the better record of that day.
Two questions sort every delay
Every delay gets asked two things. First — was it within the contractor's control or contractual risk? If yes, it is non-excusable. If no, the second question applies. Was it caused by the owner or by someone the owner answers for, such as the architect, the engineer or a separate owner's contractor? If yes, it is compensable. If no, it is excusable. The clock stops but the meter does not run. Concurrency is what happens when two delays on the same days get different answers.
- Non-excusable — Time: no. Money: no, and the owner may assess liquidated or actual damages. Typical causes: a sub who doesn't show, a short crew, a late material order, rework of defective work. Record that matters: an honest entry, so owner delays are not misfiled here by default.
- Excusable, non-compensable — Time: yes. Money: no. Typical causes: weather beyond what the contract treats as normal, strikes, fire, government shutdowns, events the contract lists as beyond either party's control. Record that matters: conditions, which critical activity stopped, crew sent home.
- Excusable, compensable — Time: yes. Money: yes, usually extended general conditions plus idle labor and equipment. Typical causes: late owner decisions, late RFI answers, incomplete design, owner-furnished items arriving late, denied site access, an owner-directed suspension. Record that matters: dated request, dated response, idle cost, notice letter.
- Concurrent — Time: usually yes. Money: usually neither side, unless the record lets the two causes be separated. Typical cause: an owner's late selection overlapping your own short crew. Record that matters: enough detail to split the two causes day by day.
Non-excusable: the delays builders lose quietly
Your framing sub moves two carpenters to another job. Trusses were ordered a week late. An inspection fails because the work was wrong. The contract assumes you carry that risk — it is part of what the price bought. Who carries which risk is a decision made at signing, the same logic behind choosing between unit price and lump sum contracts. The exposure is liquidated damages if the contract has them, or the owner's actual costs if it does not — interest, rent somewhere else, lost use of the building.
Recording these honestly is not self-incrimination. The problem runs the other way. An owner-caused day buried in a vague entry like "slow day, waiting on stuff" reads as yours by default, because nobody can prove it wasn't.
Excusable but not compensable: time, not money
Rain is not a delay. Rain that stops a critical activity on a day the contract does not already count as an expected weather day is. Many contracts say only unusually severe weather qualifies, and the owner will compare the claim against historical conditions for that month and location. A log that says "rain" loses. A log that says "heavy rain overnight and through 10am, footing excavation at the east wall stopped, crew of four sent home at 10:30, site pumped out next morning, resumed at 1pm" has a chance. Note that it claims the day after as well. A saturated site is a weather delay too, but only if somebody wrote it down.
The same pattern holds for strikes, supply interruptions and permit-office shutdowns. Time is available. Money mostly is not, because neither party caused it. The contract sometimes changes that, so read the force majeure clause rather than assuming.
Compensable: time plus the cost of the time
When the owner causes a critical delay, the recovery is usually the cost of the job staying open longer. That means extended general conditions — supervision, the trailer, temporary power and sanitation, equipment rental, insurance and the project manager's hours — for each day the finish moved. It also means idle labor and equipment during the stoppage, and escalation if materials cost more because the work was pushed. Lost profit on other jobs is rarely recoverable. It is hard to prove and most contracts exclude it.
A worked example, with illustrative numbers: general conditions on a job run $1,200 a day. The architect sits on a window submittal for nine working days and dry-in waits. Filed as excusable, that is nine days of extension. Filed as compensable, it is nine days of extension plus roughly $10,800, before any idle crew time. The difference is entirely in whether the submittal date, the follow-up dates and the response date exist in writing.
Watch for a no-damages-for-delay clause. It tries to turn compensable delays into non-compensable ones by contract. Some jurisdictions enforce these as written. Others carve out exceptions for active interference or delays nobody contemplated at signing. That is a question for your construction attorney, and it is worth asking before the job starts rather than after.
Concurrent delays: where most arguments end up
Two delays, the same days, both on the critical path. Your drywall crew is two short. Meanwhile the owner still hasn't confirmed the cabinet layout that has to be set before countertops can be templated. Each side points at the other.
Contracts and courts handle this differently. The common outcome is that the contractor gets the time, the owner does not collect liquidated damages and neither side collects delay damages. Some approaches apportion by cause when the record allows the delays to be separated. The side whose records can separate them wins that apportionment. "Owner hadn't picked cabinets" with no date for when you asked and no date for the answer is worth very little. "Layout requested in writing on the 3rd, follow-up on the 8th, received on the 15th" is worth a great deal.
Only critical-path delays move the finish
A delay that only uses float does not move the completion date and usually earns nothing, whoever caused it. Proof of a time extension therefore has two parts. The first is the cause. The second is a schedule showing the affected activity was critical on that day — on the current update, not the baseline from six months ago. The critical path method for builders covers how to find those activities. The practical point here is that a schedule nobody has updated since mobilization cannot prove anything about last Tuesday. Some contracts also say who owns float. If the owner owns it, the owner can use it up and you have no claim until it is gone.
The classification is decided on the day
Every one of the types of construction delays above turns on contemporaneous records — entries made at the time, by the people on site, before anyone knew there would be a dispute. Reconstructed records written after a claim is filed get discounted, and owners' consultants know how to spot them. When a delay happens, the day's log entry should hold:
- The date and the specific activity stopped or slowed, named the way it appears on the schedule.
- The cause in plain words, including who or what caused it.
- Crew on site, crew idled, crew sent home and the hours involved.
- Equipment on site and sitting idle.
- Who was notified, by what method and at what time, with the email or letter referenced.
- Timestamped photos of the condition.
- What it will take to restart, and the expected restart date.
Most contracts require written notice of a delay or claim within a fixed number of days of the event. Find the number in yours. Miss it, and a delay that was owner-caused, on the critical path and perfectly documented can still be waived. The daily log is evidence. The notice letter is the claim. Send notice inside the window even when the full impact isn't known yet, and say that the impact is still being assessed.
Where the software helps and where it stops
In BuilderSolve, daily logs capture weather, crew, equipment, photos and notes per job per day. Scheduling is built from the estimate, so an update shows which activity moved and what it pushed. Change orders carry an audit trail with dates and approvals. The AI assistant can draft a log entry or a schedule shift from what a superintendent tells it, and a person approves or rejects the draft before it counts. Our operations team can keep the RFI log and lookaheads current, so the request and response dates exist when they are needed.
What none of it does: classify a delay as excusable or compensable, draft a claim notice or interpret your no-damages clause. Those are contract and legal judgments. The software keeps the record that those judgments get made from. We'd rather say that plainly than imply otherwise.
What to do this week
- Open every active contract and find the delay notice clause. Write the day count on the front of the job file.
- In the same contracts, check for liquidated damages, a no-damages-for-delay clause and how weather days are defined.
- Change the daily log template so a delay entry cannot be saved without the scheduled activity name and the crew idled.
- Update the schedule weekly, so the critical path on file is the one that was true that week.
- Put a date on every owner request — selections, submittals, RFIs — and on every answer.
Common questions
what are the four types of construction delays
The four types are non-excusable, excusable non-compensable, excusable compensable and concurrent. Non-excusable delays are the contractor's risk and earn nothing. Excusable delays earn a time extension. Compensable delays, usually owner-caused, earn time and money. Concurrent delays overlap causes from both sides and typically earn time but no damages. The contract and the project records decide which type applies.
difference between excusable and compensable delay in construction
An excusable delay earns extra time. A compensable delay earns extra time plus the cost of that time. Excusable delays come from causes neither party controls, such as severe weather or strikes. Compensable delays come from the owner or the owner's team, such as late design or late approvals. A no-damages-for-delay clause can limit compensable recovery, depending on the jurisdiction.
does rain count as an excusable construction delay
Rain only counts if it stops a critical-path activity and exceeds what the contract treats as normal weather. Many contracts require unusually severe conditions, measured against historical norms for that month. The daily log has to show which activity stopped, which crew was sent home and when work resumed. An entry that just says "rain" rarely supports an extension.
who pays for concurrent delays in construction
Usually neither side collects money. The contractor typically gets a time extension and the owner gives up liquidated damages for that period. Some contracts and jurisdictions apportion costs by cause when the records can separate the two delays day by day. The party with dated requests, dated responses and specific crew records is the one able to argue for apportionment.
do I have to give written notice of a construction delay
Yes, in almost every contract, and usually within a set number of days of the event. Missing that window can waive the claim even when the owner clearly caused the delay. Send notice promptly, describe the cause and the affected activity, and state that the full impact is still being assessed if it is not yet known.