Float is the number of working days something can slip before the finish date moves. Unless the contract assigns it to the owner or the builder, float belongs to the project, and the project gives it to whoever slips first. That means a framing sub's late start can use up the cushion that was quietly covering the owner's pending window change, and nobody notices until the change lands and the finish date moves. The fix is a record: at every schedule update, write down how much float each path has, how much it lost since the last update and who used it. A delay argument months later then rests on a dated note instead of two people's memories.

Float is invisible until it runs out

There are two kinds of float worth tracking on a residential or light commercial job. Total float is how long an activity can slip before the project finish moves. Free float is how long it can slip before the next activity has to move. Activities on the critical path have zero total float by definition — the four or five that set the finish date, covered in critical path method for builders. Everything else has some cushion, and if the schedule finishes ahead of the contract completion date, the whole job has cushion too.

The problem is how float behaves on a Gantt chart. When a non-critical activity slips by 3 days and it had 8 days of float, its bar moves and the finish date does not. Nothing turns red. The superintendent sees the job still finishing on time and moves on. The only evidence that something happened is a number in a column that went from 8 to 5, and most builders never look at that column.

That is why tracking float in construction schedule updates matters more than tracking the finish date. The finish date tells you when you have already lost. The float number tells you how much you have left to lose and who has been spending it.

Nobody owns float until the contract says so

Who gets to use float is a contract question, and most builders have never read the clause — or their contract does not have one. These are the common positions. Read your own documents and talk to your attorney before relying on any of them.

  • Contract silent — float is usually treated as belonging to the project. First come, first served. The owner, the builder and every sub draw on the same pool, and whoever needs it first gets it.
  • Project-owned float stated in writing — the same first-come rule, but written down. Some clauses add that neither party may sequester float by padding durations.
  • Owner-owned float — the owner can use float for changes and their own delays without granting a time extension. The builder's slips still consume it.
  • Contractor-owned float — float is the builder's cushion. If an owner change consumes it, the builder is entitled to time even if the finish date never moves.
  • Apportioned float — float is split by a stated ratio or by line items in the schedule. Less common on jobs this size, and it only works if someone tracks consumption by party.

On a silent contract the builder is exposed in a specific way. Your subs are your responsibility to the owner. When your sub burns float, the owner sees it as you burning float. When the owner then makes a change that needs that same float, the owner will argue the change was absorbed by float that existed in the baseline — and that you spent it.

How a sub's late start eats the owner's cushion

A worked example, with round numbers. A custom home is scheduled to finish 8 working days before the contract completion date. That is 8 days of project float.

  1. Week 6: the framing sub starts 5 days late because their crew was finishing another job. Framing is on the critical path, so the forecast finish moves 5 days later. It is still 3 days ahead of the contract date. Nothing looks wrong. Float is now 3.
  2. Week 11: the owner changes the front windows to a different unit with a longer lead time. Installation moves, and the drywall and exterior trim that follow it move with it. The change adds 6 days to the critical path.
  3. Forecast finish is now 3 days past the contract completion date.
  4. The owner's position: the window change was inside the float in the original schedule, so no extension is owed — the builder spent the float on a late framer.
  5. The builder's position: the window change caused 6 days of delay and the finish moved because of it.

Both are partly right, and on a silent contract the owner's argument is the stronger one for the first 5 days. The framer did consume float first. What matters is whether anyone can prove the sequence. If nobody wrote it down, the dispute becomes the builder's memory against the owner's memory about events four months ago, plus whatever can be reconstructed from texts and invoices.

With a record, the conversation is short. The week 6 update shows float went from 8 to 3, cause: framing sub late start, with the daily log entries for the days the crew did not show. Change order 7 for the windows shows a 6-day impact, 3 absorbed by remaining float, 3 past the contract date. Now the parties are arguing about 3 days and two documents instead of 6 days and a feeling. Depending on the contract, the builder may be owed those 3 days. Under a contractor-owned float clause, possibly all 6. The record does not decide the outcome — it decides whether there is anything to argue from.

When a change order comes in early and the job has float, it is tempting to write "no schedule impact" because today, the finish date does not move. That sentence is a signed admission that the change cost zero days. If float later runs out for any reason, those days are gone. Write the impact as float consumed instead: "Consumes 4 working days of float on the interior finishes path. Forecast finish unchanged as of March 12." That is true, it does not ask the owner for time they do not owe and it preserves the fact that the change used part of the cushion.

What to record at every schedule update

A float log is a short table kept alongside the schedule. It does not need special software. It needs to be filled in at every update — weekly on most jobs — by the same person each time. Record these, in this order:

  1. Data date — the date the schedule reflects, not the date someone got around to updating it.
  2. Forecast finish and the contract completion date, side by side.
  3. Total float on the critical path and on every path within 5 working days of becoming critical.
  4. Change in float on each of those paths since the last update, in working days.
  5. Cause of each change, in one line: the activity that moved and why.
  6. Who caused it, by name — the owner, the architect, the builder's own crew, a sub by company name, weather, a utility, the building department.
  7. The document that backs it up: the daily log date, the RFI number, the change order number, the inspection result.

The last two columns are the ones that get skipped and the ones that matter. "Float down 3 days" is a measurement. "Float down 3 days, electrical sub no-show March 4 to 6, see daily logs" is evidence. The categories of delay that follow from it — excusable, compensable, concurrent — are covered in construction delay types and claims. The float log is what lets you sort an event into the right one.

Float can come back

Float also increases — a sub finishes early, an inspection passes a day ahead, a scope item gets deleted. Record those too, with the same columns. A log that only records losses looks like a claim being built. A log that records gains and losses looks like a schedule being managed, and that is the version that holds up when the other side reads it.

Weekly, not when something goes wrong

Float rarely disappears in one event. It goes 2 days on a late concrete pour, 1 day on a failed framing inspection, 3 days on a sub who pulled their crew to another job. Each one is small enough that nobody thinks it is worth writing down. A month later, 6 days are gone and nobody can say where.

Delay disputes turn on contemporaneous records — documents made at the time, by people doing the work, before anyone knew there would be a dispute. A float log written the week it happened is that kind of record. One reconstructed after the owner refuses an extension is not, and the other side will say so. The daily log is the raw material. The float log is the weekly summary that turns those entries into days on a path.

On a builder running 15 jobs, this is a 5 to 10 minute task per job per week if the schedule is current. If the schedule is not current, that is the first problem to fix, and no float log will fix it.

What the record does not do

A float log is not a contract and does not override one. If the contract says the owner owns float, a perfect record of the owner using it does not get you time — it gets you a clear answer that you are not owed any. It does not satisfy notice requirements either. If the contract requires written notice of a delay within a set number of days, the float log is not that notice. Send the notice separately.

It also does not let you pass a sub's delay to the owner. If your framer ate the float, that is between you and the framer. What the record does give you there is a basis for a backcharge under the subcontract, if the subcontract allows one and the delay later cost you money. And on a large disputed claim, it does not replace a scheduling consultant. It gives the consultant something to work from instead of a reconstruction.

Where BuilderSolve fits

In BuilderSolve, scheduling is built from the estimate, and the same schedule can be viewed as a Gantt chart, a calendar or a table. Daily logs, RFIs and change orders sit in the same platform, and change orders carry an audit trail — who created them, who approved them and when. The AI assistant can draft a schedule shift or a change order from a daily log entry, but a person approves or rejects it before anything moves, so every shift has a date and a name attached.

What the software does not do is decide who owns float or write the cause for you. The cause column in a float log is a judgment — whether the electrical sub was late or the panel was late from the supplier — and it should be made by someone who knows the job. If your team does not have the hours for weekly updates, the BuilderSolve operations team can keep schedules current, maintain the float log and flag paths within a few days of going critical as part of the weekly lookahead.

What to do this week

  1. Pull the contract on your three largest active jobs and find the float clause. If there is none, assume first come, first served.
  2. Open the current schedule on each and write down today's total float on the critical path and on anything within 5 working days of it. That is your baseline.
  3. Go back through the last month of daily logs and note any slips you already know about, with who caused them. It will be incomplete. It is still better than nothing.
  4. Change your change order template so the time line asks for days of float consumed and the forecast finish date, not a yes or no on schedule impact.
  5. Pick one person who updates the float log every week, and put it on their calendar.

Common questions

who owns float in a construction schedule

The contract decides who owns float. If it is silent, float is usually treated as belonging to the project and used first come, first served by the owner, the builder and subs. Some contracts give float to the owner, some to the contractor and some split it. Read the clause on each job, and have an attorney review it before relying on it in a dispute.

what is the difference between total float and free float

Total float is how many working days an activity can slip before the project finish date moves. Free float is how many days it can slip before the next activity has to move. An activity can have 6 days of total float and 0 days of free float, which means any slip pushes a following trade even though the finish holds. Track total float for delay arguments.

does using float count as a construction delay

Using float is not a delay to the project if the finish date does not move, but it still matters. Consumed float is gone for everyone else, so the next event pushes the finish sooner. Under a contractor-owned float clause, an owner change that consumes float may entitle the builder to time even with no finish date change. Record every use.

should a change order include schedule days if there is float

Yes — state the days of float the change consumes, even if the finish date does not move. Writing "no schedule impact" signs away those days. If float later runs out for another reason, you have no record the change used part of it. Write the working days consumed, the path affected and the forecast finish as of the change order date.

how often should you update float on a construction schedule

Weekly on most residential and light commercial jobs. Float tends to disappear in 1 to 3 day increments, and monthly updates let several small losses blur together so nobody can say who caused which. A weekly update with the cause, the responsible party and the backing document takes a few minutes per job if the schedule itself is current.