Outbuild is online scheduling software to work together on connected project schedules and look-aheads, enabling everyone to move faster.
Key Takeaways
- Schedules, Lookaheads, and Weekly Work Plans within one integrated platform.
- Real-time insights and project analytics through automated dashboards.
- Easier, streamlined plan management through a user-friendly interface.
Table of contents
- What construction delays are and why they matter
- Reasons for construction project delays
- Legal Damages for Construction Delays
- Delay Costs in Construction
- Types of Construction delays
- Prevention strategies and best practices for Construction Delays
- Managing Project Delays in Construction
- Legal and contract levers (use them, don't fear them)
- Leveraging Technology for Project Delays
Are you tired of seeing your construction projects delayed? Project delays aren’t just annoying—they’re expensive, messy, and impactful. One missed delivery or a sudden storm can throw an entire job off track, costing time, money, and a lot of frustration.
A construction delay occurs when planned work doesn't finish on schedule. A construction delay can be a day or months. Either way, it ripples—labor stands down, equipment idles, cash flow tightens, and owner trust drops. Poor communication, and poor planning and scheduling, are often to blame for delays in the construction industry.
You see project delays in construction on jobs of every size. However, the goal is to reduce risk, react early, and keep the schedule in line.
You might hear people say construction delays are “just part of the business.” Sure, but the causes of construction delays are not random. Most slippage comes from a short list of repeat offenders. If you know them, you can spot the warning signs and act before the chain reaction starts.
According to BD+C, 87% of contractors reported experiencing construction delays on their projects. Additionally, 49% of respondents cited managing the schedule and meeting project timelines as a key challenge.
Here are some common causes of delays in construction project work:
Weather delays
Storms, extreme heat waves and freeze days can result in crews not being able to pour, lift, or roof. Build a weather calendar by major activity and expect construction weather delays in your critical path months.
Materials delays
Long-lead gear (switchgear, air handlers) and basic products (drywall, rebar) can slip. When construction material delays happen, crews arrive but can’t install. Pre-approve substitutions early to avoid time delays in construction projects.
Labor delays
The job market is tight in many areas. Some delays are happening because of staff shortages. This is especially true for licensed trades and inspection staff.
Backlogs with the City delays
Incomplete submissions, or a missed checklist item can all be reasons for project delays. Proactively manage and schedule any required inspections ahead of time.
Design changes and RFIs delays
Late decisions, unclear details, and long review cycles.
Scope creep and out-of-sequence work delays
Chasing small add-ons distracts crews from the critical path.
Rework and quality misses delays
Fixing mistakes hurts twice: first for the redo and then for the re-sequence.
Site constraints and logistics delays
One gate, shared crane, tight laydown. Sound familiar? Tight constraints or poor logistics can cause slowdowns.
If you notice delays in construction projects happening in many areas, check for a main cause. This could involve missing design information, late ordering of materials, or not receiving a key approval. And, sometimes delays are taking place due to staff shortages.
If a project is late and causes financial loss, the affected party can seek compensation for breach of contract, i.e. liquidated damages.
Contractor Claims
If delays are caused by the owner or another contractor, the contractor might recover costs like:
- Project management and supervision
- Overhead and lost profits
- Lost use or rental income
- Insurance and loan interest
Owner Claims
If the contractor causes the delay, the owner could claim costs such as:
- Supervision and extended site overhead
- Jobsite trailers, utilities, and temporary facilities
- Insurance, equipment, and labor costs
- Extra material costs or lost productivity
- Demobilization and remobilization expenses
How to Fix the Disconnect Between the Office and Field.
Download the report to learn more:
- Learn about the why scheduling and planning fail the field
- Understand the pain points, inefficiencies, and evolving practices shaping scheduling today
- Find out how to bridge critical disconnects happening in construction
Every type of delay in construction has a price. Some costs are obvious and some are hidden:
- Direct burn: Field supervision, general conditions, rental gear, temp power—these keep ticking.
- Out-of-sequence work: Crews hopscotch and produce less per hour.
- Escalation: Materials and labor go up over long schedules.
- Liquidated damages or lost revenue: Depending on the contract, types of delays in construction projects can trigger daily penalties.
It is important to track construction delay costs regularly. And, track them with intent: weekly variance logs, T&M tickets, and updates to forecast complete. Don’t guess. If you can quantify a cost delay, you can defend it or avoid it next time.
When there are delays on construction projects and owners miss opening dates, the impact of delays in project completion includes lost tenants, late operations, and reputation hits.
Another cost delay shows up as overtime premiums when you crash the schedule. And the third cost delay happens when you extend the job and carry GCs longer than planned. Those are real dollars.
Classifying delay matters because it drives who pays and how you recover time.
- Critical vs. non-critical. Does the slip hit the critical path? If yes, the finish date moves. If not, you might absorb it within the float.
- Excusable vs. inexcusable. Weather events, owner-directed changes, strikes, pandemics—usually excusable. Poor planning, late submittals, or missing crews—often inexcusable.
- Compensable vs. non-compensable. Some excusable delays come with extra time and money; others give time only.
As a general contractor, you can’t remove all risk, but you can implement some prevention strategies.
Front-load decisions: Lock & order long-lead items in preconstruction. Get early approvals on alternates.
Level labor and lock commitments: Identify peak weeks by trade and secure crews in writing. If you expect delays in construction projects from labor, spread work or split crews.
Right-size the schedule: Avoid thousands of tasks nobody uses. Build a clean logic master schedule with clear handoffs and connected lookaheads. That cuts construction schedule delays caused by confusion.
Integrated submittals: Connect your Procore submittals to your Outbuild Schedule for dynamic tracking, lead time management and easy reporting.
Quality at the source. Embed QC checks into crews’ daily work. Catch mistakes before they grow into construction project delays through rework.
To avoid delays in construction projects, make decisions early. Order materials early. Inspect everything early. Keep the workflow simple. Most importantly? Build a great master schedule with connected lookaheads.
Even well-run jobs slip. The difference is how fast you respond.
- Call it early: When float burns down, flag it. Be specific: “Electrical risers are late; five days; critical.”
- Flag Roadblocks: Don’t wait until they stall the whole job. Use tools like Outbuild’s scheduling to identify and manage roadblocks early. Assign tasks to people and keep everyone on the same page about how to fix them.
- Add shifts or crews: If there are delays because of staff shortages with one sub, bring in a second crew or move to another area.
- Switch materials: Use the pre-approved alternates.
- Negotiate time or money: If the delay is excusable and compensable, submit a change.
- Communicate through a collaborative tool: Owner, designer, subs should all be aligned on the plan and all times.
When you do these steps, you’re practicing how to mitigate construction delays in a way the field respects. Keep paperwork tight. Daily logs, photos, delivery slips. That’s the record you’ll need if the delay in construction becomes a claim.
Construction Contracts won’t fix a bad plan, but they define the rules. Watch these areas:
Force majeure and adverse weather. Understand how the contract defines “abnormal” weather and what proof you need.
Notice provisions. Many agreements need written notice within a set number of days.
Liquidated damages and bonuses. LDs set late penalties; incentives can offset risk.
Time extensions. Understand the process for requesting more time and identify the required documentation. Delays can be excusable (like weather) or compensable (like owner-caused changes).
No-damage-for-delay clauses. Some owners limit compensation to time only; read local law.
If you record the facts clearly using good scheduling and planning software, you can explain why delays in construction were not your fault. Good documentation also helps if the owner argues the reasons for construction delays are contractor-driven.
How to mitigate delays in construction through tech
Live, collaborative schedules with connected lookaheads
Use a master schedule to track the big picture and connect that with short-interval planning that crews actually use to reduce project delays from missed handoffs.
Model-based coordination
Clash detection and 4D sequencing spot construction delays before breaking ground.
Procurement trackers
Use digital tools to track materials from order to delivery. Monitor real-time ETAs and confirm shipments with photos or QR/barcode scans. Flag potential delays before they affect the schedule.
Daily reporting
Timestamped notes and weather feeds create clean reporting.
"Outbuild is used by our internal team, our trade partners, our clients, and our general contractor partners. Outbuild has provided us with much-needed task progress visibility and clearly defined six-week lookaheads, roadblock management, and weekly work plan commitments from our teams on site." – Eliott Kahn, General Superintendent at Kahn Mechanical Contractors
How to Fix the Disconnect Between the Office and Field.
Every type of delay in construction has a price. Some costs are obvious and some are hidden:
- Direct burn: Field supervision, general conditions, rental gear, temp power—these keep ticking.
- Out-of-sequence work: Crews hopscotch and produce less per hour.
- Escalation: Materials and labor go up over long schedules.
- Liquidated damages or lost revenue: Depending on the contract, types of delays in construction projects can trigger daily penalties.
It is important to track construction delay costs regularly. And, track them with intent: weekly variance logs, T&M tickets, and updates to forecast complete. Don’t guess. If you can quantify a cost delay, you can defend it or avoid it next time.
When there are delays on construction projects and owners miss opening dates, the impact of delays in project completion includes lost tenants, late operations, and reputation hits.
Another cost delay shows up as overtime premiums when you crash the schedule. And the third cost delay happens when you extend the job and carry GCs longer than planned. Those are real dollars.
Classifying delay matters because it drives who pays and how you recover time.
- Critical vs. non-critical. Does the slip hit the critical path? If yes, the finish date moves. If not, you might absorb it within the float.
- Excusable vs. inexcusable. Weather events, owner-directed changes, strikes, pandemics—usually excusable. Poor planning, late submittals, or missing crews—often inexcusable.
- Compensable vs. non-compensable. Some excusable delays come with extra time and money; others give time only.
As a general contractor, you can’t remove all risk, but you can implement some prevention strategies.
Front-load decisions: Lock & order long-lead items in preconstruction. Get early approvals on alternates.
Level labor and lock commitments: Identify peak weeks by trade and secure crews in writing. If you expect delays in construction projects from labor, spread work or split crews.
Right-size the schedule: Avoid thousands of tasks nobody uses. Build a clean logic master schedule with clear handoffs and connected lookaheads. That cuts construction schedule delays caused by confusion.
Integrated submittals: Connect your Procore submittals to your Outbuild Schedule for dynamic tracking, lead time management and easy reporting.
Quality at the source. Embed QC checks into crews’ daily work. Catch mistakes before they grow into construction project delays through rework.
To avoid delays in construction projects, make decisions early. Order materials early. Inspect everything early. Keep the workflow simple. Most importantly? Build a great master schedule with connected lookaheads.
Even well-run jobs slip. The difference is how fast you respond.
- Call it early: When float burns down, flag it. Be specific: “Electrical risers are late; five days; critical.”
- Flag Roadblocks: Don’t wait until they stall the whole job. Use tools like Outbuild’s scheduling to identify and manage roadblocks early. Assign tasks to people and keep everyone on the same page about how to fix them.
- Add shifts or crews: If there are delays because of staff shortages with one sub, bring in a second crew or move to another area.
- Switch materials: Use the pre-approved alternates.
- Negotiate time or money: If the delay is excusable and compensable, submit a change.
- Communicate through a collaborative tool: Owner, designer, subs should all be aligned on the plan and all times.
When you do these steps, you’re practicing how to mitigate construction delays in a way the field respects. Keep paperwork tight. Daily logs, photos, delivery slips. That’s the record you’ll need if the delay in construction becomes a claim.
Construction Contracts won’t fix a bad plan, but they define the rules. Watch these areas:
Force majeure and adverse weather. Understand how the contract defines “abnormal” weather and what proof you need.
Notice provisions. Many agreements need written notice within a set number of days.
Liquidated damages and bonuses. LDs set late penalties; incentives can offset risk.
Time extensions. Understand the process for requesting more time and identify the required documentation. Delays can be excusable (like weather) or compensable (like owner-caused changes).
No-damage-for-delay clauses. Some owners limit compensation to time only; read local law.
If you record the facts clearly using good scheduling and planning software, you can explain why delays in construction were not your fault. Good documentation also helps if the owner argues the reasons for construction delays are contractor-driven.
How to mitigate delays in construction through tech
Live, collaborative schedules with connected lookaheads
Use a master schedule to track the big picture and connect that with short-interval planning that crews actually use to reduce project delays from missed handoffs.
Model-based coordination
Clash detection and 4D sequencing spot construction delays before breaking ground.
Procurement trackers
Use digital tools to track materials from order to delivery. Monitor real-time ETAs and confirm shipments with photos or QR/barcode scans. Flag potential delays before they affect the schedule.
Daily reporting
Timestamped notes and weather feeds create clean reporting.
"Outbuild is used by our internal team, our trade partners, our clients, and our general contractor partners. Outbuild has provided us with much-needed task progress visibility and clearly defined six-week lookaheads, roadblock management, and weekly work plan commitments from our teams on site." – Eliott Kahn, General Superintendent at Kahn Mechanical Contractors
Frequently Asked Questions
Managing construction delays needs clear communication and smart planning. First, find the cause and then, create a plan with all stakeholders to adjust schedules and priorities.Using construction scheduling and planning software like Outbuild can help track progress. It provides real-time updates and spots problems early.
Construction project management platforms keep jobs on track by improving communication, scheduling, and risk management. With real-time updates and mobile access, teams can work better together. Smarter scheduling tools help them see progress and resources clearly. This way, they can avoid issues, solve problems quickly, and reduce delays that waste time and money.
To mitigate construction delays, start by creating a detailed project schedule and regularly updating it. Communicate clearly with the team to ensure everyone understands their tasks and deadlines. Address issues such as equipment availability, weather risks, and material shortages early. Regular inspections and proactive problem-solving can keep the project on track. Finally, always build some flexibility into the timeline to account for unexpected events.
Some common reasons for delays in construction projects include poor planning, lack of communication, and unexpected weather conditions. Delays can also happen because of shortages of materials or equipment and mistakes made during the building process. Additionally, changes in project scope or design can cause setbacks, as they often require more time for adjustments. Proper preparation and management can help minimize these issues.
Dealing with weather delays on construction projects requires careful planning and flexibility. First, keep a close watch on weather forecasts so you can adjust schedules in advance. Second, create a buffer in your project timeline to account for unexpected delays. Third, use protective materials and equipment to safeguard the site during bad weather. Finally, communicate with your team regularly to ensure everyone is aware of changes and stays on track.
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