Holding a Subcontractor to a Schedule

Why this matters

A sub you do not employ will not automatically put your job first. They answer to their own book of work, and your schedule competes with everyone else's. Schedule control is something you design into the agreement before the sub starts, not something you chase after they slip. Build it right and a sub protects your dates on their own. Leave it vague and you are stuck renegotiating the finish date every week while the customer watches.

Put dates in the agreement, not just a verbal

A schedule that is not written is not a commitment, it is a hope. Before work starts, the sub agreement should carry:

• Start date and expected duration. When they mobilize and how long the scope should take.
• Milestones for anything longer than a day or two. Interim points you can check progress against, not just a single end date you find out about too late.
• The completion date, stated as a date, tied to the customer's date.
• What happens if they slip. The remedy, so a delay has a named consequence instead of a shrug.

Dates a sub signed to are dates you can hold them to. Dates you mentioned are not.

Sequence and dependencies

A sub who does not know who is waiting on them cannot protect the handoff. Tell them where they sit in the job:

• What has to be finished before they can start, so they do not mobilize into a blocked site.
• What trade is waiting on their completion, so they understand a slip is not free.
• Any inspection or approval that gates the next phase.

A sub who knows the framer is idle until they finish treats the deadline differently than one who thinks they are working in isolation.

Build buffer and name the critical path

The critical path is the chain of tasks that determines the finish date. A slip on the critical path moves the whole job. A slip off it may cost nothing if there is slack.

• Know which subs sit on your critical path and manage their schedules tightest.
• Build a little buffer into the plan, because something always runs long. A schedule with zero slack fails the first time reality intrudes.
• Do not spend your buffer early on convenience. Hold it for the genuine surprise.

The teeth: backcharges and delay terms

A backcharge is billing a sub for a cost their failure caused you, deducted from what you owe them. A liquidated-damages term sets an agreed amount owed per day of unexcused delay. Both are legitimate, both need to be in the written agreement to be usable, and both should reflect real cost, not punishment:

• Use them sparingly and only for delay that is genuinely the sub's fault. A delay you contributed to is not a clean charge.
• Keep the documentation that proves the cost and the cause. An undocumented backcharge is a dispute you will lose.
• The threat of a fair, contract-backed consequence does most of the work. You rarely have to invoke a term a sub knows is real.

A communication cadence that keeps a schedule honest

Schedules do not slip all at once, they drift. Catch drift with a rhythm:

• A short look-ahead at each check-in: what is the next milestone and are we on it.
• Confirm the commitment out loud. "So you are done with rough-in by Thursday" surfaces a problem while there is still time to fix it.
• Address the first missed milestone immediately. The slip you let pass without comment is the one that becomes a habit.

Reward reliability

The strongest lever you have is not a penalty, it is your repeat work. Subs guard the schedules of the shops that keep hiring them. Pay reliable subs on time, give them steady work, and be the customer they do not want to lose, and your job stops competing for last place on their calendar. A backcharge clause is the floor. Being a client worth keeping is the ceiling.

References

• AIA and ConsensusDocs subcontract scheduling and delay provisions
• Trade-standard practice for project scheduling and critical-path management
• See related: A Sub Is Behind Schedule and Holding Up Your Job (Decision Tree); Managing a Subcontractor on Your Job