AEC definitions
Float is the time a schedule activity can be delayed before it affects another date. Total float is how long it can slip before the project finish moves. Free float is how long it can slip before it delays the next activity. Negative float means the schedule already misses a required date. The contract should say who may use the float.
Definition
Float is a calculation from the critical path method, not a spare week hiding in a drawer. A delay that consumes total float may not move the end date and still may hurt a successor trade. Many contracts say float is a shared project resource and is not for the exclusive use of either party. Others are silent, which is how float-ownership fights start. A schedule update that sequesters float so only the contractor can use it, or that hides negative float, is a schedule-quality issue. The specification or the general conditions should set the rules.
In depth
Early and late dates are calculated forward and backward through logic. The difference is float. An activity with zero total float is on the critical path. Changing a relationship changes the float. Painting float onto a bar chart without logic is not a CPM.
Calendars, constraints, and lags move the number. A finish constraint on substantial completion is why negative float appears when the network runs long.
If float is shared, the contractor may not bank it for their own delays while charging the owner for every owner delay that touches a near-critical activity. If the contractor owns it, say so. Silence favors the party with the louder schedule narrative.
Consuming float is not automatically a breach. Moving the contract date is. The analysis has to keep those apart.
It means the logic cannot meet the constraint. The update should explain why and what recovery is planned. Hiding it by deleting logic is not recovery.
A recovery schedule is a real re-sequence, priced if the contract makes it so, not a shorter duration typed over the same crew.
Monthly updates with actual dates show float disappearing. That record is the delay analysis.
A schedule that is revised only at the claim has no credibility. The spec should require the native file and a narrative.
Examples
An activity has five days of total float. A three-day slip does not move substantial completion. The update shows two days of float left.
The contract says float is shared. The owner and the contractor both consume it as updates record actuals. Neither treats it as their private bank.
The update shows negative float to the contractual finish. The narrative proposes a recovery sequence instead of deleting relationships.
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