The guide
The Government Construction Secrets Book
Nine chapters on the money-discipline side of federal construction work. Every chapter quotes the clause it rests on and ends with what triggers the clock and what you must have written down.
The expensive mistakes in federal construction are procedural and silent. This guide is built around that fact, starting with the notice clocks — the one part of the process where a door genuinely closes.
- The notice clocks: the one door that closes
Why written-notice deadlines are the expensive, silent part of federal construction, and how to run them. - Differing site conditions
How FAR 52.236-2 works: Type I and Type II conditions, the written-notice rule, and the records that make an adjustment provable. - Changes and equitable adjustments
How FAR 52.243-4 governs changes: written direction, the duty to proceed, and protecting your right to an equitable adjustment. - Suspension of work
How FAR 52.242-14 handles a suspension of work: the adjustment, the excluded costs, and the written assertion deadline. - Delays: excusable and compensable
Excusable versus compensable delay on federal construction, the time-extension request, and the concurrent-delay problem. - Pay applications, retainage and prompt-payment interest
FAR 52.232-27 and the Prompt Payment Act: what a proper invoice is, when the clock starts, and how interest accrues. - The disputes path and the certification
FAR 33.2 and the Contract Disputes Act: the contracting officer’s final decision, certification under FAR 33.207, the boards, and the cure for a defective certification. - Terminations
FAR Part 49 in practice: termination for convenience versus default, the notices, and the settlement proposal. - Closeout and the final release
Closeout on federal construction: final payment, retainage release, release-of-claims documents, and what to preserve.
Sources last checked 2026-10-09. This is general information and a field guide, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. For a formal claim or a dispute, engage a qualified government-contracts attorney. Owned and operated by GCExperts LLC.