Construction schedule
Construction schedule: free template and online Gantt chart
A construction schedule shows which works happen when, in what order and how long the job will take. Start from a complete template for a new building, from detailed design to handover, and adapt it to your site: in Excel or online, with the critical path calculated for you.
Free, with no limit on projects or users. The Excel file needs no account.
What is a construction schedule?
It is the time plan of a building project: the list of activities (site setup, excavation, foundations, structure, envelope, services, finishes), their duration in working days and the links between them. Drawn as a Gantt chart, it shows at a glance when each trade is on site and which activities decide the completion date.
Contractors use it to organise crews and deliveries, clients and project managers to check progress against the contract dates. A good schedule is updated as the work advances: when an activity slips, the dates of everything that depends on it move too.
The phases of a typical construction schedule
The template follows the usual sequence for a small new building. Each phase is a summary task with its own activities.
Pre-construction
Detailed design, building permit, tender and contract award, up to the start-of-works milestone.
Site setup and earthworks
Site establishment, hoarding and welfare facilities, then excavation and earthworks.
Structure
Foundations, columns, walls and beams, floor slabs and roof, up to the topping-out milestone.
Building envelope
Masonry and infill walls, waterproofing and insulation, external windows and doors.
Building services
Plumbing, heating and electrical installation, which run in parallel once the walls are up.
Finishes and handover
Plastering, flooring, painting and external works, then testing, certificates and handover.
How to build a construction schedule in four steps
Break the work into phases
Follow the logic of the site: what has to be finished before the next trade can start. Group activities into phases, each with one person responsible.
Estimate durations in working days
Use crew output and quantities, not wishes. Allow for curing times, inspections and delivery lead times for windows, lifts or plant.
Link the activities
Finish-to-start for the strict sequences, start-to-start with a lag for works that can overlap, such as slabs that begin while the frame is still going up.
Check the critical path and update
The activities without float decide the handover date. Save a baseline when the schedule is approved and record progress every week.
The construction schedule template
The template contains 7 phases, 18 activities and 3 milestones (start of works, topping out, handover), for 146 working days in total, about 110 of them on site after the permit. Durations are realistic for a small residential building and are meant to be changed.
In Excel, dates are formulas: change the start date or a duration and the whole schedule moves. In Planitude the same plan has the critical path, the four dependency types, baselines and workload by trade.
Construction schedule
21 tasks · 146 working days
New building: detailed design, permits, earthworks, structure, envelope, building services, finishes, inspections and handover.
Open in Planitude (Construction schedule)Practical tips for a schedule that holds
Plan the inspections
Inspections and approvals are activities with a duration and an owner, not notes in the margin: they often decide the critical path.
Consider the weather
Earthworks, roofing and external works suffer in rain and frost. Use a project calendar with realistic working days for the season.
Order long-lead items early
Windows, lifts and plant can take weeks to arrive: add the order and the delivery as activities linked to installation.
Don’t overuse constraints
A fixed date on every activity hides the real logic. Keep constraints for contract dates and let dependencies do the rest.
Update every week
Record actual progress and remaining durations: a schedule updated monthly no longer tells you anything useful.
Share one version
Clients, site managers and subcontractors should look at the same schedule. A read-only link avoids PDFs that are out of date the day after.
Frequently asked questions
Is the construction schedule template free?
Yes. You can download it in Excel, CSV and PowerPoint without signing up, or open it in Planitude with a free account.
Can I use it for a renovation?
Yes: delete the structure phase and adapt the others. For flats and houses there is also a dedicated home renovation template in the template gallery.
How is the critical path calculated?
In Planitude the scheduling engine calculates it at every change from durations, dependencies and calendars. The Excel template recalculates dates but doesn’t highlight the critical path.
Can I export the schedule to PDF or Microsoft Project?
Yes. From Planitude you can print the Gantt chart or save it as a PDF, and export the project to Microsoft Project XML or CSV.
Can subcontractors see the schedule without an account?
Yes. Create a public read-only link: anyone who has it sees the up-to-date Gantt chart without signing up.