The Francine Construction Clock: 180 Days to Start, 5 Draws, 365 to Finish

You’ve chosen the contractor-managed path (the state calls it Solution 2). You’ve selected a contractor. You signed the grant agreement. Today is your grant execution date, and three clocks just started running.

This is the post about those clocks. Specifically:

180 days to begin construction with at least one inspection on record
Up to five progress-based draws through the life of the project
365 days to complete the project, unless a written hardship extension is approved

If you understand these three, you can read the program timeline. Miss one and the program can pause draws or, in extreme cases, claw back funds.

The 180-day clock: construction start

From your grant execution date, you have 180 days to begin construction. “Begin” here doesn’t mean “drive a nail.” The program standard is that you must have at least one inspection documenting completed progress on record inside the 180 days.

In practice, this means:

Permits pulled (or in process, if your parish takes longer)
Materials staged or on order
A meaningful chunk of work performed and visible on site
The program inspector scheduled and present at the work

For a smaller repair project, this is straightforward. For a full reconstruction, the early work is demo, foundation prep, and rough trades. For a coastal rebuild with elevation requirements, it can mean engineered pilings and dry-in.

If your project hasn’t started by day 180 and no inspection is on file, the program may pause processing. Hardship extensions exist but they need documented cause (a sub-trade went out of business, a structural surprise during demo, material back-orders that affect the critical path).

Where projects typically slip

Permit cycle. Some parishes take six weeks to issue residential permits during recovery. Plan for it.
Late ECR clarifications. If you appealed the original ECR, the appeal can eat 30 to 60 days.
Homeowner-responsibility funds. Federal law requires your homeowner-responsibility funds be applied first. If those funds are tied up in another commitment, the start gets pushed.
Insurance settlements still in motion. Final insurance funds sometimes don’t release until late in the process. The program coordinates around this but it slows the start.

The discipline is to set realistic milestones at contract signing and update the program proactively when something shifts.

The five draws: how payments actually flow

A contractor-managed Francine project is paid in up to five draws, each tied to an inspection. Each draw is a two-party payment, issued jointly to the homeowner and the contractor after the homeowner-responsibility funds are exhausted.

A typical five-draw schedule maps to milestones like:

Draw 1. Demolition complete, framing and structural repairs underway, mechanicals roughed in.
Draw 2. Framing complete, electrical and plumbing rough complete, insulation in.
Draw 3. Drywall installed and finished, mechanical trim, exterior siding and roofing complete.
Draw 4. Interior finishes, cabinetry, flooring, paint, exterior finishes.
Draw 5. Final punch list, certificate of occupancy, final program inspection.

These are illustrative. Every project’s schedule is built off its own ECR. Some projects compress to three draws; some max out at five.

The mechanics of a draw:

Contractor flags milestone completion in writing
Program inspector visits and confirms work matches the ECR scope and quality
Program issues a two-party check to the homeowner and contractor
Both endorse; funds release; work continues

The program does not issue advance payments. The program does not pay for items outside the ECR. If something changes mid-project, it goes through formal change-order approval before the work happens, not after.

The 365-day clock: project completion

From the grant execution date, you have 365 days to complete the project. “Complete” means:

All ECR items finished
Final program inspection passed
Certificate of occupancy (if required by parish code) issued
Close-out paperwork signed by homeowner, contractor, and program

For a typical residential repair with no major complications, 365 days is generous. For a full reconstruction in a coastal parish with elevation requirements, it’s working hard.

Hardship extensions are available in writing, with documented cause. Common reasons include:

A major sub bankruptcy
Material supply disruptions affecting the critical path (a roofing materials shortage, a switchgear back-order)
Discovery of conditions during demo that require a substantive change order
Homeowner medical or family emergency that pauses the project

The program is not unreasonable about extensions when the cause is documented and the contractor has been communicating proactively. The program is unforgiving when the contractor goes silent and the schedule slips without explanation.

Where the discipline lives

The three clocks are simple. The daily discipline is what makes them work:

A real schedule on paper. Not a verbal target. A milestone-by-milestone schedule keyed to the ECR and the five draws.
Weekly status to the homeowner. Photos, progress notes, what’s next, what’s blocked.
Proactive program updates. When something shifts, the program hears about it from the contractor first, not from a missed inspection.
Written change orders, every time. Verbal change orders are how projects fall outside the ECR and lose funding.
A real punch list. Not a sticky note. A document with line items, owners, and dates.

A Francine recovery project is a federally funded construction project run inside a homeowner contract. It needs to be run like a federally funded construction project. That’s not paperwork for paperwork’s sake. It’s how the money keeps moving.

How Adams Industries runs the clock

Same way we ran it for the 2020-21 program:

Schedule and draw plan drafted before the grant agreement is signed
Permits identified by parish and pulled in the first 30 days
First milestone hit and inspected inside the first 90 to 120 days
Five-draw schedule keyed to actual milestones, not arbitrary calendar dates
Homeowner gets weekly photo updates and a written progress note
Change orders documented and submitted before any work begins
Final walk-through with you before the final program inspection
Close-out paperwork signed and filed within two weeks of completion

We’ve completed multi-year contractor-managed projects under the 2020-21 Restore Louisiana program. The Francine program runs on the same mechanics with a different policy manual. The discipline carries over.