Two habits keep this manageable for us. First, Friday afternoon is left open as a catch-up slot instead of being booked, so a lost storm day gets absorbed instead of pushing every client back a week. If nothing goes wrong, that time goes to maintenance or estimates, so it is never wasted. Second, clients hear about a delay from us before they notice it themselves, even when we do not yet have a new time; a short "we are running behind because of the storm, I will confirm your new window by 5pm" holds people fine, while silence until the day of does not. For hidden-issue scope creep, we stop and send a photo plus a revised number before continuing rather than doing the extra work and explaining on the invoice. Nobody has ever been upset about a pause for approval, and plenty have been upset by a surprise total.
