Quote:
Originally Posted by Papa_lecki
One other thing to consider, many contractors have a big payment tied to work starting. They start (i.e. lay the foundation), then dont come back for months.
What’s a good method to prevent that from happening? More milestone payments?
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And I think that's the answer.
As Malsua stated:
My wife and I expanded our villa in 2021 and the cost was somewhat north of your number. Windows were 5-7 months out from date of order. Trusses were 3 months. A contractor running dozens of jobs could not float those deposits and stay in business.
By the same token, we had 5 benchmarks we paid at. The first payment was when the permits/Arc were complete, the drawings were done and the windows were ordered.
I didn't find that unreasonable.
For a landscaping job that's 90% labor, it's a different story and I wouldn't pay ahead except in one small circumstance. If they asked that I order the materials and have them delivered, I'd consider it. That way I could always get another person on site to install or shovel it myself if it were stone.
