Construction Contract Generator

A free construction contract template, in plain language

Six agreements from one set of fields: owner–contractor or contractor–subcontractor, priced as a stipulated sum, a guaranteed maximum price, or cost plus a fee. It runs in your browser — no signup, no email.

The three ways a construction contract prices work

Stipulated sum (lump sum)

One fixed price for a defined scope. The contractor carries the risk that the work costs more than expected, and keeps the benefit if it costs less. It needs the scope to be genuinely well defined — a fixed price against vague drawings is a change-order argument waiting to happen.

Guaranteed maximum price

The owner pays the actual cost of the work plus a fee, but never more than a stated cap. The contractor carries overruns above the cap. Savings below it are usually shared, which is the number this tool asks you for — and the number people forget to agree until the job is nearly over.

Cost plus a fee

Actual cost plus a fee, with no cap. It suits work that genuinely cannot be scoped in advance — emergency, restoration, early enabling works — and it puts the cost risk squarely on the owner. If you are the owner and the scope could be defined, this is rarely the right structure.

The clauses worth slowing down on

• Payment timing. A subcontract that pays "when the contractor is paid" moves the owner's credit risk onto the sub. Whether that is enforceable varies by state, and it is the single most consequential sentence in most subcontracts.
• Retainage. How much, when it steps down, and what actually releases it. "On final completion" can mean many months after a sub finishes.
• Liquidated damages. A daily figure for finishing late. It has to be a genuine estimate of the owner's loss rather than a penalty, and it should be paired with a real right to claim time for delays that are not yours.
• Indemnification. Who defends whom, and for whose negligence. Many states limit how far this can go, and a clause written for one state can be void in another.
• Termination for convenience. The right to be ended for no reason, and what you get paid if it happens.

What this does not do

It produces one agreement. It does not track it, tie change orders and applications for payment back to the clauses that govern them, watch insurance against the limits the contract requires, or tell you when a requisition contradicts its own terms. That is the paid product.