Deposit for renovation

My schedule was 30% deposit, 30% after 50 days, 30% after 100 days, and 10% at completion.

If anything over 10% is excessive, when do you expect to pay the GC?

10% seems ok to me; $40,000 should be plenty to get them started. On a recent smaller job I did 25% though. If there are any disproportionately large initial outlays for materials those could be a discussion topic, but at the $400K job level most GCs should expect to be providing a moderate degree of cash flow financing themselves rather than getting it from the customer. If they raise concerns about your own financial stability you could offer to escrow some money in lieu of a greater upfront payment.

Be sure you have a clear plan for progress payments along the way, including who determines when the next milestone has been reached, and a final % of retainage to be held until after the punch list is completed.

10% would last about 2 weeks. What is the contractor responsible for purchasing?

For projects that size I get 30% down.

Out of that 30% I have to give deposits to all the subs
50% for custom Millwork.

The only way I would take 10% is if we had an agreement to be paid weekly and that would probably have to be 10% every week

why not agree to pay all bills as presented and approved within 2 weeks?

Here we go again, another day ending in the letter 'y', another complaint from C0C0, and what a surprise, directed at primer. Have to wonder if C0C0 got "accidentally" locked in the out house or the ice box when he was a kid.

rip off

Caonima,

What is a rip off? Getting a deposit or the amount of the deposit?

I think 25-30% of a large job is a good amount to plan on as it will allow the GC to actually get the materials and get some work done before your next payment. DO make sure to come up with a billing cycle based on % of work complete so you can plan accordingly and hold the GC accountable for being timely (within their control).