In Florida a contractor can easily provide a "notice to owner" and then attach a lien to your home if they are not paid. They have a lot of protections and I think there is a lot more risk on the owner's side. (There is a defunct pool builder in our area who has taken a lot of money and left a lot of homeowners in the lurch.)Just like you worry about the contractor taking the money and not doing what they promise, the contractor worries that the homeowner won’t pay the invoice when the work is completed.
The contractor incurs a lot of risk by doing the job with no money upfront because they have many expenses in material, labor and lost opportunity.
Below is from California, but it has a lot of good information.
Below is specific to Florida.
How to Protect Yourself: Contractors | My Florida Legal
myfloridalegal.com
Maybe negotiate a 10% deposit or ask for a performance and payment bond if they want more than 10% up front as a deposit.
Beyond the deposit, you also have to look at the schedule of payments.
For example, they might ask for a small deposit, but ask for a 25% payment after doing some minor phase of the work.
Are they asking for 25% up front and then 75% at completion or are there other interim payments?
A lien is not cash and it does not ensure that the contractor will ever get paid.
It's pretty typical for 25% at signing and should approximate equipment rentals and materials to get started. If that cost is way less or more the number can usually be negotiated.
You're way ahead of me on this but I have looked into jets one time. Most of the jet design data that I've seen rate for the flow rate at 15 psi. You can see this in the table for Balboa Water Group here. So I would think you can look at the head loss back to your pump and determine the flow rate at head loss plus 15 psi plus the loss to make sure the pump has plenty of flow when it's in spa mode. a 2" to 1.5" fitting has very little pressure drop in normal flow rates Mine had plenty for this on the previous pool and had 4 jets. I would also check with Mike at DIY to see what he thinks. There are several online calculators that estimate a 2"-1.5" sudden contraction to be equal to about 75' of pipe which is about 2.5-3 psi at your flow rate of ~65 gpm.
Congrats on the win! What ended up happening? Did you finally just get someone who knew what they were doing better or what?
I ended up having to get a certified pool contractor as a sub. I may take it up after the fact. But my wife is due (due date today) and we have been doing this process since February. The pool contractor also has his electrical. And he is willing to work with me as an owner builder-take questions as needed.
Sounds like you found a PB willing to play game to just placate the license office. That's awesome. I can understand those pressures... I turned down a job once because my son was due and didn't want to be changing that many things at once.
