Web, got your pm, welcome to the forum, good idea looking into things before signing the contract, even better idea comming here to learn how to do your pool properly! With that said, I've never been involved with the contract end of pools (other than providing the labor to fulfill my boss' end ) What I remember from the few contracts I've seen is the 'act of God' clause, which covers the contractor from war, pestilence, earthquake, flood, nuclear holocost and Biblical type stuff (ie, if it's completely out of his control, it ain't his fault your pool is messed up or isn't completed on time). The schedal of payments (cuts) is also a biggie and often effects the speed of the job completion (a couple of places I've worked went down the list of current jobs and worked as much as would get them the next 'cut' and then moved on to the next job on the list ... the place I'm with now tries to install the pool and get all but the final payment within a week - we throw ourselves at one job and get from dig to the owners able to swim in 3 -4 days). I think that GT's answer pretty much covers your ?, you can write in any clauses you want to and then haggle with the contractor which of your and his clauses will be deleted or ammended.