Free HVAC Construction Contract Template

Build and download a free hvac construction contract for a single fixed-scope project — scope and written exclusions, a contract price split into milestone payments, change orders, substantial completion, retainage, lien rights and warranty. It asks which state the work is in and surfaces the requirements that state is likely to impose, and it counts the FTC cooling-off deadline properly. PDF, Excel, or Word export.

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Build your HVAC construction contract

One project, one fixed price. Tell it which state the work is in and it surfaces the requirements that state is likely to impose — and it counts the federal cooling-off deadline properly instead of printing a generic three-day line.

HVAC Construction Contract

HVAC · Fixed-scope project agreement

Contract price

$0.00

Scheduled

$0.00

Final payment

$0.00

Retainage 0%

$0.00

1Parties & propertyWho is contracting, and the property the work happens at.

Contractor

Contractor license #

Owner

2Project & jurisdictionThe one project this contract covers — and whose law governs it.
Project name
Contract #optional
Contract date
State / jurisdiction
Work begins
Substantial completion
Permits pulled by
3Scope of work & exclusionsWhat the price buys — and, in writing, what it does not.

Included in the contract price

NOT included

4Contract price & payment scheduleAuto-calculatedStage the money against physical progress, not against a percentage.
Contract price
Down payment at signing
Retainage %

Progress payments

1
2
3
Down payment + progress payments$0.00
Left for final payment at completion$0.00
5Terms & the right to cancelWarranty, termination, lien deadline — and where the owner actually signed.
Workmanship warranty
months
Retainage released
days after
Termination notice
days
Preliminary lien notice deadline (your state)optional
days from first furnishing labor or materials
Where did the owner sign?

Federal 3-day right to cancel does not apply

Below the $25 threshold that 16 CFR 429.0(a) sets for this signing location, so the federal rule does not apply. Enter the contract price to re-check.

6State-law reviewLiveSix categories of requirement your state is likely to impose.

Written contract · Written, signed before work begins

Not recorded

Enter the contract price. California requires a written home improvement contract above $500; your state sets its own trigger.

Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7159

Down payment · Down payment within the state cap

Not recorded

Enter the contract price and down payment. Caps are state law and range widely — California allows the lesser of $1000 or 10%, Pennsylvania and Maryland allow up to one third.

Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7159(d); 73 P.S. § 517.7(f); Md. Bus. Reg. § 8-617

Right to cancel · FTC 3-business-day cancellation does not apply

Looks fine

Below the $25 threshold that 16 CFR 429.0(a) sets for this signing location, so the federal rule does not apply. Enter the contract price to re-check.

16 CFR §§ 429.0–429.1

Mandatory notices · 3 of 7 common required items present

Needs attention

Still missing: contractor license number; property address; approximate start and completion dates; schedule of progress payments tied to work phases. California requires all of these plus board contact details, insurance and bond disclosures, and specific boldface headings — confirm your state's list.

Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 7159(d)

Lien notice · Preliminary lien notice deadline not recorded

Not recorded

Preliminary/pre-lien notice deadlines are state law and vary — California requires notice within 20 days of first furnishing labor or materials, and a contractor in direct privity with the owner need only serve the construction lender. Look up your state's deadline and record it here.

Cal. Civ. Code §§ 8200, 8204

Retainage · No retainage withheld

Looks fine

No retainage withheld, so no cap applies. If you add it, note that caps are state-set — California caps private-works retention at 5% for contracts entered on or after Jan 1 2026, with a carve-out for residential projects that are not mixed-use and are four stories or fewer.

Cal. Civ. Code § 8811

7Contract clausesThe construction spine — change orders, completion, retainage, lien rights, warranty.
1. Scope of Work
2. Contract Price & Payment Schedule
3. Change Orders
4. Schedule & Delays
5. Permits, Codes & Inspections
6. Substantial Completion
7. Retainage & Final Payment
8. Mechanics Lien Rights & Notices
9. Warranty
10. Insurance & Indemnity
11. Termination & Suspension
12. Dispute Resolution & Governing Law
8SignaturesBoth parties sign — add the signature images from the chips below.

Contractor

Print name

Date

Owner

Print name

Date
Customize:

Download your contract:

Free · no signup · fully editable

What's included

  • Contractor, owner and property blocks — with the license number field the mandatory-notice check looks for
  • A jurisdiction field: the state whose law actually governs this contract
  • Scope of work and a separate written EXCLUSIONS list, because exclusions are where fixed-price jobs go wrong
  • Contract price broken into a down payment plus milestone progress payments, each tied to a physical trigger
  • Live payment-schedule maths — what is scheduled, what is left for final payment, and a flag if you over-schedule
  • Retainage percentage, amount withheld, and the release window after substantial completion
  • A six-category state-law review: written-contract threshold, down-payment cap, right to cancel, mandatory notices, lien-notice deadline, retainage cap
  • A real FTC cooling-off calculation — 3 business days counted correctly, from the date and place the owner actually signed
  • Twelve editable numbered clauses on the construction spine: change orders, schedule, permits, substantial completion, retainage, lien rights, warranty, termination
  • Contractor and owner signature blocks with typed, drawn or uploaded signatures
  • PDF, Excel and Word export — the full legal disclaimer ships inside every file

How to use this template

  1. 1

    Name the project and the state it is in

    Fill in the contractor, owner and property blocks, then set the jurisdiction — the two-letter state where the work is performed. Everything the state-law review says downstream is framed against that state, because a residential construction contract is governed by state law, not by a national form.

  2. 2

    Write the scope — and then write the exclusions

    List what the contract price buys, one line per item. Then spend equal effort on the exclusions list. Fixed-price disputes almost never start over what was written into the scope; they start over what the owner assumed was in it. Concealed conditions, finish repair, and upgrades required by code are the three that recur.

  3. 3

    Break the price into milestones you can physically point at

    Enter the contract price, then split it into a down payment and progress payments. Each milestone needs a trigger a homeowner can verify — "rough inspection passed", not "50% complete". The builder totals what you have scheduled, shows what is left for final payment, and flags it if the schedule exceeds the contract price.

  4. 4

    Set retainage, warranty and the lien-notice deadline

    Retainage caps are state law and vary — California caps private-works retention at 5% for contracts entered on or after 1 January 2026, with a carve-out for residential projects that are not mixed-use and are four stories or fewer, while other states allow up to 10% or set no cap at all. Set your warranty period, and look up and record your state's preliminary-lien-notice deadline: this field is your entry, not a lookup, and missing that deadline can bar lien rights outright.

  5. 5

    Answer the one question the federal rule turns on

    Tell the builder where the owner signed. The FTC Cooling-Off Rule (16 CFR Part 429) covers sales made away from the seller's place of business — $25 or more signed at the owner's home, $130 or more signed somewhere else that is not your office. Signed at your own office, the federal rule does not reach it at all. When it applies, the builder counts the 3 business days for you and prints the deadline date.

  6. 6

    Read the state-law review, then have counsel read the contract

    The review lists six categories of requirement with a status and the statute each reference point came from. It is a prompt to go and check, not a legal opinion — no 50-state table is hiding behind it. Edit the twelve numbered clauses to match how you actually work, then export. The full disclaimer ships inside every PDF, Excel and Word file.

Why a hvac construction contract is not a service agreement

A service agreement sells recurring visits and a terms-and-conditions sheet sets standing business policy. A construction contract does something different and riskier: it fixes a price for a defined body of work on one project, at one property, on one schedule. For a whole-home system replacement that means the scope has to name the exact equipment model, the line set, the duct connections at the air handler, the condensate safety switch and the disconnect — and then, separately and in writing, name what is not included: duct replacement, an electrical service upgrade to carry the new load, and drywall repair after the old air handler comes out. Fixed-price disputes rarely start over what the scope said. They start over what the owner assumed was in it, and an exclusions list is the only cheap insurance against that.

The payment side is where the two documents diverge completely. A membership bills a flat fee on a cadence. A construction contract stages money against physical progress — for a whole-home system replacement, typically equipment ordered, rough-in complete, startup and commissioning complete, with the balance at completion. Every milestone in this builder carries a trigger field for exactly that reason: "rough inspection passed" is a fact anyone can check, "50% complete" is an argument. The builder totals the down payment and the milestones, subtracts them from the contract price to show what is genuinely left for final payment, and flags the schedule if it exceeds the price.

Then there is the part almost every free construction contract gets wrong. Residential construction is the most heavily regulated contract a contractor signs, and the regulation is almost entirely state-level. The written-contract threshold, the down-payment cap, the mandatory notices, the wording of the right to cancel, the preliminary-lien-notice deadline and the retainage cap are all set by the state where the property sits — and they genuinely conflict. A down payment that is lawful in Pennsylvania at one third of the price (73 P.S. 517.7) is unlawful in California, where Business and Professions Code 7159 caps it at the lesser of $1000 or 10 percent. Retainage that is fine at 10% in one state exceeds California's 5 percent private-works cap under Civil Code 8811. A template that prints a single national figure is not being helpful; it is being wrong in most of the country.

So this one does not print a national rule. It asks for the jurisdiction and then surfaces the six categories of requirement that jurisdiction is likely to impose, each anchored to a real statute we can cite as a reference point, each ending in the same instruction: confirm your state's version. No 50-state table is hardcoded, because a stale 50-state table is more dangerous than no table at all — retainage law alone changed in New York, Mississippi, Washington and California within three years.

The one rule that genuinely is federal gets stated properly. The FTC Cooling-Off Rule, 16 CFR Part 429, gives the buyer until midnight of the third business day to cancel — but only where the buyer's agreement was made at a place other than the seller's place of business, at $25 or more at the buyer's residence or $130 or more elsewhere (16 CFR 429.0(a)). Signed at your office, it does not apply. And the counting matters: 16 CFR 429.0(f) defines a business day as any calendar day except Sunday or a federal holiday, so Saturday counts. Enter where the owner signed and the contract date, and this builder applies both tests and prints the actual deadline date instead of a generic three-day boilerplate.

None of that makes this legal advice, and the builder says so — in a tooltip on the page so it does not shout at you while you work, and in full inside every PDF, Excel and Word file it produces. Have an attorney in the state where the work happens review it before it goes in front of a customer.

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Construction Contract Template FAQs

Does the federal 3-day right to cancel apply to every construction contract?

No, and this is the single most common error in a downloaded construction contract. The FTC Cooling-Off Rule at 16 CFR Part 429 applies to a sale where the buyer's agreement or offer to purchase is made at a place OTHER than the seller's place of business — 16 CFR 429.0(a) — with a purchase price of $25 or more if the sale is made at the buyer's residence, or $130 or more if it is made somewhere else. A contract the owner signs at your own showroom or office is outside the federal rule entirely. That does not mean there is no cancellation right: California, for example, gives home-improvement buyers three days regardless, five days if the buyer is 65 or older, and seven days for disaster repairs, under Business and Professions Code section 7159. This builder asks where the owner signed and tells you which of those situations you are in.

Count them the way 16 CFR 429.0(f) defines them: a business day is "any calendar day except Sunday or any federal holiday". Saturday counts. That is the trap — a contractor who counts Monday-to-Friday business days will hand the owner a notice with the wrong date on it, and a wrong cancellation date is a defective notice. 16 CFR 429.1(a) requires the cancellation statement in at least 10-point boldface near the buyer's signature line, and 429.1(b) requires two copies of a completed Notice of Cancellation form. Enter your contract date and this builder counts the 3 business days for you, skipping Sundays and federal holidays and their observed weekday, and prints the deadline.

That is state law, and the spread is enormous — which is exactly why this template will not print one number. California caps it at the lesser of $1000 or 10 percent of the contract price (Bus. & Prof. Code 7159, in required capital letters on the contract itself). Pennsylvania's Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, 73 P.S. 517.7, caps a deposit on contracts over $5,000 at one third of the price plus special-order materials, and Maryland (Bus. Reg. 8-617) also uses one third. On a $30,000 job that is $1,000 in California and $10,000 in Pennsylvania. The builder compares what you entered against both poles and tells you which side of each you are on — then tells you to confirm your own state.

Almost certainly, above some dollar figure, and often with specific content and specific boldface headings. California requires a written home improvement contract signed before work begins once the aggregate price exceeds $500, and section 7159 then dictates what must be in it: the license number, a schedule of progress payments tied to described work phases, approximate start and completion dates, a written change-order procedure, a mechanics lien warning, insurance and bond disclosures, board contact details and the cancellation notice. Other states set a different threshold and a different list. The mandatory-notices check in this builder counts the items commonly required that you have actually filled in — and then tells you to confirm your state's exact list.

It varies by state and there is no safe default, so this builder asks you for the number rather than inventing one. Deadlines commonly fall somewhere between 10 and 90 days from first furnishing labor or materials, and who has to send one differs too — in California, Civil Code 8200 requires a claimant to give preliminary notice to the owner, the direct contractor and the construction lender, but a claimant in direct contractual privity with the owner need only serve the construction lender, and a laborer need not give notice at all. Miss the deadline and you can lose lien, stop-notice and payment-bond rights on a claim that is otherwise perfectly good. Look yours up, record it in the builder, and it prints on the contract.

Also state law, also varied. States that cap retainage at all split roughly between 5% and 10%; several set no statutory cap on private work and leave it to negotiation. California Civil Code 8811 caps retention on private works at 5 percent of the payment, and total retention at 5 percent of the contract price, for contracts entered into on or after 1 January 2026 — but that cap expressly does not reach a residential project that is not mixed-use and does not exceed four stories, which is most of the work this template is for. The builder flags anything above 5% as worth confirming and anything above 10% as above every cap verified here.

No. It is a well-organised starting point that gets the structure, the arithmetic and the one federal rule right, and that tells you honestly where state law takes over. Residential construction contracts are the most heavily regulated agreement most contractors sign, the regulation is state-level, and a missing mandatory notice can make a contract unenforceable or expose you to penalties in some states. Have a licensed attorney in the state where the work is performed review and adapt it before you use it on a real job. That disclaimer ships in full inside every PDF, Excel and Word file this builder produces.

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