TL;DR
A construction contingency is a reserve, commonly 5 to 15 percent of the contract value, set aside in the project budget for genuinely unforeseen conditions like rot behind a wall, rock in an excavation, or code surprises. The contract should state who controls the fund, owner or contractor, what counts as a legitimate draw, and that unused money returns to the owner.
What it means
A construction contingency is a reserve, commonly 5 to 15 percent of the contract value, set aside in the project budget for genuinely unforeseen conditions like rot behind a wall, rock in an excavation, or code surprises. The contract should state who controls the fund, owner or contractor, what counts as a legitimate draw, and that unused money returns to the owner. Renovations of older homes warrant the high end of the range; treating the reserve as a slush fund for upgrades is how budgets quietly die.
Where it sits in the glossary
Construction contingency is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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