Writing a contract & statement of work for California addition

[Asim G.]

Hello,

We are working on a remodel/addition of the home and that includes redoing the external look of the home and am getting bids on the home from GCs. 

This is the first time I am doing this and am not sure how to proceed with finalizing the contract.

Each GC has their own flavor of the bid with different level of details and explanation of what is covered and what is not covered. Most bids are a 1 pager with a high level summary of the work with a rough payment schedule. Here is an example of a bid.

So far I have been talking to the GCs to get more detail of what is covered/not covered in the bid as I am comparing them. I am confused as to how I should structure the contract and be more specific with the scope of work in the contract. For folks who have done new construction, how detailed is the scope of work. I am just looking for templates/ideas on how to clearly define scope of work with the contractors.

Thanks