My bathroom tile guy walked off the Wrocław Street triplex mid-demo and I ate $2,100 in sunk labor

The clause that actually worked for me was a mobilization-and-milestone structure, not just a completion date. I split the job into three paid stages, demo complete, substrate ready, tile set and grouted, and the contract says any unpaid milestone gets forfeited if the sub abandons before that stage is signed off by me. The piece nobody mentions until it bites them: add a per-diem liquidated damages line, something like $150/day past the agreed substantial completion date, because without a number attached the "completion date" clause is basically decorative. I did $150/day on a kitchen gut in Pilsen last spring and the sub called me two days before the deadline to renegotiate his schedule, first time that ever happened. You won't recover the $2,100 from this guy regardless, but the next contract needs that number in it or the date means nothing.

Withhold 20% until punch list sign-off, that single clause killed most of my walk-off problems.