How to check a contractor before you spend an hour on the phone

Where to look first, and what the register is called where you live

The first check on a contractor is the public register kept by the state where the work will happen. It is free and on most state systems it takes about two minutes. Doing it before the first phone call changes the questions you ask, because you stop asking a stranger to describe himself.

The word for that register is not the same in every state, and the difference is not cosmetic. California's Contractors State License Board licenses contractors and publishes a lookup that searches by license number, by business name, by personnel name, by Home Improvement Salesperson registration number or by salesperson name, and it states that the result includes complaint disclosure. Washington's Department of Labor and Industries registers contractors, and its public verify tool is where an active registration is confirmed. Pennsylvania's Office of Attorney General registers home improvement contractors and says on its own page that registration under its home improvement statute is not an endorsement, a recommendation or an approval.

Model code figure, verify locally. Those three states are three different models, not a national rule. Whether your state licenses contractors, registers them, or does neither, is a question with a different answer in different places. Rules for home improvement work differ by state and sometimes by city, and what applies where you live is decided by your own state's licensing or registration authority. Verify locally.

Use the authority own lookup rather than a directory that reprints it, and write down what you found and the date you found it.

What three state registers actually show

Washington's tool also prints a Certificate of Workers Compensation Coverage, and the state publishes that its data is updated Monday through Friday by 5 a.m. Pacific Time, state holidays excluded. That detail tells you how fresh the answer in front of you is.

A license number printed on a quote is not a license status

A license number on a letterhead is the easiest thing in the world to print. California's board says so on its own consumer page: seeing a license number does not necessarily mean the license is valid, and the status is what to check.

A status is not permanent either. Washington publishes that it suspends a registration when the requirements are not met, such as a bond or an insurance policy cancelling or expiring, or an unsatisfied judgment. A registration active in March can be suspended in May without anybody telling you, which is the argument for checking twice: once before the first meeting, and once in the last few days before you sign anything.

Model code figure, verify locally. The two sentences above describe what two named state authorities publish about their own registers. They are not legal advice and they are not a rule that applies everywhere. Rules for home improvement work differ by state and sometimes by city, and what applies where you live is decided by your own state's licensing or registration authority. Verify locally.

One more check costs nothing. The name attached to the license should be the name on the quote, and when the two do not match that is a question rather than an accusation: whose license is this, and who am I contracting with.

When a state says a license is needed at all

California's board publishes that anyone who contracts for work valued at 1,000 USD or more in combined labor and material costs must hold a current, valid license from that board, and that a license is also required for work on a project that needs a building permit or that uses employee labor, whatever the value. The board licenses in 45 classifications and gives a kitchen as its own worked example: where plumbing, electrical and carpentry work fall under one contract, its page points the homeowner at a licensed B General Building contractor.

Pennsylvania draws its line somewhere else entirely. Its published exemptions from registration are small contractors doing less than 5,000 USD of work in a calendar year, and large retailers with a net worth of more than 50 million USD. Two states, two thresholds, measuring two different things.

Model code figure, verify locally. Those figures belong to those two authorities and are quoted here only to show how far apart two states can be on the same question. They do not transfer to a third state and they are not a floor or a ceiling anywhere else. Rules for home improvement work differ by state and sometimes by city, and what applies where you live is decided by your own state's licensing or registration authority. Verify locally.

The three documents to ask for before the meeting

1. The license or registration number, in writing, so that you look it up yourself rather than being shown a photograph of a card.
2. A certificate of insurance, sent by the insurer or the broker rather than forwarded by the contractor, in date, naming you and the address of the work.
3. Two references from jobs like yours, finished in the last two years, with phone numbers that you dial.

Insurance is two things, not one, and they arrive on different certificates. California's board publishes that a contractor with employees is required in that state to carry workers compensation insurance, and that commercial general liability is not required there, although it is the cover that pays for damage to your property. Washington publishes the liability a contractor carries to stay registered there: 200,000 USD public liability and 50,000 USD property damage, or a 250,000 USD combined single limit.

Model code figure, verify locally. Those are two states describing their own requirements. A third state may require neither, either or more. Rules for home improvement work differ by state and sometimes by city, and what applies where you live is decided by your own state's licensing or registration authority. Verify locally.

Asking for all three before the meeting is also a quiet test of how the business runs. A contractor who sends them the same day has an office.

What a bond is, and what people think it is

A bond is a sum of money a surety stands behind so that a contractor can hold a license or a registration. California publishes that licensed contractors there are required to have a contractor license bond of 25,000 USD. Washington publishes 30,000 USD for general contractors and 15,000 USD for specialty contractors, at the amounts its own page states took effect in July 2024.

The number is large and it is widely misread. The California board addresses that on its own page: bonds do not assure the financial or professional integrity or the competency of a contractor. A bond is a condition of holding the license, not a rating and not insurance for your project.

Typical range, verify with your professional. The same California board publishes that the cost of a contract bond, which is a different instrument from the license bond described above, is usually 1 to 2 percent of the contract price. That is a range published by one state authority about one kind of bond in one state, not a price you should expect to see on a quote where you live.

A clean register entry means the paperwork is in order. It is a floor, not a recommendation, and everything useful you will learn about a contractor comes after it.

Reading reviews without being fooled by them

Individual reviews tell you very little. Patterns across many of them tell you a great deal, and the pattern is what is worth the half hour.

The reference call, and the two questions that produce a real answer

A reference call is fifteen minutes on the phone with somebody whose kitchen or bath this contractor finished. Ask in order and let them talk: the easy questions at the top are what make the awkward ones at the bottom answerable.

1. What did they do for you, and when did it finish.
2. Was the job like mine: the same rooms, roughly the same size.
3. Did the work start when they said it would.
4. How long did it take, against what they told you at the start.
5. Did the final price match the quote, and if not, what changed and how did you find out.
6. How were changes handled: in writing, before the work, or afterward.
7. Who was there every day, and did that change.
8. How clean was it, and how did they leave the rest of the house.
9. What happened at the end, and how long did the punch list take.
10. Did anything come back later, and what did they do about it.
11. What would you do differently.
12. Would you use them again, and is there anything you would want to know if you were me.

The last two questions are the ones that work. People are reluctant to criticize somebody who did work for them, and both of those give a person a way to tell you something useful without saying anything bad.

Write the answers down while the person is talking. After three calls you will remember the tone of all three but not which of them said what, and only one of those is any use.

What to check again in the last week before you sign

• The register entry, one more time, on the state authority own lookup rather than from your notes.
• That the licensed or registered name is the name that appears on the quote and on any agreement you are asked to sign.
• That the insurance certificate is still in date, and that it still names you and the address of the work.
• Anything the register has surfaced since your first search, where that state publishes it.

None of this is adversarial and none of it takes an afternoon. It is the difference between a decision made on documents and a decision made on an impression.

This page describes what three named state authorities publish and how to check a public register. It does not tell you what any agreement means, whether a term in one is enforceable, or what to do if a job goes wrong. Those are questions for a qualified professional in the state where the work is happening.