Checklist Questions to Ask Your Contractor – and Yourself

• What experience, expertise, and certifications do you have? Do you specialize?
• Who will be doing the actual work—you, subcontractors, or employees? (You may like the owner of the business, but that person may not be the one doing or supervising the work.)
• If you get the job and permits are required, will you get them?
• How many jobs will you be working on at the same time as mine?
• What written warranties do you offer?
• Who can I call with questions once the project starts? How can I contact you if there are problems?
• Does hiring this contractor feel right? (Use your intuition—if you don’t feel comfortable, find someone else.)
• Do I have rapport with this contractor? Am I confident in his / her expertise and ideas? Does the contractor care about my concerns?
• Will the contractor be reliable, keep appointments, and return my calls?
• Can I communicate with this contractor? Does the contractor seem honest and forthright? (A contractor may be a skilled craftsperson, but if you can’t communicate and the final job isn’t what you wanted, you won’t be happy.)
• Can I be reasonable and let my contractor work without calling all the time? Do I realize that my contractor may not be able to return my calls within minutes because of other jobs / projects and a personal life?
• Am I willing to be reasonable about unexpected costs that arise and let my contractor make a profit?
• Can I be flexible if the job takes longer than expected?
• Are my expectations ‘so high’ that I will never be satisfied with the project?

Don’t hire unlicensed contractors.

If you use an unlicensed contractor–you lose the protection of a licensed contractor’s general liability insurance, and you assume liability for accidents on the job site. Most unlicensed contractors are not insured. You lose access to the “California State License Board” (CSLB)’s dispute resolution services.