The questions to ask any contractor before you sign

We have sat at a lot of kitchen tables across from homeowners, and the ones who ask good questions before they sign almost always end up with a better job. Not because they are tough, but because the questions force both sides to be specific. Here is the short list we wish every homeowner would run through with any contractor, including us, before signing a proposal.

Are you licensed, bonded, and insured for this work

Ask for the license number and look it up yourself on the state board site. Confirm it is active, in the company name, and covers the work you are hiring for. Confirm they carry workers compensation and general liability. This is the floor. A contractor who hesitates here is the wrong contractor, and verifying it yourself takes about two minutes online.

What exactly is and is not in this price

Make them walk the scope line by line. What materials, what grade, what is excluded, what would trigger a change order. The goal is to remove the gray area where surprise costs live. If two bids look far apart, the difference is almost always in what one of them left out, not in one being a rip-off and the other a steal.

What is the payment schedule

You want a modest deposit and payments tied to progress, not to the calendar and not far ahead of the work. In California the down payment is capped, and any contractor asking for a third or half up front is a problem. You should always be paying for work that is done, not work that is promised, because the money is the only hold you have to get the job finished.

Who is actually doing the work

Ask whether their own crew does the job or whether it gets handed to subcontractors, and if so, who. There is nothing wrong with subs, but you deserve to know who will be on your property and that they are insured too. Ask who your point of contact is once the job starts and how you reach them, because the salesman who signs you up is often not the person who shows up to build.

What is the timeline and what happens if it slips

Get a real start and finish window in writing, and ask what could push it: weather, materials, permits, hidden conditions. A contractor who promises an unrealistic finish date is either inexperienced or telling you what you want to hear. The honest answer about delays is worth more than the optimistic one, because the optimistic one falls apart the first time it rains.

What warranty do I get and in writing

Ask what is covered, for how long, and what voids it. Get it on paper. A verbal warranty is worth nothing the day there is a problem. The length and clarity of the warranty tell you how confident the contractor is in their own work, and a contractor who stands behind the job will not flinch at writing it down.

Can I see recent, local work

Not the highlight reel from years ago, but jobs they finished recently near you. Talk to those owners. Ask whether the number held, whether the timeline held, and how the contractor handled the things that went wrong, because something always does. How they handle problems matters more than whether problems happen, because on a real job something always does, and the measure of a good contractor is what they do next.

The short version

• License, bond, and insurance, verified by you.
• A scope that says exactly what is and is not included.
• A payment schedule tied to progress, with a legal deposit.
• A clear answer on who does the work.
• A written timeline and an honest answer about delays.
• A written warranty.
• Recent local references you actually check.

For trade-specific versions of this, see how to hire a pool contractor, how to hire a landscaper, and how to vet a roofer. More guides are at the trade-guide hub.

The reason we built our work onto a record that cannot be quietly deleted is so the answers to these questions are checkable instead of just promised. You can read how that works on the Props and reviews page. Ask the questions, then hire the contractor whose answers you can verify.