What should you ask a contractor before signing? Start with the one question that decides everything else: if a worker gets hurt on your property tomorrow, who pays? A fall from a ladder, a nail gun accident, a helper struck by a load of lumber — that single scenario is the thread running through every serious question about licensing, insurance, and jobsite safety. If the answer isn’t clearly the contractor and their insurer, the answer is going to be you.
A remodel or a roof replacement is often the biggest check a homeowner writes outside of the mortgage. It’s worth an hour of due diligence before you sign.
Start With the Injured-Worker Question
Picture a framer twelve feet up on your addition. He slips off a plate, lands wrong, and the ambulance shows up in your driveway. In the next thirty days, someone is going to be billed for the ER visit, the surgery, and the wages he can’t earn while he heals. Who is that someone?
If your contractor carries workers’ compensation and general liability, it’s them and their carriers. If they don’t, the trail can lead back up the chain. In many states the claim can pass up to whoever is treated as the general contractor on the project, and when the homeowner acted as their own general, that’s the homeowner. Your own policy usually won’t rescue you either, because standard homeowners forms carve out business-related injuries.
Keep that framer in mind for every question that follows. Every red flag you’re about to read is a version of the same question.
Verify the License Yourself
License requirements vary by jurisdiction, so look up your state’s licensing board and search the contractor’s name and number directly. Don’t accept a photo of a wallet card. You’re checking that the license is active, that it covers the trade you’re hiring for, and that there aren’t open complaints or suspensions.
Why bother, if the work looks fine? Because of that framer on the ground. An unlicensed operator usually doesn’t carry the coverage a licensee is required to carry, and if the job goes sideways, the state has almost no way to help you get your money back or force the work to be finished.
The FTC’s guide to hiring a contractor is blunt about this: verifying license and insurance is a step you do before signing, not after a problem.
Ask for the Certificate of Insurance, From the Insurer
Every contractor will tell you they’re insured. Fewer can produce a current Certificate of Insurance (COI) sent directly from their carrier or agent, naming you and the project address. That’s what you want. A PDF the contractor emails you from their own inbox can be out of date, edited, or lapsed since it was issued.
Two coverages matter most for the injured-worker scenario:
- General liability. Pays for property damage and third-party bodily injury the contractor causes. If a load of shingles crashes through your bay window, this is the policy.
- Workers’ compensation. Pays for injuries to the contractor’s own employees. This is the policy standing between you and that ambulance bill.
Carriers that write construction risk exclusively, like Builders Mutual, pair coverage with jobsite safety programs, which is a decent proxy for a contractor that takes both sides of the equation seriously. Ask which carrier writes the policy and whether it’s a construction specialist.
Read the Jobsite Like a Safety Inspector
The paperwork tells you what the contractor claims. The jobsite tells you what they do. Falls are among the most common serious injuries in residential construction, and federal rules generally require fall protection above six feet. Walk any active site the contractor has going and look for a few basics:
- Fall protection. Harnesses, guardrails, or safety nets when workers are on roofs, scaffolds, or upper-floor framing. The NAHB toolkit lays out what a compliant residential site should look like.
- Housekeeping. Clear walkways, capped rebar, extension cords off wet ground, and debris getting picked up daily. A messy site is a leading indicator of a messy operation.
- PPE in use. Hard hats, eye protection, and boots on everyone, not just the foreman standing by the truck.
You’re not there to write citations. You’re there to see whether the crew about to work on your house is the kind of crew that keeps that framer on the ladder.
Put the Answers in the Contract
Verbal reassurance doesn’t help you when the ambulance is in the driveway. Anything that matters goes in writing: the contractor’s legal name, license number, physical address, insurance carriers and policy numbers, scope of work, materials, payment schedule tied to milestones (not calendar dates), start and substantial-completion dates, change-order procedure, and lien waivers as subcontractors and suppliers get paid.
Two red flags at signing deserve their own mention. A contractor pushing for a large upfront deposit, anything approaching half the job before materials are on site, is one. High-pressure tactics at the kitchen table, especially the “sign tonight for a special discount” pitch, is the other. Cancellation rights on in-home sales vary by jurisdiction, but the better move is not to sign under pressure in the first place.
Come back to the injured-worker question one last time before you initial the last page. If the answer is still clearly the contractor and their insurer, sign. If it isn’t, walk away.
