What to Know Before Hiring a Contractor in Pennsylvania

Hiring a contractor is a $25K to $200K decision. Here's how to vet one properly — the PA license verification, the insurance check, the contract clauses that matter, and the red flags to walk away from.

You're about to hand someone keys to your home and $25K–$200K to spend on it. Worth doing this right.

The good news: vetting a contractor in Pennsylvania is mostly four checks, and you can do all four in an afternoon. The bad news: most homeowners skip them, and most contractor horror stories trace back to one of these checks not happening.

1. Verify the PA Home Improvement Contractor license

Every contractor doing more than $5,000 of home improvement work in Pennsylvania per year is required by state law to register with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General and carry a HIC (Home Improvement Contractor) number.

Verify the contractor's HIC at the official PA Attorney General site. The license should be active, the business name should match, and the contact info should be current.

For reference: our HIC is PA160145, and we've been registered since the program started.

2. Check insurance

Ask for two certificates:

• General liability insurance — minimum $1M coverage. This protects you if the contractor damages your home or property.
• Workers' compensation insurance — required if the contractor has employees. This protects you if a worker is injured on your property; without it, you can be personally liable.

A reputable contractor will email these certificates without hesitation. If you get pushback, that's the answer.

3. The 10 questions to ask

1. How long have you been licensed in Pennsylvania? Length doesn't equal quality, but it correlates with stability.
2. Can I see three references from projects similar to mine, completed in the last two years? Recent and relevant. Old references aren't the same business anymore.
3. Can I see in-progress photos from a current job? Anyone can show finished glamor shots. Mid-job photos tell you whether the crew protects the home, manages dust, and works cleanly.
4. Do you employ your trades or subcontract? Neither is wrong, but you should know. Subbed work can be excellent — but it requires the GC to actively manage trade scheduling and quality.
5. How do you handle change orders? The right answer: in writing, signed by both parties, with cost and schedule impact spelled out before the work proceeds.
6. What's your payment schedule? Reasonable: a deposit (10–25%), payments tied to milestones, and final payment after walkthrough. Unreasonable: more than 30% upfront, or full payment before completion.
7. What's your warranty? Most reputable contractors warranty their workmanship for at least one year. Some go longer. Get the warranty terms in the contract.
8. Will you pull the permits? Should be yes for any work that requires them. If a contractor asks you to pull the permit as homeowner to save them paperwork, that's a flag — it shifts liability to you.
9. What does your typical project schedule look like? They should be able to give you an honest start date and project duration, and explain how they handle weather, material delays, and concurrent jobs.
10. What happens if you find something behind the walls that you didn't quote for? The right answer: stop, document, communicate, give you options, get authorization, then proceed. The wrong answer: handle it and add to the bill.

4. Red flags to walk away from

• Unsolicited door-to-door pitches. Legitimate contractors don't need to knock on doors. This is the #1 source of contractor fraud in PA.
• 'We have leftover materials from another job and can give you a discount.' Almost always a scam.
• 'Cash only' or 'cash discount.' Cash means no paper trail, no recourse, and likely no tax compliance. A reputable contractor invoices.
• No written contract, or a contract under a single page. A real contract spells out scope, materials, timeline, payment schedule, change-order process, and warranty.
• Reluctance to provide HIC number, insurance certificates, or references. Should be instant and willing.
• Pressure to sign today. Pennsylvania law gives you a three-day rescission right on home improvement contracts. A contractor who pressures around that is creating a problem.
• Bid significantly lower than competitors. If you have three bids and one is 30%+ below the others, that contractor is either missing scope, underestimating the work, or planning to make up the gap with change orders.
• No physical business address. Should have a permanent address — not just a PO box and a cell number.

5. What a good contract includes

• Complete scope of work — exactly what's being done.
• Materials and specs — brands, models, finishes.
• Start and completion dates — with reasonable weather and material-delay carve-outs.
• Total fixed price (or clear time-and-materials structure with caps).
• Payment schedule tied to milestones.
• Change order process — in writing, signed before work proceeds.
• Warranty terms.
• Lien waiver language.
• Three-day rescission notice (required under PA law).
• Contractor's HIC number, address, and signature.

If you take one thing from this article: do the four-step vetting (license, insurance, references, contract) on every contractor you consider. It takes one afternoon and prevents most of the bad outcomes we see homeowners describe.

If you'd like a conversation about your project and a quote you can compare against others, we're happy to walk through it. Our HIC is PA160145, we carry full insurance, and we'll give you a fixed-fee written quote after the consultation.

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