Why the choice of company matters more than the first phone call
Water in the house, a ruined floor, wet drywall — almost everyone runs into something like this at least once. We look for the contractor who will do the work online. We stop at the company that came up first. We look through its website and social media, and that is it, we have met the company. All that is left is to sign the contract quickly and wait.
Sometimes that ends with a job left half done, or with a company that disappears. But you can prevent this.
A bright, polished website does not mean the contractor is honest. If you have decided to trust a company you do not know with drying out and rebuilding your home, you will have to check it carefully. Choosing a restoration company is a check of the company, the contract, the estimate and the money, not of a nice portfolio. In one evening you can screen out most of the risky options if you follow a clear checklist.
What a restoration company does
A restoration company works on the damage after water, fire, smoke or mold, not on a new remodel. After a leak the job usually covers removing water, drying the structure, removing materials that cannot be saved and then putting the rooms back. You can see how this works on the page about our water damage restoration work. Some jobs also need furniture and belongings moved out while the work goes on — that is packing out and storing your contents. If the water sat too long, there may be a separate stage of mold remediation after a leak, and after a fire there is fire and smoke damage restoration.
Many of these stages are hidden work. Checking the quality of drying, insulation or waterproofing after the walls are closed up is almost impossible. That is one more reason to check the company before it starts, not after.
License, insurance and IICRC certification
Who you are actually signing with
First, figure out exactly who you are signing the contract with: a company or a private person. The name on the website and the party to the contract must match. Check the license number, the address and who owns the company.
Ask the company for its license number and full legal name. These details are needed to check the contractor through public sources. In California you can look up a license by number or by name through the Contractors State License Board license check. There it is worth looking at:
- whether the license is active, and whose name it is in;
- the date the license was issued, to lower your risk. If the business appeared a month ago, its reputation has not formed yet and you cannot check how honest it is. If the company has existed for at least a few years and you have found nothing doubtful about it, it will quite likely turn out to be decent;
- the address of the company, to understand whether it is in your area. If it is registered far away, a dispute or getting money back will be harder.
It is also worth checking that the experience the company claims matches the age of the business. A new company can be a normal contractor, but then you need confirmed jobs and clear responsibility from its owners.
Insurance and certification
Ask about the company's own insurance and ask to see proof of it, not a word on the phone. For water damage work, also ask about training. The IICRC is the body that certifies firms and technicians in cleaning and restoration; an IICRC Certified Firm should be able to show proof of it. Our company is an IICRC Certified Firm, and our license number is in the footer of every page of this site — you can read more about our team and certification.
Reviews and real jobs
Look at reviews on at least two independent platforms. What matters is not the average rating but the repeated complaints: hidden work, missed deadlines, refusing to fix defects, a price that grows, and disappearing after the deposit. You can start by reading reviews from local homeowners.
Ask for the contacts of two or three past customers. Portfolios are a separate story. Some crews show photos of jobs that were done not by them but by subcontractors or other companies altogether. From the photos you cannot tell who actually held the tools. A fake portfolio is a common tool of deception. If you ask for the contacts of at least two past customers from the portfolio and call them yourself, the picture usually clears up fast.
The estimate and the work authorization
How to compare estimates
Compare not the total but the same scope of obligations. Each estimate should list separately the work, the materials and their amounts, the equipment, debris removal, and what is not included in the price.
- Drying: which rooms, which equipment, how the moisture is measured;
- Removal: what is taken out and why;
- Rebuild: drywall, flooring, paint, cabinets;
- Exclusions: what is paid separately and under what conditions.
A suspiciously low price often means understated quantities or extra agreements later. A suspiciously high one means there is no transparent calculation. Ask the contractor to explain each large difference in writing. The California Department of Insurance also advises getting written bids from licensed contractors.
What to put in the contract
Before work starts, the work authorization or contract should name:
- an exact description of the rooms and the work;
- the estimate with quantities, materials and exclusions;
- extra work only by written agreement;
- how the work is accepted and what documents come with each stage;
- how defects are fixed and how long you have to report them;
- responsibility for delays and how the contract can be ended.
The estimate and the schedule should be attachments to the contract. If the contractor promises to "clear everything up after work starts," you are signing not a managed project but an open budget.
Deposit and payments by stage
Sometimes a first batch of materials cannot be bought without a deposit, but the whole amount of the project should not go to the contractor before the result. It is safer to tie each payment to a stage, a written sign-off and a set of supporting documents. In California a down payment on a home improvement job is capped at 10% of the contract price or $1,000, whichever is less. Many home contracts also give you 3 days to cancel, or 5 days if you are 65 or older.
Ask for your own copy of the contract. Make checks out to the company named in the contract, never to an individual. If you can pay by check or card rather than cash, it is better to do so: in a dispute it will be easier to prove payment.
Working with your insurer
If the home is insured, the claim and the restoration go side by side, and the paperwork matters. The California Department of Insurance guide to residential claims notes that some insurers supply lists of vendors; the department also tells homeowners they may use the contractor of their choosing. Get the bids in writing either way.
Keep every document in one place: the contract, the estimate, any change orders, the messages, the payments, photos and video. Take photos of each stage before walls and floors are closed up, and write down the date and what was done. Do not sign off on work you have not checked, even if the contractor wants the next payment.
Red flags: how dishonest crews work
Repairs almost always start with optimism and end with a talk about who is to blame for going over budget. There are a few schemes that dishonest crews repeat. None of them takes special cunning; they work because the customer trusts words, not documents.
The signs are almost always the same: urgency, no contract, a demand for cash, and vague answers to direct questions about the company's documents.
The door-knocker after a storm
The crudest trick still works. The crew asks for a large upfront payment, supposedly for materials or an urgent start, and after getting the money disappears or delays the start forever. Sometimes the scammer works as a private person without documents, and finding them later is hard. After a storm such people go door to door themselves.
The low estimate
The most common trick starts before work even begins. The contractor names a price well below the market so that you sign and stop looking for others. Then during the job "unaccounted" items appear: extra materials, additional work that "could not be known" in advance. Some change in an estimate is normal — sometimes hidden problems really do come up. But if the final amount grows several times over, and not by a small correction, that is not bad luck but a planned scheme.
Pressure to sign today
Stop even if the price seems very attractive when you are pushed to decide fast. A contractor who will not calmly show documents, an estimate and how the work goes is a risk that a low price does not make up for. A refusal to sign a written contract at all should be a warning flag for you.
No license, swapped materials, stretched deadlines
No license number, or a number that does not match the name on the contract, is a reason to stop. The other tricks come later. The contractor brings a receipt for an expensive material and actually uses a cheaper one. The work is dragged out to get extra pay for delays. Items that were not done, or were done only in part, end up on the final invoice. Signing off without checking each item yourself is a direct path to paying for nothing.
Questions to ask a restoration company first
After the first check, meet two or three finalists and compare their answers side by side. Questions worth asking:
- What is your license number, and is the license in the same name as the contract?
- Is the company IICRC certified, and who on the crew is trained?
- What insurance do you carry, and can I see proof?
- Can I talk to two or three of your past customers?
- What exactly is in the estimate, and what is not included?
- How big is the deposit, and what is each next payment tied to?
- How do you document hidden work before it is closed up?
- How are extra work and price changes agreed?
- How do you work with my insurance company, and who sends them what?
Can you choose a contractor by price alone?
No. First compare the scope of work, the materials, the schedule and how changes are handled. Only after that compare the totals.
What deposit is dangerous?
The danger is not a deposit itself but a large payment without a stage, an estimate, a report on materials and a clear result. Tie every payment to the contract and to accepted work.
A good contractor is not afraid of questions, shows documents, opens up the estimate and explains the risks in advance. Choose the one whose work you can check before you pay and accept by clear rules. If your home is in our area, see water damage restoration in Rancho Bernardo or pack-out and storage in Rancho Bernardo.