How to Vet an Exterior Contractor

My name is Dave Petrillo. I’ve spent 22 years running exterior crews around New Haven, Connecticut — painting, repointing, walkways, the whole range of work that lives outside a house’s walls, mostly in East Rock and Westville, where the housing stock still leans Victorian and early-1900s. I’ll say something against my own trade: most of the horror stories homeowners tell me about “the last guy” were avoidable in the first phone call. A woman in East Rock showed me a half-finished repointing job last spring — mortar smeared everywhere, no permit pulled, and a “contractor” who stopped answering the phone the day after she paid him cash off a lawn sign. Every red flag was there before he ever lifted a trowel. Here’s how I’d tell a friend to vet an exterior contractor, so they don’t end up with a stalled job and a lien on the house.

What I hand over before I’ll even give a bid

In Connecticut, home improvement contractors have to register with the Department of Consumer Protection, and that registration is free to look up. Ask for the number and check it yourself instead of taking someone’s word for it. Then ask for a certificate of insurance — general liability and workers’ comp — and call the carrier to confirm it’s still active, not expired. This isn’t paranoia: if an uninsured worker gets hurt on your property, that liability can land on you, not the contractor. A legitimate contractor hands this paperwork over without flinching. The ones who get cagey about it are telling you something.

• Active Connecticut DCP home improvement registration number
• Certificate of insurance covering general liability and workers’ comp
• A real business address, not just a truck and a lawn sign

Reading a bid like a contractor, not a shopper

When I bid a job, I itemize it: scope, materials with brands and quantities, labor, permit costs, timeline, payment schedule. If a competitor’s bid comes back as one lump number with nothing broken out, that’s not a bid, it’s a hostage note. Get at least three written estimates. The lowest one is usually low because something’s missing — either scope or corners the crew plans to cut. On a repointing or tuckpointing job, for example, a cheap bid will skip raking the old mortar joints out to proper depth and just skim new mortar over the face instead. It looks fine for about a year. Then it all falls out, and you’re paying twice.

What fair pricing actually looks like

Exterior pricing shifts with the house and the neighborhood, but here’s the range I see hold up across legitimate bids:

A bid that comes in 40 percent under everyone else isn’t a deal. It’s a warning.

Old work tells you more than new reviews

Anybody can buy reviews. Ask for three addresses of jobs finished two-plus years ago and go look at them yourself — exterior work, especially chimney repointing or brick restoration, only shows its real quality after a couple of freeze-thaw cycles. I want clients to see how my mortar joints held up, whether the caulk lines are still tight, whether the paint’s peeling early. While you’re there, ask those past clients whether the crew showed up when they said they would, cleaned up after themselves, and finished on schedule. OSHA’s guidance on jobsite safety practices is worth a look too — a contractor who runs an organized, safe site, ladders secured, scaffolding built right, debris cleared, usually runs a careful job overall. You can see it in how a crew handles the little things.

Nothing moves until it’s in the contract

No signed contract, no deposit — ever. The contract needs to name the scope, the materials, start and finish dates, total price, and a payment schedule tied to progress, not one big number up front. Connecticut law requires a home improvement contract to be in writing and give you a cancellation window. Never hand over more than a modest deposit before work starts. I walk through exactly what to check for, line by line, in reading a home improvement contract before you sign.

The tells that mean walk away

The last filter is just behavior. Anyone pressuring you to sign today, demanding cash, or telling you a permit isn’t necessary for structural or masonry work is telling you exactly who they are — permits exist for a reason, especially on older homes, where a “quick repointing” can turn into a structural repair once the wall’s actually opened up. Good contractors are busy, transparent, and patient. If the phone manner feels off before the deposit’s even changed hands, it usually is.

Questions homeowners ask me about hiring an exterior contractor

How much deposit is reasonable for exterior or masonry work? For most exterior jobs, 10 to 30 percent down is normal, with the rest tied to progress milestones. Anyone demanding 50 percent or more up front, or full payment before starting, is a serious red flag. Don’t pay the final amount until the work passes inspection and you’ve walked it yourself.

Should I repair or fully replace old mortar and masonry? If the brick itself is sound and the damage is limited to a section of joints, spot repointing is usually the right call, and the cheaper one. A full re-do only makes sense when mortar has failed across most of the wall, the brick face is spalling, or a previous cheap repair — skim-coated joints instead of properly raked ones — has trapped moisture behind the surface.

Do I need to verify a license for a small job, like a walkway or a single wall? Yes. Even a modest repointing or walkway job should go to a registered, insured contractor. The cost of an uninsured injury, or an unpermitted job that fails inspection, dwarfs whatever you’d save hiring off the books.

How many quotes should I get before choosing? Three written, itemized bids. That’s enough to spot an outlier on either end. Throw out the suspiciously low one, and choose between the two that break down scope, materials, and payment clearly. Ask each of them what is under the finish as well: a Jacksonville concrete contractor who prices base prep honestly will always look dearer than one who left it out.