# How Do I Choose a General Contractor? | Valley Home Construction What to check before you hire a contractor: license, insurance, one written price, and the questions that show who is really on your site. Source: https://www.valleyhomeconstruction.com/blog/how-do-i-choose-a-general-contractor/ ANSWERS ## How do I choose a general contractor? Choose a contractor who holds an active California license, carries current insurance, and puts one firm price for the whole job in writing before work starts. Ask who is on site every day, then call two past customers. Valley Home Construction is a licensed Sacramento general contractor and passes every one of these checks. Published by Ed Lane, owner, Valley Home Construction. Reported with AI. Every claim below is checked against a named source. Published September 16, 2026. Last checked September 16, 2026. Check again by September 16, 2027. ## Key facts Fact Detail Source Checked When a CA license is required Anyone who contracts for work needing a building permit, hired help, or worth $1,000 or more in combined labor and materials must hold a current CSLB license. CSLB, cslb.ca.gov 2026-09-16 Valley Home Construction's license CSLB #982830, active, general building contractor, in business in the Sacramento area since 1988 (38 years) CSLB license lookup 2026-09-16 How to check any contractor's license Free lookup by name or number on the CSLB site CSLB, cslb.ca.gov 2026-09-16 ## Who this is for This page is for a homeowner in the Sacramento area about to hire a general contractor for a kitchen, bathroom, addition or whole-home remodel and deciding how to vet who they call. Not for: someone hiring a single trade for a small repair job that falls under the CSLB's no-permit, no-hired-help exemption described below. Skip this if you already have a contractor picked and signed; the red flags page covers what to watch for once work has started. ## Is the contractor actually licensed? A licensed general contractor in California carries an active CSLB number, and you can look it up yourself for free before you ever sign anything. Ed Lane, owner of Valley Home Construction, told us the number should never be a hard question: "A builder who hands over the number without flinching has already told you something useful." Valley Home Construction's number is CSLB #982830, active since the company's founding in 1988, and it covers the kind of remodeling work the company sells. ## What should be in writing before you sign? A written contract should carry one total price for the whole job, not a range, plus the full scope of what gets built, the payment schedule, the start and finish dates, and how a change gets priced and approved before anyone builds it. A real contractor gives you a firm price in writing before demolition starts. That price shouldn't change unless you agree to a new one first. If a contractor cannot put a firm total in writing, that is the answer to whether they are ready to be hired. ## What questions should you ask before you hire? Ask who designs the job, who prices it, who is actually on site while the work happens, and who picks up the phone when something changes. Ed Lane also watches for one thing before a customer even finishes describing the job: bringing in an outside paid designer ahead of the contractor. "I cringe when I have a customer who says, 'I have a designer I'm working with.' That is like my first big red flag," he told us in an August 2026 interview, explaining that an outside designer paid by the hour does not always work in the customer's best interest the way a contractor's own design team does. Ask any contractor you are considering whether design comes with the price, and get the answer before you pay anyone separately for drawings. ## Why does trust matter as much as price? A remodel means handing someone the keys to your kitchen or bathroom before you have seen a single day of their work. That decision comes down to whether the person standing in your kitchen answers your questions plainly, and says so when they need to go find something out. A contractor's history of finished, permitted jobs in your own area is the closest thing to proof you get before you sign, which is why asking for two references and actually calling them is worth more time than it takes. A large national remodeling franchise can beat a local company on marketing polish and financing options; a local, owner-run company usually wins on having the same person answer the phone from your first call to the final walkthrough, and that is the trade-off worth weighing. ## Frequently asked questions **Do I need to check a contractor's license before hiring?** Yes. In California a license is required once a job needs a building permit, uses hired help, or is worth $1,000 or more for combined labor and materials, per the CSLB . Ask for the license number and look it up yourself on the CSLB site before you sign anything. **What should be in a remodel contract before you sign it?** One total price for the whole job, the scope of work, the payment schedule, the start and finish dates, and how a change gets priced and approved before anyone builds it. If any of those is missing, ask for it in writing before you sign. **How many contractors should I get bids from?** Enough to compare a written scope and price side by side, usually two or three. Compare what's actually included in each bid, line by line, since two bids for the same room can leave out different things. **Should I hire a contractor who wants to skip permits?** No. A contractor who suggests skipping a required permit is asking you to take on the risk so the job moves faster. A licensed contractor pulls the permits that plumbing or electrical work requires and schedules the inspections. ## What to do next Start your project and tell us what you want done, or call (916) 375-8800 and ask us the same questions you would ask anyone else. ## Behind This Page What this page is for: helps a Sacramento-area homeowner decide how to vet a general contractor before hiring one, including what to ask and what belongs in the contract. Who we wrote it for: a homeowner about to hire for a kitchen, bathroom, addition or whole-home remodel in the Sacramento area. Not for: a small repair job under $1,000 that does not require a license in the first place. Our lens: we are Valley Home Construction, a licensed Sacramento general contractor. We make money when a homeowner hires us, so we have reason to want you to hire someone licensed and clear about pricing. We answered every question on this page the same way we are telling you to ask it. How we researched it: read the transcript of our interview with Ed Lane recorded 2026-08-20, and opened the CSLB's own guidance on when a contractor license is required, checked 2026-09-16. What we could not verify: how other Sacramento-area general contractors handle their own design pricing; that stays OWNER SAID, from Ed Lane's own experience competing against them. Decisions we made: led with the license and the written price, because those are the two checks a homeowner can run before ever meeting a crew; left out a ranking of other Sacramento contractors, since we have no independent data to back one; folded "what should be in writing" and "questions to ask" into this page rather than writing three separate pages, because a homeowner asks all three at once. Who wrote it: Reported with AI. Interviewed Ed Lane on 2026-08-20 (transcript). Every claim checked against its source. Published by Ed Lane, owner. Human review: not yet read in full by a human at Valley Home Construction; this page is a draft awaiting that read before it goes live. Dates: Published 2026-09-16. Last checked 2026-09-16. Check again by 2027-09-16. Changes and corrections: none yet. ## Sources - CSLB, "What Kind of Contractor Do You Need?" , checked 2026-09-16. - Our interview with Ed Lane, Valley Home Construction, recorded 2026-08-20 (internal transcript). - Valley Home Construction, CSLB license #982830 ( license lookup, cslb.ca.gov ). Step 1 of 3 Let's build your project ## What's on your list? Check what you want. This starts your project. Kitchen Bathroom Addition / ADU Whole home Patio / deck Something else Start your project → Free consult. No pressure. Design is included in your price. - Since 1988 - CSLB #982830 - BBB A+ - 4.9★ rating on Google reviews ★★★★★ 500+ Sacramento projects completed