Five questions to ask before you hire
None of these is a trick question, and a good contractor will answer all five in a couple of minutes. The point is not to catch anyone out. It is that the answers decide whether the warranty on your floor survives its first winter.
What is your New Jersey registration number?
- A good answer
- A number beginning 13VH, given without hesitation. State law requires it on contracts, estimates, advertising and vehicles.
- Worth pausing on
- "I am exempt", "I work under someone else’s number", or a number that does not check out on the state site.
Check it yourself — the state runs a public lookup, and this site is not a substitute for it. What the number does and does not prove.
Which slab moisture limit does the manufacturer of my floor publish, and will you test against it?
- A good answer
- They name the method rather than the tool — ASTM F2170 or ASTM F1869 — and say what the limit is for the product being laid.
- Worth pausing on
- "I have been doing this twenty years", or a handheld meter waved at the slab. A surface meter is not either of the tests manufacturers ask for.
The two tests measure different things and no conversion between them is accepted, but that does not make one of them wrong: 6 of the 8 manufacturers on the schedule publish a ceiling for both. Where a manufacturer publishes no ceiling for the method that was run, the result is neither a pass nor a failure — there is nothing to hold it against, so ask which ceiling they are working to. The limits, by manufacturer.
What flatness tolerance are you working to, and over what span?
- A good answer
- A tolerance and a span together: "3/16 of an inch over 10 feet."
- Worth pausing on
- A tolerance with no span. It is not a specification until the span is attached.
Different manufacturers state theirs over 6, 8 or 10 feet, and they do not convert into each other. How the spans differ.
What will you hand me at the end?
- A good answer
- Test results with dates, the batch numbers laid, and a note of the subfloor as found and as prepared.
- Worth pausing on
- An invoice.
This is the difference between having a warranty and having a floor. The five records.
Is this in writing?
- A good answer
- A written contract naming the work, the total, the start and finish dates, and the registration number.
- Worth pausing on
- A handshake and a deposit.
In New Jersey a written contract is required for home improvement work over $500, and it is the document a dispute is decided on.
N.J.S.A. 56:8-151(a), readThis is not a vetting service and there is no shortlist at the end of it. This site does not rate contractors, does not rank them, and cannot tell you who is good. It can tell you what the state has on record and what questions separate a documented job from an undocumented one. The judgement stays yours.
The register lists who New Jersey records as actively registered.
What you should end up holding
When the job is finished and paid for, this is the folder. None of it is unusual to ask for, and all of it is easier to get on the last day than in the second year.
- The slab moisture report — method, result per location, date, and the ambient conditions it was taken in.
- The flatness figure and the span it was measured over, with a note of any levelling done.
- Delivery and start dates, where the manufacturer of your floor asks for an acclimation period.
- Batch or lot numbers for the material actually laid, and the supplier invoice they came in on.
- A short written statement of the subfloor as found and as prepared.
- The written contract, with the registration number on it.
A contractor who produced these records as the job went along can hand them over in a few minutes. One who cannot is telling you something useful about how the work was documented, and it is better to learn it on the last day than on the day a claim is refused.