Flooring-crew pre-hire check
Verify a flooring crew before you hire.
A hardwood install, an LVP/luxury-vinyl plank lay, a tile job, a carpet swap, a subfloor repair after a structural fix, or an insurance-paid floor replacement after a loss — every one of them puts a five-figure payment in front of a crew you do not yet have a relationship with. A floor sits at the lowest surface of the room, so EVERY upstairs leak — a dishwasher line, a fridge water line, an upstairs-bath overflow, a frozen pipe burst — surfaces there first, and the subfloor moisture mitigation that follows is the hidden cost. Run the same public-record check the flooring crew runs on you, pair it with the four parallel signals the public record does not cover, and decide with the full picture before you write the deposit.
Or review plans for Solo / Team contractors.
What the public-record check covers on a flooring crew
The same four public-record sources TradeSafeJobs uses for pre-bid client vetting — reframed for the lens of a homeowner running the check on a flooring crew instead of the other way around. Flooring hires concentrate the supplier-lien signal — flooring manufacturer, adhesive, transition-strip, underlayment, moisture-barrier — and floor level concentrates water-and-moisture exposure that no other room in the house carries the same way.
Civil cases filed in U.S. District Courts naming the flooring crew or the crew’s entity. Adversary proceedings, debt-collection actions, and federal-question disputes surface here before they appear on a state-court index.
Why it matters on a flooring-crew hire: A federal civil filing is the earliest indicator that the flooring crew you are about to retain is already in active litigation. It is independent of the lien history on your specific property and tends to predate the payment-risk signals you would see at the state level.
Money judgments recorded at the state trial-court level — open, satisfied, and vacated judgments against the flooring crew or the crew entity. Same dataset a homeowner does not normally see when they ask a flooring crew for "references."
Why it matters on a flooring-crew hire: An open money judgment names a prior trade the flooring crew already owes — flooring manufacturer, adhesive supplier, transition-strip supplier, underlayment, moisture-barrier supplier. That is exactly the cohort you are about to join if the install or refinish goes sideways, and a prior judgment concentration is the single sharpest go / caution / no-go signal the public record carries.
Recorded mechanic's liens on residential flooring projects the crew has worked on. Flooring projects concentrate the supplier-lien risk — flooring manufacturer, adhesive supplier, moisture-barrier and underlayment vendors, transition-strip fabricator — and an unpaid supplier can file a mechanic's lien against the homeowner's property, not the crew's. We surface liens the crew has filed as an unpaid claimant (a recovery pattern) AND liens a prior homeowner has filed AGAINST the crew's work (a payment friction pattern).
Why it matters on a flooring-crew hire: A pattern of prior supplier liens against the crew’s work is a Caution-grade signal — the unpaid supplier can attach YOUR title, not the crew’s, until the debt resolves. A crew who has filed many mechanic’s liens of their own is signaling they have had to chase payment on prior floor installs — read in context.
Chapter 7, 11, and 13 petitions filed by or against the flooring crew in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Active cases, discharges, and dismissals all appear with the current status flagged next to the filing.
Why it matters on a flooring-crew hire: A pending bankruptcy automatically stays most collection activity, including judgment enforcement. A prior discharge also matters — debts wiped out there will not reappear as fresh judgments later, so an older discharge that has been resolved can be read as neutral context rather than a live signal.
What to verify in parallel — and why
Five checks every flooring hire should clear. Two are partially covered by TradeSafeJobs; three are external and must be verified independently. Treat the public-record Go as necessary but not sufficient — these five are the rest, and the flooring-specific exposure on subfloor moisture/mold, GL "care custody and control" exclusions on adjacent existing flooring, and the subfloor-permit trigger set is what makes each of them different from the same check on a deck build or a kitchen remodel.
State contractor’s license lookup
Pull the flooring crew’s license status on your state contractor board site — verify the license is current, bonded, and unrestricted. Some states issue a separate floor-covering classifier; in most states the work falls under a general building license. Confirm the license class actually covers your scope (floor-covering-only install vs. subfloor/structural repair vs. radiant heat plumbing move vs. insurance-paid loss replacement).
Why: An active license is the single signal TradeSafeJobs does not check. It is the most concrete thing you can do before writing the deposit, and at least one state places the lookup result alongside every public-record entry on the report.
Certificate of insurance — general liability + workers’ comp
Ask the flooring crew for a COI naming YOU as the certificate holder for the duration of the project. Verify both general liability — must explicitly cover subfloor moisture damage and mold growth claims during the install (frequently EXCLUDED in base GL for floor-covering work) AND confirm "care custody and control" exclusions on existing flooring being worked around (adjacent rooms require a rider) — and workers’ comp, verified by a phone call to the issuing carrier, not just the producer’s certificate PDF.
Why: A floor sits at the lowest surface of the room, so EVERY upstairs leak surfaces there first — dishwasher line, fridge water line, upstairs-bath overflow, frozen pipe burst. Subfloor moisture mitigation is the hidden cost, and a base GL that excludes moisture/mold claims transfers to the homeowner’s policy on a loss. Workers’ comp puts your homeowner’s-policy at risk if a crew member is hurt on your property.
Surety bond check at the state board
If your state requires residential contractor bonds, confirm the bond is in force for the flooring crew’s current license. A bond that has lapsed usually means the license is one renewal payment away from being suspended.
Why: A lapsed bond is one of the few signals that can flip a license from "active" to "suspended" without warning. Most state boards surface bond status next to license status when both are pulled in the same lookup.
Local permit history at the building department
Pull the flooring crew’s permit history at your local building department — past subfloor/structural work pulled under their license, code-case history, and final inspection outcomes. Permit signal is sparse for floor-covering-only work (typically none required), but permits ARE required for subfloor/structural replacement, plumbing moves for radiant heat, floor-structure alteration to fix deflection, and insurance-paid floor replacement after a loss. When present, the permit record is high-signal; absence is not a Caution by itself.
Why: A pattern of subfloor or structural permits pulled but never finalized, or repeated code violations on framing under a floor covering, is the signal a public-record check does not surface. The building department record is local-only and lives outside the datasets we pull.
Financial-health indicator summary
The aggregate read on the flooring crew’s payment profile — how often they show up as an unpaid claimant on prior projects, how often they appear as a defendant in payment disputes, and the current status of the largest open judgments. On a flooring hire this read also reflects how the owner-operator handles a hired tile setter sub or hardwood finisher sub on larger jobs.
Why: TradeSafeJobs condenses the four federal/state sources into a Go / Caution / No-Go verdict and surfaces the counts that drove the verdict — the same read a contractor uses on a homeowner before bidding, repackaged for the homeowner running it on the contractor.
Common flooring-crew pre-hire questions
Short answers to the questions homeowners ask before they run the public-record check on a flooring crew — what to expect, what the verdict means, and how to pair it with the parallel checks above.
What is the single most important check before I hire a flooring crew?
Verify the state contractor’s license directly on the state board site — confirm the license class covers your scope (floor-covering-only install, subfloor/structural repair, radiant heat plumbing move, or insurance-paid loss replacement), confirm it is current, and confirm the bond is in force. Then pair it with a phone call to the COI carrier to verify the certificate explicitly covers subfloor moisture damage and mold growth claims during the install, and to confirm there is no "care custody and control" exclusion on adjacent existing flooring. A floor sits at the lowest surface of the room and catches EVERY upstairs leak first — that moisture/mold and adjacent-flooring coverage is what a generic GL policy most often excludes.
How is a Go / Caution / No-Go on a flooring crew different from the one I see on a homeowner?
The four public-record sources are the same, but the read is different. On a homeowner, "Caution" usually means they have open judgments a prior creditor already won. On a flooring crew, "Caution" usually means prior trades — flooring manufacturer, adhesive supplier, moisture-barrier vendor, transition-strip fabricator — already had to chase payment from them, the same cohort you are about to join. A flooring owner-operator who brings in a tile setter sub or a hardwood finisher sub is also a one- or two-person shop with the same subcontractor-churn signal a kitchen GC carries — read accordingly. The verdict vocabulary is identical; the underlying signal flips.
Does a clean Go mean the flooring crew is safe to hire?
A clean Go is "no red flags in the public record today" — not a guarantee. The four sources do not include a state license, certificate of insurance, surety-bond status, or local permit history. Run those four checks in parallel before you sign; the public-record Go pairs with them, it does not replace them. Flooring permits are sparse for floor-covering-only work (typically none required), but a "clean Go" with unpermitted subfloor/structural work after a structural repair or insurance loss is a Caution-grade hidden liability that surfaces at sale.
Should the flooring crew know I am running a public-record check?
Yes — and that is the framing the bid walk should start from. A licensed, bonded flooring crew with a clean public record will not object; the Go verdict on a crew is exactly the symmetrical counterpart to the Go verdict a contractor sees on a clean homeowner. Run it the same way the contractor runs it on you.
Pre-hire next step
Run the flooring crew check before you sign the contract.
Pull the public-record Go / Caution / No-Go on the flooring crew you are about to retain, then walk down the five parallel checks above — license, COI explicitly covering subfloor moisture/mold and adjacent-flooring "care custody and control," surety bond, local permit history focused on subfloor/structural work, and the financial-health read on the crew plus their subs. The verdict is the first signal, not the last one.