General residential work
Above a job cost set by the Board, anyone building, remodeling or repairing a home must hold a state home builders licence. The Board also encourages homeowners to hire licensees for smaller jobs below that line.
Before You Sign Anything
Checking a Contractor in Alabama
After a hurricane, the knock on the door often comes before the adjuster does. Some of the people knocking are good at their work. Some are not licensed to do it in Alabama at all.
This page shows how to check a builder or roofer with the state board in a few minutes, what a written contract has to say, how to handle payments, and what to ask before anyone climbs on your roof.
Water still coming in?
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The weeks after a storm are the busiest weeks of the year for anyone who fixes houses on the Gulf Coast. Every crew is booked, trucks from other states fill the motel lots along the highways, and flyers turn up in every mailbox. Most of that help is honest. Some of it leaves homeowners with a deposit gone, a roof half finished and an insurance check already spent.
Alabama gives homeowners a simple tool against that: a state licence for home builders and storm roofers, and a free public lookup. This page walks through how to use it, then the paperwork, the payments and the questions that protect you whoever you hire, us included.
The Rule in Plain Words
The Alabama Home Builders Licensure Board licenses people who build and repair homes. Two thresholds matter to a homeowner.
Replacing a storm damaged roof
The Board sets a much lower threshold for roofers. Even when the work is "simply replacing a storm-damaged roof," a roofer’s licence is required once the job passes that lower figure.
The thresholds themselves are published on the Board’s website, and they are the kind of number worth checking on the day you sign rather than remembering from the last storm. The point to carry away is simple: on almost any real repair after a hurricane, the person you hire should be able to show you a state licence card.
The Board’s home page adds a warning in its own words: "Law Enforcement may charge unlicensed homebuilders with a felony."
Look Up the Licence Yourself
It takes a name and a minute. Do it before the contract, not after the deposit.
Ask to see the licence card
The Board tells homeowners to ask for it. Write down the name and the number exactly as printed.
Search the Board’s public database
Use the Home Builders Licensure Board licensee search. Search by the company name and by the person’s name, since a licence may be held under either.
Check that the names match
The name on the truck, the contract and the licence should be the same business. A licence held by someone else is not your contractor’s licence.
Call if anything is unclear
The Board’s licence status line is 1-800-304-0853, and its office is 334-242-2230, weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Out of town is not the problem, unchecked is
The Board asks homeowners to check references "especially if the builder makes unsolicited contact with you or is from out-of-town." Plenty of good crews travel to storms. The ones worth hiring can show an Alabama licence and give you local references you can actually call.
A Written Contract, Every Time
The Board says state law requires licensed home builders to use a written contract. Read it at the kitchen table, not on the tailgate.
According to the Board, a contract should list at least:
- The contractor’s full name, address and phone number.
- A description of the work to be done, in enough detail that a stranger could tell what is included and what is not.
- The start date and the estimated completion date.
- The total cost of the job.
We would add a few lines of our own. The materials should be named, not just "roofing" or "drywall." The contract should say who pulls the permit and who passes the inspection. It should say what happens if hidden damage turns up once the walls or the decking are open. And any change after signing should go on paper with both signatures, even a small one.
The Board’s advice after a disaster ends with a sentence worth taping to the refrigerator: "Don’t be in a rush. A bad decision now can make a difficult situation even worse."
Paying for the Work
How money changes hands is where most storm repair trouble starts.
- Keep any deposit modest and tied to something real, such as materials ordered for your job.
- Pay in stages as work is finished and you have seen it, never the full price before work begins.
- Pay by check or card so there is a record. Avoid cash, and get a receipt for every payment.
- Do not sign the insurance check over to a contractor before the work is done. Work with your insurer, as the Board advises, and ask your adjuster how the claim pays out. Our page on filing a claim in Alabama covers the order of things.
- Read anything you are asked to sign that mentions your insurance claim, and do not sign what you do not understand.
If you believe you have been cheated, or that someone is gouging prices after a storm, the Board points homeowners to the Alabama Attorney General’s Consumer Interest Division at 1-800-392-5658. If a contractor seems to be in your neighborhood for the wrong reasons, the Board says to call law enforcement.
Storm Roofers, Old Paint and Certification
Three more checks that apply to particular kinds of work.
Storm roofers
After a hurricane the roofing trucks arrive first. Confirm the roofer’s own Alabama licence, not a partner’s, and get the shingle brand and the underlayment in writing. Our page on roof damage after a storm explains what to photograph first.
Homes built before 1978
The EPA says "anyone paid to perform work that disturbs paint in housing and child-occupied facilities built before 1978 must be certified in lead-safe work practices." That covers sanding, cutting out wet drywall and replacing windows. The EPA runs a public search for certified renovation firms, listed in the sources below.
Water, mold and fire cleanup
The IICRC certifies technicians in water damage, mold remediation and fire cleanup. Its Global Locator, listed in the sources below, is meant, in its own words, to connect "consumers (homeowners/business owners) with certified firms and technicians." Ask for the certification and check it.
Many homes in Mobile and Prichard were built before that 1978 line, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Our page on older homes in Mobile and Baldwin covers what that means for repairs.
Questions to Ask Before Signing
Ask every company the same list, and write the answers down. The comparison tells you a lot.
- What name is your Alabama licence under, and may I see the card?
- Can you give me three local customers from the last year I can call?
- Who will be on the job each day, your own crew or subcontractors?
- Do you carry liability insurance and workers’ compensation, and will you show me the certificate?
- Who pulls the permit, and who calls for the inspection?
- What is the payment schedule, and what does each payment cover?
- What happens if you find more damage once the work is open?
- What warranty comes with the work, and is it in writing?
- Are your technicians IICRC certified for this kind of work?
A good contractor will not mind any of these. A company that hurries you past them, or offers a price that only lasts until today, has told you what you need to know. We answer the same list ourselves: our technicians are IICRC certified, we are licensed and insured, and on storm damage jobs we document every room for the adjuster.
Questions About Hiring After a Storm
A roofer knocked on my door in Gulf Shores the day after the storm. Should I say no?
Not automatically. Take a card, then check the licence on the Board’s search and call the references before you agree to anything. The Board specifically asks homeowners to check references when the contact was unsolicited or the company is from out of town. A day spent checking costs far less than a deposit lost.
The job is small. Does the contractor still need a licence?
Below the Board’s threshold a state licence is not required for general work, but the Board encourages homeowners to hire licensees anyway. For a storm damaged roof the threshold is much lower, so many storm roof jobs need a licensed roofer. If you are unsure, call the Board’s office at 334-242-2230 and ask.
How do I report a contractor who took my deposit and disappeared?
Call the Attorney General’s Consumer Interest Division at 1-800-392-5658 or file a consumer complaint on the Attorney General’s website. If the contractor was licensed, also contact the Home Builders Licensure Board. Keep the contract, the receipts and every text message.
Sources for this page
- Alabama Home Builders Licensure Board, disaster advice, licence thresholds, contract contents, phone lines and the Attorney General referral.
- Alabama Home Builders Licensure Board, office hours and the felony warning.
- Alabama Home Builders Licensure Board, about us, office phone.
- HBLB licensee search, the public licence lookup.
- EPA, Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program, pre 1978 certification rule.
- EPA, certified firm search, lead safe firm lookup.
- IICRC Global Locator, certified firm and technician lookup.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, age of the housing stock in Mobile and Prichard.
Questions About a Job at Your House?
A person answers 24 hours a day. We are licensed and insured, and we are glad to answer the same questions this page asks you to put to anyone.