How to Check a Concrete or Paver Contractor Before You Sign
What to check before you sign
Five things settle whether a contractor is worth hiring for flatwork or pavers, and all five can be checked in an afternoon: the insurance certificate, the legal entity behind the name, two or three finished jobs you can drive past, the written contract, and whether the specification matches the load the surface will carry. A quote that is cheap because it leaves out base, steel or drainage is the one that comes back.
The five checks
- Insurance certificate. Ask for a certificate of insurance showing general liability and workers' compensation or a valid exemption, with the agent's contact on it. Call the agent and confirm it is in force for the dates of your job. Several associations, Solterra among them, can require the certificate to name the association.
- Legal entity. Ask for the exact business name and check it on Sunbiz at search.sunbiz.org: active status, filing date, principal address, registered agent. A fictitious name should be registered too. If the name on the contract, the truck and Sunbiz do not match, ask why before you sign anything.
- References and addresses. Two or three jobs of the same type finished more than two years ago, with addresses you can drive past. New work always looks good. Look at the apron seam, the joints and the edges rather than the middle of the slab, because that is where age shows first.
- The written contract. Scope, thickness, mix strength, reinforcement and how it is held in position, base depth and compaction, joint layout, drainage, what happens to the old surface, permit and association responsibility, exclusions, schedule, payment terms, and the workmanship warranty in words. Full payment up front is a red flag; a deposit covering materials and permit fees is normal.
- The specification against the load. Four inches with fibre and edge steel for cars, six with a grid for boats and RVs, six inches of base under pavers, and a concrete apron where the drive meets the street. A quote that says four inches with mesh and nothing about base is describing a different job from the one beside it.
Why the specification is the part that decides the price
Two quotes for the same driveway can differ by thirty percent for reasons that are invisible once the job is finished. One includes proof-rolling the subgrade, digging out soft pockets, four to six inches of compacted base in lifts, fibre in the mix and steel at the edges. The other includes a skim of sand and a vibrating plate. At twelve months they look identical. On Osceola's fine sand, at year five they do not.
So the most useful thing you can do with three quotes is make them describe the same job. The Project Brief Generator writes that specification onto one page you can hand to every bidder, and the questions printed at the bottom of it are the ones whose answers tell you the most about who you are talking to. What we put in writing on our own jobs is on the About page.
Signs of trouble
- No street address and no Sunbiz record for the name on the quote.
- A certificate of insurance that never arrives, or arrives as a photo rather than from the agent.
- A price far below the range for the specification, with base or steel missing from the description.
- A cash discount for skipping the permit.
- Pressure to sign today, or a crew that happens to be in the area with leftover material.
- No written warranty, or a warranty that is a phone number.
Tools for the comparison
The Project Brief Generator fixes the specification so every bidder quotes the same job; the Concrete & Paver Calculator gives the planning range; the cost guides explain where the ranges come from. Permit responsibility by office is on the permits hub.
The five-minute version
- Search the business name on Sunbiz, the Florida Division of Corporations site. You want an active entity, a registered agent, and a name that matches the proposal. A contractor who cannot be found there is either brand new or trading under a name nobody registered.
- Ask for the certificate of insurance and read the dates and the limits. It should name the insurer and a policy period that covers your job. Ask for it to be sent by the agent.
- Ask which office will issue the permit for your address and listen for a specific answer. Someone who works here daily will say the Osceola County driveway permit or the city's EnerGov application without hesitating.
- Ask what goes under the slab and how it will be compacted. The answer should include a depth, a material and the word lifts.
- Ask for two addresses of jobs finished more than two years ago nearby, and drive past them.
What the contract should contain
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Legal entity name and address | It is who you are contracting with and who the insurance covers |
| Scope with dimensions | Square footage, thickness, mix strength, reinforcement, base depth, joint layout, finish |
| Drainage and slope | The most common source of disputes here; it should be stated, not assumed |
| Who pulls the permit and who pays the fee | Under Florida law the owner signs the application and often the notice of commencement |
| Notice of commencement responsibility | Required in Osceola County for jobs of $5,000 or more and recorded before the first inspection |
| Payment schedule tied to milestones | Deposit, base and forms, pour, completion. A large deposit with no milestones is a risk |
| Change-order process in writing | Site surprises happen; the process should not be a phone call |
| Workmanship warranty term and what it excludes | A warranty with no exclusions listed is not a warranty |
| Lien-law disclosure | Florida's construction lien law requires specific notices; the contract should reference them |
| Cure and use restrictions | When you can walk, park and load the slab |
Red flags we hear about from homeowners
The pattern is consistent. A door knock offering leftover material from a job down the street. A price quoted per job with no dimensions. A deposit of half or more before anything is delivered. A refusal to put thickness and mix strength in writing. A promise that the slab will never crack. A company name that changes between the truck, the invoice and the bank deposit instruction. A quote forty percent below three others, which usually means two and a half inches of concrete on raw sand and no permit.
None of these is illegal on its own, and plenty of good crews are small and informal. But each one removes a piece of your recourse, and on a driveway you will live with for twenty-five years the recourse is the point. The counterweight is simple: a written scope, an insurance certificate from the agent, a permit number, and a payment schedule that keeps you slightly ahead of the work.
One more check worth two minutes
Search the business name and the phone number together. A contractor who has traded under several names, or a number that appears attached to different business names in different places, is not automatically a problem and is worth a question. So is a business address that turns out to be a mail drop when the proposal implies a yard and a workshop.
None of this is about size. Excellent work is done in this trade by two-person crews with a truck and no premises. It is about whether the entity you are contracting with is the one that will still be there when you need the warranty honoured.
Questions we get about this
How do I verify a contractor's insurance?
Ask for the certificate and call the agent listed on it to confirm it is in force for the dates of your job. A forwarded photo is not a verification.
How do I check a business on Sunbiz?
Search the exact name at search.sunbiz.org, confirm it is active, and note the filing date and the principal address. Check that it matches the name on the contract.
Is a deposit normal?
A deposit covering materials and permit fees at signing is normal. Full payment up front is not, and neither is a large deposit with no milestones attached to the rest.
What if the contractor has no workers compensation?
Florida allows officer exemptions for small entities. Ask to see the exemption certificate rather than taking silence for an answer, and understand that an injury on your property without coverage can reach your homeowners policy.
Should I pay cash for a discount?
A discount for cash is common and legal. Paying in cash without a written contract, a receipt and a permit is where people lose their recourse.
How many quotes should I get?
Three, priced against the same written specification. Three quotes for three different jobs tell you nothing, which is the whole reason the project brief tool exists.
Get a written estimate for your project
Tell us the size, the surface you have now and where the lot is. We visit, measure, check access and drainage, and send a written proposal. No pressure calls.
What changed in this update: 2026-09-11 — first published