General Contracting

Holds the prime contract for the whole of the work, pulls the permit in their own licence, sequences the trades around the inspection points, controls the site, administers requests for information and change orders, and closes the project out. The sequencing is the part people underestimate: each inspection gates the next stage, and a missed order means opening up finished work.

Search the licence number at cslb.ca.gov. Confirm it is active, check the expiry date, and confirm the name on the licence matches the name on the contract you are signing. A licence held by a different entity is not your contractor's licence. Also check the classification actually covers your work, because a classification is a scope rather than a badge.

CSLB #1006147, held by Ecostep, Inc., a California corporation. It is active and expires on 31 August 2027, and it carries four classifications: B general building, C-2 insulation and acoustical, C-6 cabinet, millwork and finish carpentry, and C-36 plumbing. Amer Abusafieh is President and responsible managing officer and has been a licensed California general contractor since 2003.

Under Business and Professions Code section 7159.5, the down payment on a home improvement contract may not exceed $1,000 or 10 per cent of the contract price, whichever is less. On a $60,000 kitchen that means $1,000, not $6,000. The statute also requires that limit to be stated in the contract in bold type, and the cap applies whatever a contract says. Breaches can be reported to the CSLB.

It must be written, legible, signed by both parties, with a signed copy given to you before work begins. It must include the contractor's name, business address and licence number, a thorough description of the work with a start date and an estimated completion date, the address for a notice of cancellation, the down payment limit in bold type, a schedule of progress payments, and a mechanics lien warning. Notice of your right to cancel must also be included.

A claim against your property by a party who supplied labour or materials and was not paid, even if you paid your contractor. A home improvement contract has to carry a mechanics lien warning. On paying for a completed phase you are entitled to lien releases, and you may withhold further payment until they are provided. Collecting those releases as you go is the practical protection.

No. The contract must contain a schedule of progress payments and each payment may not exceed the value of the work and materials actually incorporated into that phase. Beyond the capped down payment you should not be paying ahead of the work. This is set out in the CSLB's own guidance as well as in the code.

Usually not. As owner-builder the permit is in your name, so code compliance and every development standard sit with you rather than with a licensed contractor. You also coordinate the trades and the inspection sequence yourself, and the consumer protections that apply between a homeowner and a licensed contractor work differently. Only a licensed party holding the right classification can pull the permit.

B is general building and allows a contractor to hold the prime contract on a complete structure. A C classification is a specialty trade: C-36 plumbing, C-10 electrical, C-2 insulation and acoustical, C-6 cabinet and millwork. A specialty contractor cannot lawfully take the prime contract on a whole building. If somebody is bidding your entire remodel without a B, that is worth a question.

Because the inspection sequence does not care whose calendar is full. Rough plumbing has to pass before insulation, and insulation before drywall. On a contract where the plumber and the insulation contractor are two separate subcontractors, that is where the schedule slips. Ecostep holds B, C-2, C-6 and C-36, so four of those trades are ours. Others come in only where the work sits outside them.

Look at whether each bid breaks the work into trade divisions and whether overhead and profit is shown as its own line. When overhead and profit is spread invisibly through the trades, two bids with the same total can mean completely different things and you have no way to see which has priced the actual work. Also check that mobilisation, site protection and administration appear at all, because a bid without them has either hidden that cost or not planned for it. Our construction process page sets out the twelve divisions a bid should contain.

Yes, for trades outside our four classifications, electrical being the obvious one. The framing, insulation and acoustical work, cabinetry and millwork, and plumbing sit with us under CSLB #1006147. A California home improvement contract is also required to identify subcontractors performing work, with their licence numbers and classifications.

Accessory dwelling units, home additions, kitchen and bathroom remodels, whole-house remodels, and custom cabinetry and millwork, all as design-build. Recorded values across our residential building permits run from $25,000 to $210,000. Our industrial and mechanical insulation division operates separately at ecostepinc.com.

Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Marin counties. Our permitted residential work on public record sits in Alameda, Berkeley, Concord, Fremont, San Francisco, Belmont and San Leandro.