Before you hire anyone to paint your house, ask for four things: a C-33 contractor license number, proof of liability and workers’ compensation insurance, EPA lead-safe certification if your home was built before 1978, and a written, itemized estimate. If a contractor hesitates on any of the four, keep calling around.
California has thousands of registered painting contractors, and plenty of unlicensed people doing the same work. Most homeowners can’t tell the two apart until something’s gone wrong: paint peeling within a year, a worker hurt on a ladder with no coverage, or a deposit handed over with no contractor left to call.
I’ve been in this trade since 1988, and I’ve run A&J Painting Inc. in Berkeley since 1999. These are the eight things I’d want a friend to check before signing anything, because I’ve watched each one go wrong for somebody.
Painting contractors in California are required to hold a C-33 Specialty Contractor License from the Contractors State License Board (CSLB). That’s not a business registration you fill out online in an afternoon: earning a C-33 means documenting four years of verifiable, on-the-job painting experience, passing a two-part state exam, submitting fingerprints for a background check, and posting a $25,000 contractor’s bond. A truck and a business card aren’t a license.
How to Look Up a C-33 License at cslb.ca.gov
Ask directly: “What’s your C-33 license number?” Then go to cslb.ca.gov and look it up yourself before you sign anything. The lookup tool shows whether the license is active, whether the bond is current, and whether any disciplinary history is attached to it. Mine is C-33 #759175, and anyone can verify it in under a minute.
An unlicensed contractor might quote a lower number, but if a worker gets hurt on your property or the work fails, you’re standing on a lot less legal ground. Licensed contractors carry workers’ comp so that risk doesn’t land on you.
A license alone doesn’t cover you if something goes wrong mid-job. Ask for proof of two things:
Without it, an injured worker can come after you, the homeowner, since the injury happened on your land. A legitimate contractor hands over both without making you ask twice, and the certificates take five minutes. If someone tells you their crew is made up of “independent contractors” so workers’ comp doesn’t apply, that’s usually a way around the requirement, not a legitimate business structure.
If your home was built before 1978, and a large share of Berkeley’s housing stock falls into that category, federal law governs how a contractor is allowed to disturb painted surfaces. Under the EPA’s Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule (the RRP Rule), any contractor disturbing more than six square feet of painted surface indoors, or twenty square feet outdoors, on a pre-1978 home has to be Lead-Safe Certified. Lead dust from scraping and sanding old paint is a documented health hazard, especially for children.
Does the EPA's Lead-Safe Rule Apply to Your House?
The RRP Rule kicks in on any home built before 1978 where a contractor will disturb:
Indoors: more than 6 square feet of painted surface
Outdoors: more than 20 square feet of painted surface
Ask for both credentials: the firm's Lead-Safe Certification and the individual renovator credential for whoever is actually running your job. One without the other leaves a gap.
Ask two things, since firm and individual certification aren’t the same: “Is your company EPA Lead-Safe Certified, and does the person running my job hold the individual renovator credential?” A company can be certified on paper while the crew on your roof never took the training.
I’ve held my EPA Lead-Safe Certified Renovator credential since 2002, and after more than two decades in older Berkeley and East Bay homes, containment and cleanup are just how the job gets done.
A number said out loud is not an estimate. Before anyone opens a paint can, get something in writing that spells out:
If an estimate just says “paint house exterior” with a single number attached, there’s no way to hold anyone to a defined scope once work starts. Without that detail in writing, a homeowner has no document to point to if the contractor changes the scope mid-job.
Get written estimates from a few licensed contractors on the exact same scope, then compare what’s actually included before comparing the bottom-line numbers. The CSLB says the same thing: a bid dramatically lower than everyone else’s usually means something got left out of scope, not that you found a bargain. I’ve watched homeowners learn that the hard way, when the “cheap” bid never included priming bare wood or caulking the gaps.
The quality of a paint job has more to do with what happens before the paint goes on than which paint gets used. On a standard exterior, real prep means:
The trade has a published standard for this: the Painting Contractors Association’s P14 standard, which defines four tiers of surface prep, from Basic up through Supreme. Asking which level a contractor is quoting gives you something concrete to check against, instead of a vague promise of “thorough prep.”
Ask directly: “Walk me through your prep process, and how many hours of prep is built into this estimate?” If someone tells you prep takes a couple of hours, they’re cutting corners. On a standard Berkeley exterior, real prep runs a full day or two before the first coat goes on.
Warranties in this trade range from nothing at all to a vague “satisfaction guarantee” with no specifics attached. A real warranty tells you exactly what’s covered and for how long.
What A&J's 5-Year Exterior Warranty Covers
If any of those show up within five years, we come back and repair it at no charge. It's the kind of warranty that only holds up because the prep work behind it does too. Compare terms like this against what any contractor puts in writing, not what they say out loud.
Ask directly: “What does your warranty cover, for how long, and can I get it in writing?” A warranty worth having names the specific failures it covers (peeling, fading, bubbling), spells out what the contractor does if that happens (returns and repaints at no charge), and depends on the prep and paint grade actually used.
There’s no California statute setting a minimum warranty length for a repaint job, whatever competitor content online claims. Absent any written warranty, state law provides only a one-year implied warranty on fit and finish. That’s the floor, not something to aim for.
Our exterior painting warranty runs five years and covers peeling, fading, and bubbling. If any of those show up in that window, we come back and repair it at no charge, because the prep work behind it supports it. A contractor who won’t put warranty terms in writing isn’t confident in the work.
Ask for two or three references from jobs completed in the past twelve months, close in scope to your own project. A contractor with nothing to hide gives these up without hesitation.
Beyond references, check online reviews, but read for detail, not star count. “They showed up when they said they would,” “the prep work was thorough,” or “they handled the lead paint properly in our 1920s house” tells you far more than five stars with no explanation attached.
A contractor with twenty years of consistent local reviews has a paper trail you can actually verify against past jobs. Three five-star reviews posted last month might be genuine, but they don’t give you that same history to check.
A few patterns predict trouble almost every time:
California's Deposit Cap Law
State law caps a home improvement deposit at whichever is smaller: 10% of the total contract price, or $1,000. On most exterior or whole-house repaints running past $10,000, the $1,000 figure is the one that applies, not a percentage. A contractor asking for 30 to 50 percent upfront is asking for more than the law allows.
Pay close attention to deposit requests. California law caps a home improvement deposit at the lesser of 10% of the contract price or $1,000, which means on most jobs over $10,000 the actual cap is $1,000 flat, not a percentage. A contractor asking for 30 to 50 percent upfront is well outside what’s legal.
Any one of these signs is worth a follow-up question. Two or more, and I’d keep calling around.
None of these eight things are complicated: a license number, an insurance certificate, a written estimate, a straight answer about prep and warranty terms. What separates a contractor worth hiring from one to avoid comes down to whether they answer plainly, without hedging.
That’s the standard I’ve held A&J Painting Inc. to since 1999: quality craftsmanship starts with the license, the prep, and the paperwork, long before it shows up in the finish coat.
If you’re comparing bids in Berkeley or the East Bay, ask us the same eight questions you’d ask anyone else. We’d rather earn the job answering them well than being the cheapest number on the page. Take a look at our Berkeley painting work and reach out. No pressure, just a straight answer about what your project needs.
| Ask This | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| C-33 license number | Confirms CSLB-verified experience, a passed exam, and bonding |
| Proof of liability and workers’ comp insurance | Protects you if property is damaged or a worker is hurt on the job |
| EPA Lead-Safe Certification, firm and individual | Required on homes built before 1978 under the RRP Rule |
| Written, itemized estimate | Defines the exact scope so nothing gets left out later |
| Detailed surface prep process | Determines how long the paint job lasts |
| Warranty terms, in writing | Shows what happens if the paint fails, and when |
| References from the past 12 months | Confirms real, recent, comparable work |
| Deposit amount | Capped by state law at the lesser of 10% or $1,000 |
Search the contractor’s name or license number on cslb.ca.gov. The lookup shows current license status, bond information, and any past disciplinary history.
Yes, for any job valued at $1,000 or more in combined labor and materials. Unlicensed contractors aren’t protected under state contractor law, and homeowners who hire them take on more of the liability.
It applies to any contractor disturbing painted surfaces in a home built before 1978, and it’s federal, not something Berkeley enforces on its own. Given how much of the East Bay’s housing stock predates 1978, it’s worth asking about on most older homes.
Whichever figure is smaller: 10% of the total contract price, or $1,000, per California law. Since most full exterior or whole-house repaints run well past $10,000, the $1,000 figure is usually the one that applies. A request for a third or half of the job cost upfront isn’t a negotiating position. It’s outside what the law permits.
Scope and square footage matter, but so does how much prep the surfaces need, which paint grade and how many coats are specified, and the project timeline. A house that’s peeling badly costs more to prep than one already in decent shape. Comparing written estimates on identical scope tells you more than comparing two bottom-line numbers.
It’s harder than it sounds. Unlicensed contractors can’t file a mechanic’s lien or sue you for nonpayment, but that same lack of standing works against you too if a dispute goes to court. Working without a license on a job over $1,000 is a misdemeanor in California, and pursuing a claim against an unlicensed contractor is a much steeper climb than resolving a disagreement with a licensed, bonded one.
Yes. A legitimate contractor carries general liability insurance, which covers property damage during the job, and workers’ compensation, which covers an employee injured while working at your home. Without workers’ comp, an injured worker can pursue the homeowner directly for damages since the injury happened on your property. Ask for proof of both certificates before signing, and confirm they’re current, not old paperwork from a past job.
Alan Joyce founded A&J Painting Inc. in Berkeley in 1999, after 11 years of hands-on painting experience. He holds C-33 License #759175 and has held his EPA Lead-Safe Certified Renovator credential since 2002. Learn more about Alan and the team.
Looking for a licensed, EPA-certified painting contractor in Berkeley? Call (510) 292-3668 or visit our Berkeley project page.