Tennessee has two licenses that can apply
The state's Board for Licensing Contractors issues both. A contractor's license is required before bidding or agreeing a price on a project of 25,000 dollars or more. Below that, Hamilton County is one of the counties where a Home Improvement license is required for residential work from 3,000 dollars up to that threshold. The Board's definition of home improvement includes repair, replacement and alteration of a residential building.
In practice a structural foundation repair on a Hamilton County house will nearly always fall under one license or the other. Bradley County, which includes Cleveland, is on the same Home Improvement list. The Home Improvement license carries its own conditions, among them a surety bond plus evidence of liability cover and workers' compensation.
How to check a license
The Board's consumer page also links to its complaint form, should you ever need it.
Ask for the exact business name and license number
The name on the license should match the name on the proposal and the contract.
Look it up
Use the state's license search. Confirm the license is active and note its type and expiry date.
Compare the license to the price
If the proposal is at or above the contractor threshold, a Home Improvement license alone is not enough.
Ask for an insurance certificate
Have the insurer or its agent send it to you directly. A photocopy handed over by the company proves little.
Questions about the warranty
Foundation repair is sold on its warranty, so read it as carefully as the price.
- Who is promising: the local company, a manufacturer of the piers, or both?
- What exactly is covered: the hardware, further settlement at the repaired spots, or the whole house?
- What is excluded? Plumbing, finishes and areas that were not repaired often are.
- Does it pass to the next owner, and does the transfer cost anything or have to happen by a set date?
- What must you do to keep it valid, such as maintaining drainage?
- If the company closes, does anyone else honor it?
A warranty is a contract term. If it is described on the phone but missing from the paperwork, it does not exist.
Signs of a careful company
- Measurements come first, and you get to see them
- It explains the cause, not only the product
- It tells you what it will not fix and what may crack during a lift
- It names who will obtain the permit
- A second proposal or an engineer's opinion does not bother it
Reading what past customers say is reasonable. Give more weight to detailed accounts of how a problem was handled than to an overall score.