Hiring a Concrete Contractor in Chicago: Licenses and Red Flags

Usually a City of Chicago general contractor license. The city requires it to bid on, undertake or control a regulated activity for pay, and that includes work that needs a building permit as well as some work that is exempt from one. Licensed mason contractors acting within their license don't need a separate general contractor license. Class E covers projects up to $500,000 and requires $1 million per occurrence in insurance, and the license is automatically inactivated if that insurance lapses.

Use the city's online licensed contractor lookup. It lists currently licensed contractors and those with recently expired or inactivated licenses, split into general, mason, electrical and plumbing contractors. Search the exact business name on the quote. For the apron or curb cut, the driveway construction permit must be obtained by a licensed sidewalk contractor, so ask who will pull it. In the suburbs, check city registration instead: Joliet, Aurora and Des Plaines each keep their own.

The total cost, with parts and materials listed, in writing before any job over $1,000 starts. Illinois' Home Repair and Remodeling Act covers driveways. Before starting home repair or remodeling work over $1,000, the company must give you a written contract or work order stating the total cost, including parts and materials listed with reasonable particularity. The Illinois Attorney General adds that you have three business days to cancel a contract if the sale is made at your home, and advises asking for lien waivers for all subcontractors.

Every item that changes the price: size, thickness, mix, base, steel, tear-out, permits and sealer.

• Area and thickness of each slab, and the concrete strength (PSI).
• Air-entrained mix for anything outdoors, standard for Chicagoland driveways.
• Base: stone type and compacted depth.
• Reinforcement and control joints.
• Tear-out, haul-off and grading.
• Who pulls the building permit and the city or suburb right-of-way permit, and what they cost.
• Sealer, cleanup and what happens if the pour is rained or frozen out.

Prices for each line are on the Chicago concrete price guide.

A missing license and work that starts without a required permit cost homeowners the most.

• No license in the city lookup, or a license under a different business name.
• Starting without a required permit. The city issues a stop work order, charges a penalty of $1,000 or more and in most cases triples the permit fee.
• A late-season pour with no cold-weather plan. Suburbs such as Des Plaines won't allow flatwork when the day is forecast below 40 degrees.
• A price with no line items, which makes a later change order hard to challenge.

More on the permits themselves in the Chicago concrete permit guide, and on the checks behind this site in how we vet our pros.