06/29/2026
🚨🔔Important post 🔔🚨
Is the contractor you hired or recommended to be hired licensed and insured or engaged in illegal contracting?
This is something that many homeowners never consider- especially when “price shopping” and or recommending “companies” to others.
I currently have a garage door size hole in the side of my home where I hired a contractor to convert a large tall crawl space into a garage. Long story short- after hiring him I began sending pictures to my Father to show the progress of the work. Thank GOD I did! Because after knocking a hole in the side of my home and trying to use a small wooden “lentil” to support the weight OF MY ENTIRE KITCHEN…we were able to catch his work early and fire him. This contractor wears a “company shirt” and has you make checks out to a LLC, and leaves open beer bottles on your job site…but come to find out- he’s not licensed and can’t even pull a permit which is required to keep me safe and to prevent a law-suit down the road from the next owner of our home. Not to mention- this contractor NEVER ONCE mentioned the required engineer drawings for a project of this size. The total cost to fix his mess will be more than if I had simply hired a licensed contractor to start.
When you see posts in the groups this hot summer advertising to be the low cost HVAC option- do yourself a favor and head to the DPOR website and do a 1 second license look up.
Or better yet: ask them for their license information (which is required on all invoices).
We all want to save money…but there is a clear difference between hiring a legitimate licensed and insured company and a “pretend company”.
Legitimate businesses are held to a standard to keep you safe and have the best chance at competent and accountable work. From employing members of the community and creating stable jobs, to the continued education required, to the insurances to keep you safe, to the donations to local community efforts…licensed legitimate businesses (although possibly slightly more expensive) keep you safe and support the community.
Unlicensed con-artists pretending to be a company and “working for fishing poles” are the same contractors we hear homeowners say all the time “my new system is broken and the contractor ghosted me”. He’s probably out fishing and laughing at your phone call.
You can look contractors license info up on the DPOR site and the Virginia State Corporation site. When a licensed/insured contractor does a bad job and you can’t get them to correct it- there is a Contractors Recovery Fund you can seek help from. When a criminal pretending to be a company does you wrong- you have to sue in local courts, seek a judgement, and pursue collecting and hoping he has more than fishing poles to collect.
Don’t get burned like I did- and don’t judge real companies pricing based off the pricing of a criminal.
Not all things are equal in the contracting world and you as a homeowner do not want to deal with being ghosted after the incorrect work fails on you.
Potentially save a buck now- spend 2-4X that in cleaning up their mess.
And by the way- if a contractor does not follow the law- do you think they really have respect for you and your home? Or the quality of work?
https://www.dpor.virginia.gov/LicenseLookup
Air Nerds is a Class A licensed contractor who charges a fair market value given the costs of business that licensed and competent companies incur in order to stay compliant with the law for your safety.
Just because they have “LLC” or some {insert last name} on their tshirt- doesn’t mean they are licensed. It might just fit the legal definition of fraud.
