Hiring someone to work on the systems inside your home is an act of trust. Most of us do it under pressure, with the air conditioner out in July or water on the floor. That is a hard moment to ask careful questions, which is why it helps to know them in advance. Here are five questions worth asking any heating, cooling, or plumbing contractor in the Triangle before the work is scheduled, and why each one matters. Happy Home Services answers each in turn, so you can compare us against the same standard you would hold anyone else to.
1. What is your license number, and where can I look it up?
In North Carolina, heating, air conditioning, and plumbing work on homes is licensed by the State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors, and any company doing that work should be able to give you a license number without hesitation. The Board’s online lookup shows whether a license is active, which classifications it carries, and any disciplinary history, and it takes a minute. A contractor who cannot produce a number, or who offers a reason why one is not needed, has answered the question and it’s worth skepticism.
2. What did it take to get that license?
A North Carolina plumbing and heating license is earned rather than filed for. The Board requires the license holder to pass its examinations for each classification, to meet its experience requirements, and to renew the license each year with continuing education, and it can fine, suspend, or revoke a license for work that violates the code or for complaints it upholds. Technicians who handle refrigerant must also hold federal EPA Section 608 certification. Each requirement exists because the work involves refrigerant under pressure, gas lines, combustion equipment, and water inside walls. When you ask this question, you are asking whether the company has been tested by anyone other than its customers.
3. Will the job be permitted and inspected?
For a new heating and cooling system, a gas line, a water heater, or repiping, the answer should be yes, and a licensed contractor pulls the permit and schedules the inspection as a matter of routine. The inspection is a second set of eyes on work that can hurt a house or a household if it is done wrong, and it produces a record that matters later, since unpermitted work surfaces at resale and sometimes when an insurance claim is filed. Happy Home permits the work the code requires to be permitted, and we would rather explain a permit fee up front than explain to a buyer’s inspector years later why there is no record of the furnace.
4. What happens if something goes wrong?
This question has three parts, and the license is behind all of them. If a technician is hurt on your property or the work damages your home, a licensed contractor’s liability and workers’ compensation insurance covers it rather than your homeowner’s policy. If the equipment fails, the manufacturer’s parts warranty, which most makers condition on installation by a licensed contractor, remains in force; a compressor claim denied for an unlicensed install is an expensive way to learn that condition exists. And if you have a dispute with the company, a complaint goes to the state Board, which has the power to act on it, while a complaint against an unlicensed individual has nowhere to go. Happy Home adds its own answer to this question: honest, upfront pricing with a 100% money-back guarantee, which is a promise a company can make when the state stands behind its license.
5. Why is a quote higher from a licensed technician than the one I got from a guy with a truck?
It is a fair question, and the answer is specific. An unlicensed individual can quote less because they are not carrying what the license requires, and what they are not carrying is exactly what you would be relying on if the work fails. No license means no state examination and no Board to answer to. No permit means no inspection. No insurance means an accident on your property is yours. And a refrigerant charge set by feel, a gas line without a pressure test, or a water heater without a proper relief valve can look fine for a season and fail in a way that costs many times the difference between the quotes.
How Happy Home answers the same five
- We are licensed with the North Carolina State Board of Examiners of Plumbing, Heating and Fire Sprinkler Contractors, which you are welcome to look up.
- Expert technicians who solve the issues others can’t, trained and certified for the work they perform, including EPA 608 certification for refrigerant handling.
- Permits and inspections for every job the code requires them on.
- Liability and workers’ compensation coverage, manufacturer warranties preserved through licensed installation, and honest, upfront pricing with a 100% money-back guarantee.
- A written explanation of what the price covers and why, before any work begins, so the comparison with any other quote is a fair one.
Asking the questions
Happy Home Services has served Durham and the Triangle since 1955, and we would rather you ask these five questions of everyone you consider, including us. If you are comparing contractors for a repair, a replacement, or a plumbing job, you can reach us 24/7 by phone or website chat, and the technician who arrives will answer every one of them before the work is scheduled. Members of the Happy Home Service VIP Club receive up to 25 percent off repairs and a triple labor warranty on the work.