Find Houston-area remodeling contractors — kitchens, bathrooms, whole-home and custom cabinetry.

Hiring a remodeling contractor in Houston

Start with the fact that shapes everything else: Texas does not license general contractors or remodelers. There is no state exam, no registration and no board. Specialty trades inside the job are licensed — the plumber (RMP), the electrician (TECL), the HVAC contractor (TACL) — but the person coordinating them is not.

So your vetting has to do the work the state does not.

Three checks before any money changes hands

1. Certificate of insurance sent directly by the insurer — general liability and, if they have employees, workers' compensation. Not a photo of a certificate on a phone.
2. Permits. Structural changes, electrical, plumbing and HVAC work require permits in the City of Houston and most surrounding jurisdictions. Ask who pulls them and whether it is in the price. A contractor offering to skip permits is proposing to leave unverified work behind your drywall, which becomes your problem at resale and your insurer's argument after a fire.
3. Two or three references from jobs finished 12+ months ago, not last month. Anyone can be pleasant during a job. You want to know what happened when something failed after the crew left.

The payment schedule is the contract term that matters

A reasonable structure is a modest deposit and progress payments tied to completed milestones, with a meaningful amount held until final walkthrough. Be very cautious about large upfront deposits — a contractor who needs half the job in cash before starting is financing something, and it may not be your project.

Get in writing: scope, materials by brand and model, allowances (what you get if you haven't picked tile yet), a change-order process, and who cleans up.

The advice one Houston homeowner gave in a thread, which is worth repeating

Get a real exterior contractor and a real interior remodeler. Almost nobody does both well. A company running insurance roofing work is not usually the best choice for your bathroom, and vice versa. There are exceptions, and they can name the crews that do each.

Houston-specific

Foundation movement on expansive clay makes some cracking normal and some cracking a symptom. If a remodeler brushes off a crack you are worried about, get a structural opinion before you tile over it — that is a cheap consultation compared with doing the room twice.