Arizona requires a contractor license from the Registrar of Contractors for a project of $1,000 or more in labor and materials, or for any job that needs a permit from the city or county. The threshold is set in Arizona law, A.R.S. 32-1121. A floor coating on a 2-car garage usually clears it, and a commercial floor clears it by a wide margin, so the license question is worth 3 minutes before any money moves.
Why the record matters
The license record is the only public document that shows whether a company may legally take the work, which class of work it may take, and whether the license is active today. A business card and a truck wrap prove nothing. The record does.
Step 1: Find the license number
Ask the contractor for the license number, or search by company name on the Registrar's site. A legitimate company states the number without being pushed. Write it down along with the exact legal name, because similar names are common in a metro with this many contractors.
Step 2: Check the status and the class
Open the record at roc.az.gov and confirm 3 things. The status reads active. The class covers the work you are buying, since a residential class does not cover a commercial building and the reverse is also true. The name on the record matches the name on the paperwork in front of you.
Step 3: Call the number on the record
Dial the phone number printed on the license record, not the number on the flyer, and confirm that the person who quoted your floor is authorized to represent that company. This is the Registrar's own guidance, and it closes the gap that a copied license number leaves open.
What a bad record looks like
A status that reads inactive, suspended or revoked. A class that does not match the building. A name that belongs to a different company. A number that returns no record at all. Any one of those ends the conversation, however good the price looked.
The one link that counts
The public record lives at roc.az.gov (opens in a new tab). Bookmark it rather than trusting a search result that points somewhere else.
If you would rather not do that
We check the license before a contractor joins our network of selected licensed contractors, so you can simply tell us the job. One request, one call back, and the check happens before anyone is sent to look at your floor.
