What Has To Be On Paper Before a Mason Starts

A signed contract, and New York General Business Law section 771 lists what it must contain, down to a notice that you may cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing. There is no New York State license for masonry work to check instead, so the contract is your protection. Whether you also need a building permit is decided by your own city, village or town, not by the state and not by the contractor.

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The contract is not optional, and the law lists what goes in it

In New York a home improvement contract has to be evidenced by a writing signed by all the parties, and General Business Law section 771 sets out what that writing must contain. The contractor's name, address, telephone number and license number if applicable. The approximate or estimated dates when the work will begin and be substantially completed, including a statement of any contingencies. A description of the work to be performed and the materials to be provided to the owner, including make, model number or other identifying information, together with the agreed consideration for the work and materials. A notice that any contractor or materialman who is not paid may file a mechanic's lien against the property. A notice that payments received before completion must be deposited in escrow, or that a bond or letter of credit may be posted instead. A schedule of progress payments against stages of completion, where applicable. A notice that the owner may cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing. And a disclosure of the contractor's property and casualty insurance coverage with the insurer's contact information. On a masonry job the materials line is the one to use: that is where the mortar type belongs, in writing, by letter.

There is no state license for masonry, so the paperwork is the protection

This surprises people, and it changes what checking somebody out actually looks like. New York's Department of State states that New York State does not license home improvement contractors, and that licensing is done by some counties and local municipalities, naming New York City, the City of Buffalo and the counties of Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Putnam and Rockland. Onondaga County and the City of Syracuse are not among the jurisdictions named. So there is no state masonry license number to look up here and no state register to check a mason against. That does not make the word licensed meaningless, but it does mean it is worth asking what it refers to: a municipal home improvement license somewhere one is required, a business registration, or something else again. The things you can genuinely verify are the ones section 771 puts on paper, and the strongest of them is the insurance disclosure with the insurer's contact information, because that is a fact you can confirm with one phone call to the insurer rather than taking on trust.

Whether you need a permit is decided by your village, not by the state

There is no single answer for this metro, and that is by design rather than by oversight. New York's regulation 19 NYCRR 1203.2 requires every city, village, town and county responsible for administration and enforcement of the Uniform Code to establish its own code enforcement program by local law, ordinance or other appropriate regulation. Section 1203.3(a)(1) then requires each authority having jurisdiction to require building permits for work that must conform to the Uniform Code or the Energy Code, and allows it, where expressly set out in its own program, to exempt any of eight listed categories. Repairs are the eighth, and the exemption is conditional: it applies only where the work does not have an impact on fire and life safety, such as any part of the structural system, the required means of egress, or the fire protection system. Two consequences follow for masonry. The exemption is permissive, so whether repairs are exempt where you live depends on what your own municipality wrote down. And a lintel carries the wall above an opening, so replacing one is work on the structural system and is not an ordinary permit-exempt repair anywhere.

Liverpool wants an asbestos survey before a demolition permit

The Village of Liverpool is the clearest local example of a rule that surprises a homeowner in the middle of a project. The village states that it uses the most recent edition of the New York State Uniform Code, and that a building permit is required for any work which must conform to the Uniform Code, the Energy Code and the Village Zoning Ordinance, including but not limited to the construction, enlargement, alteration, improvement, removal, relocation or demolition of any building or structure or any portion of one. It also publishes a separate Heating Appliance and Chimney Application among its permit forms. And before it will issue a permit for demolition work, including preparation for remodeling, it requires an asbestos survey, with the only exception being projects in owner-occupied single family dwellings where the owner performs the work. Notice where that lands. Taking out a chimney breast, or removing masonry to prepare for a rebuild, is preparation for remodeling, and if a contractor is doing that work then the owner-performed exception does not apply to it.

DeWitt wants proof of coverage attached to the application

The Town of DeWitt shows a different local pattern: the same statewide code, more paperwork at the front door. The town states that its permits cover applicable codes pertaining to structures and other improvements to property as well as buildings for other than human occupancy, and names swimming pools, fences, additions, alterations, conversions, sheds, garages and fireplaces among those improvements. Its published permit submission requirements include proof of workers compensation and proof of disability coverage on specific state forms, C-105.2, U-26.3, GSI-105.2 or SI-12 and DB-120.1 or DB-155, or a Certificate of Attestation of Exemption on form CE-200. It also requires an affidavit for a certificate of occupancy to be filed by an owner, designer or contractor, and a final inspection to be conducted. In practice a contractor who cannot produce current coverage documents cannot get your permit issued, which is a useful filter that costs you nothing to apply.

Salina inspects a fireplace before it is closed up

Where a job involves a fireplace or a solid fuel appliance, inspection timing can control the schedule rather than follow it. The Town of Salina publishes the sequence of inspections it requires during construction, and it includes a fireplace and solid fuel burning device inspection to be carried out before insulating or enclosing, alongside footings and foundation wall before backfilling, framing before enclosing, fire protection equipment before enclosing, fire separation before enclosing, and a final certificate inspection on completion. Inspections should be requested at least one business day in advance. The practical point is that a stage inspection has to happen while the work is still open to view, so it belongs in the contractor's schedule from the start and not in a phone call afterwards. Ask which stages apply to your job and who is responsible for calling them in, and get the answer in the contract alongside the dates.

When you do not need a permit, and what that does not mean

Plenty of small masonry repairs will not need a permit where you live, and that is a real answer rather than a hedge. Repointing a patch of joint, resetting a few loose bricks or replacing a cracked chimney crown are the kinds of repairs a municipality's own program may well have exempted. But the regulation attaches a sentence worth reading twice: an exemption from the requirement to obtain a permit is not an authorization for work to be performed in violation of the Codes. Nothing about being permit-exempt changes what the work has to achieve, and nothing about it changes the flashing, the weepholes, the liner or the mortar. So settle two separate questions before work starts. Does this need a permit, which is a question for your city, village or town code official and takes one call. And does this touch the structural system, in which case you already know the answer. Once you have both, tell us what the job is and we will put it in front of licensed, insured contractors who will put the specification and the permit responsibility in writing. There is no obligation.