Free printable · before you hire a contractor
Free Contractor Reference-Check Questions
A contractor reference check is a phone call to the people a contractor has already worked for. This is the printed sheet for making that call: 24 contractor reference check questions, sorted into the six stages of a call — opening, the work, time and money, when it went wrong, the people, closing — and each one printed with what it is really testing, the shape of a reassuring answer, and the shape of an answer that should worry you. It is how to check a contractor's references without improvising: take it to the phone with a pen, work down the stages, and let the sheet remember the wording so you can listen instead. What ends up on the page afterward is what the reference actually said, rather than what you remember them saying a week later.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the file.
What it does
- Gives you 24 reference-check questions for a contractor's past clients, in the order to ask them.
- Groups them into the six stages of the call: opening, the work, time and money, when it went wrong, the people, and closing.
- Tells you what each question is really testing, what a reassuring answer sounds like, and what should worry you — the behavior, not an adjective.
- Includes a print-and-use call sheet: six probes worded identically for every reference, five answers to mark, and a page for their exact words.
- Includes a worked example — three fictional references on the same six probes, where two would use the contractor again, one would not, and they split on three of the six.
- Opens with the two rules that keep a reference call fair: ask everyone in the same category the same questions, and never ask about age, race, religion, national origin, disability, pregnancy, family or marital status, or medical history.
- Prints to 13 pages on US Letter; the call sheet you take to the phone is two of them.
- Stores nothing: no email, no signup, no account, and it never asks for a Social Security number, a bank detail or an ID number.
Related reading
- Questions to ask a contractor's references The walkthrough: how to run the call, and how to read the answers you get back.
- Free templates: ask contractors to quote the same job The step before this one — get comparable quotes, then check the references behind them.
- Fixer-upper or move-in ready? Score the renovation honestly before you start hiring anyone to do it.
Own it, don't rent it
Want the version that compares the answers and checks the dates?
This sheet is one vetting type out of five, and paper can hold the answers but cannot count where they disagree. The full Reference & Vetting Tracker adds the other four — care provider, landlord, key hire and tenant — and their 96 further questions. Its nine-tab workbook (Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice) then does the two things paper cannot: it counts the probes where one reference gave a positive answer and another raised a concern, and it measures every license, certificate and background check against the day your work actually finishes — so a liability policy in force the morning you check it and expired two weeks before the roof is done reads LAPSES MID-JOB, with the days of cover you are short.
A one-time purchase you keep and own — for this contractor, and the next person you have to trust.
Structured verification — not legal advice, and not a background-check service. It gives you the questions and a place to record what you find; it runs no searches, contacts no one on your behalf, and holds no records. Employment, tenant and care screening are regulated, and the rules differ by country, state and city. Before you run a background, credit or driving check, get written consent, use a screening service that complies with the law where you are, and apply the same criteria to everyone. Never ask a reference about age, race, religion, national origin, disability, pregnancy, family or marital status, or medical history. The example contractor, references and answers are fictional. Free to use and to share as-is; please don't resell it.