One county license, forty-eight building departments. We hold the first and file with whichever of the second governs your address.
The county licenses the contractor. Westchester County requires home improvement contractors to hold a county-issued Home Improvement License through its Department of Consumer Protection. One license, valid county-wide. Ours is #WC-39446-H20-25. It establishes that we may perform home improvement work here. It says nothing about your specific project.
Your municipality permits the work. There is no county building permit. Permits come from the building department of the city, town or village your house sits in, and there are 48 of them, each administering independently under the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code. Each sets its own submission requirements, keeps its own review staff, and meets on its own calendar.
Two identical projects in neighboring villages can start weeks apart for reasons that have nothing to do with the project.
How to check any contractor. Verify the county license number with the Department of Consumer Protection at (914) 995-2155, where you can also ask about outstanding judgments or liens. There is a physical check too: licensed contractors must display a green sticker on the rear bumper of their vehicles showing the license expiration date.
Note: a small number of municipalities require their own local contractor license in addition to the county one. Yonkers is one of them. Ask any contractor whether they hold the license for your specific city, not just the county.
The split runs along the river, not north to south.
The river villages, the Hudson-side communities, hold dense concentrations of Victorian and early-twentieth-century houses. Bronxville's Tudor and Colonial Revival stock is the pattern: plaster over lath, cast-iron waste lines, and rooms sized for a different century. Demolition is slower and reveals more.
Inland and further out, the postwar build defines the stock: Cape Cods, split-levels and brick-veneer Colonials from the 1950s through the 1970s, concentrated around Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and White Plains. More predictable behind the wall, usually tighter on original footprint.
Neither is harder. They are different problems, and knowing which one you have before demolition is what keeps an estimate honest.
Plus surrounding municipalities within roughly 60 miles of our Elmhurst shop. If your town is not listed, call and ask.
#WC-39446-H20-25, verifiable at (914) 995-2155.
Which of the 48 departments, what they want, when they meet, established before we commit to a date.
River-village pre-war and inland postwar are different projects behind the surfaces.
One crew lead runs your project from demolition to final walk-through. Every trade, from plumbing to tile to finish carpentry, is coordinated through us, on our schedule, held to our quality standard. You never have to coordinate between separate companies.
No. There is no county building permit. Permits are issued by your municipality's building department, and the county has 48 of them, each administering independently under the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code. What the county issues is the contractor's Home Improvement License, which is a separate thing entirely.
Ask for the county license number and check it with the Westchester County Department of Consumer Protection at (914) 995-2155, where you can also ask about outstanding judgments or liens. There is a physical check as well: licensed home improvement contractors are required to display a green sticker on the rear bumper of their vehicle showing the license expiration date.
For home improvement work it covers the county, but a small number of municipalities require their own local contractor license in addition. Yonkers is one: the city requires a Yonkers Home Improvement Contractor's License from its Consumer Protection Bureau before issuing a permit on a one-to-three-family dwelling. Always ask whether a contractor holds the license for your specific city, not just the county.
Because each of the 48 municipalities runs its own building department with its own submission requirements, review staff and meeting calendar. The building code does not change across town lines, but the review process does. A department reviewing weekly and one reviewing twice monthly produce start dates weeks apart from identical paperwork.
Bronxville, New Rochelle, Scarsdale and White Plains have dedicated pages, and we work throughout the county within roughly 60 miles of our Elmhurst shop. If your municipality is not listed, call and ask. The answer is usually yes, and we will confirm the local permit path before quoting.
Tell us your town and what you have in mind. We will confirm the permit path for your municipality and give you a written price.
