Two different authorities govern your project, and most homeowners only know about one. We hold the county license and file with your municipality, whichever of the 48 you live in.
This is the part that trips people up, and almost no contractor explains it.
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 says nothing about your specific project. It says the person doing the work is permitted to do work here at all.
Your municipality permits the work. There is no county building permit. Permits are issued by the building department of the municipality your house sits in, and there are 48 of them: cities, towns and villages, each administering permits independently under the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code.
So a contractor can be perfectly licensed and still be a stranger to your village's building department. A permit pulled in one town tells you nothing about the process two towns over.
How to check us, or anyone. 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. One more check costs nothing: licensed contractors must display a green sticker on the rear bumper showing the license expiration date. If a truck arrives without one, that is worth a question.
The building code is the same everywhere in the state. What varies is everything around it.
Each of the 48 departments sets its own submission expectations: what drawings they want, in what format, how many sets. Each has its own review staff, so the depth of plan review differs. And each keeps its own meeting calendar, which is usually what actually decides your start date.
Two identical bathrooms in neighboring villages can therefore have start dates weeks apart, for reasons that have nothing to do with the bathroom. We treat the municipality as a scope item (which department, what they want, how often they meet) established before we commit to a completion date, not discovered while your bathroom is open.
The county is really two housing markets, and the split is not north-versus-south the way people assume.
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 bathrooms sized for expectations from a century ago. Demolition here 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 in places like Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and White Plains. These bathrooms are more predictable behind the wall, and usually constrained by a compact footprint rather than fragile substrate.
Neither is harder. They are different problems, and knowing which one you have before demolition is what keeps the estimate honest.
Down to the studs, with modern waterproofing rebuilt behind the finish. The right scope when the layout no longer works or the substrate is past repair.
The highest-specification room in most county homes, and usually the one where layout has to be settled before anything else is chosen.
For river-village and pre-war houses where the finish should read as though it belongs: modern performance behind period-appropriate surfaces.
Keeps the footprint, keeps the plumbing where it is, and generally keeps the permit scope simpler, which matters more in some departments than others.
#WC-39446-H20-25, verifiable at (914) 995-2155. County law requires that number in advertising; it is on every page of this site.
Which of the 48 departments, what they want, when they meet: a scope item, not a surprise.
Whether you are in a 1920s river-village Colonial or a 1960s split-level changes the demolition, the substrate and the schedule.
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, a separate thing entirely. Whether your project needs a permit depends on your town and on whether plumbing or electrical is altered.
It licenses the contractor, not the project. The Department of Consumer Protection issues it county-wide, establishing that the contractor may perform home improvement work anywhere in the county. It does not substitute for a building permit, and it does not cover plumbing or electrical, which carry separate county licensing. Ours is #WC-39446-H20-25.
Ask for the 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. Any contractor who hesitates to give you a number is answering the question.
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 that reviews weekly and one that reviews twice monthly produce start dates weeks apart from identical paperwork. We confirm your municipality's process before committing to a completion date.
Yes, materially. Victorian and early-twentieth-century homes along the Hudson typically have plaster over lath and cast-iron waste lines, so demolition is slower and more is discovered once opened. Postwar Cape Cods, split-levels and brick-veneer Colonials from the 1950s to 1970s are more predictable behind the wall but tighter on footprint. We establish which you have at the estimate, because it changes scope and schedule.
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.
See our full approach to bathroom remodeling and everything we do across the county.
