How to Hire a Flooring Contractor in Ontario: The Questions, the WSIB Clearance, the Insurance, the Deposit and the Red Flags

Flooring & Tile

How to Hire a Flooring Contractor in Ontario: Six Questions, Two Pieces of Paper, One Deposit Rule, and the Signs You Should Keep Looking

I have hired flooring and tile installers for more than forty years and I still get it wrong now and then, so I am not going to tell you there is a system that never fails. What I can tell you is what the good ones have in common, what the bad ones say in the first ten minutes, and which two pieces of paper you are allowed to ask for before anyone brings a saw into your house. None of it is complicated. Most of it is just asking.

Ontario rules, Simcoe County prices, checked October 2026. We do not keep a list of installers to send you to; this page is how to find your own and know what you have found.

Start with what you are buying

There are three kinds of outfit that will quote your floor. The flooring store sells you material and sends a subcontractor it has used before; you deal with the store, the store deals with him. The independent installer buys nothing and lays whatever you bought, usually for a better labour rate because he is not carrying a showroom. The general renovator does the floor as part of a bigger job and subs it out, with his markup on top. All three can be fine. Which one you want depends on whether you want one phone number for a problem or the lowest price.

Know the shape of the number before you call anyone. Mid-grade engineered hardwood, nailed, runs about $10.75 a square foot installed around here; luxury vinyl plank about $6.00; a 12×24 porcelain floor about $15.75. If a quote comes in at half that, something is missing, and if it comes in at double, something is being added. The price table has every material by grade so you walk in knowing what a fair quote looks like.

The six questions

  1. Who is actually laying the floor? Not the salesman, not the owner who does the estimating. The crew. Ask how long that crew has worked for him and whether the same crew finishes the job. A different truck every day is how you get three different ideas of what a straight row looks like.
  2. Can I see a floor like mine that you did two or more years ago? Any installer has a photo of a floor he finished last Tuesday. A floor from 2023 that still has no gaps, no squeaks and no cracked grout is the one that tells you something. Ask the owner of that floor one question: would you hire him again?
  3. How will you check the subfloor and the moisture before you start? The right answer names a tool: a moisture meter on wood, a probe or calcium chloride test on concrete, a 10-ft straightedge for flatness. “We have never had a problem” is not a tool. What a proper check covers.
  4. What does the quote not include? Removal, disposal, subfloor repair, levelling, baseboard, transitions, door bottoms, moving the fridge. Make him say each one out loud. The comparison grid is built around exactly these.
  5. Who warranties the workmanship, for how long, in writing? One year is common and fair for labour; the material warranty is the manufacturer’s and has nothing to do with him. If he says “lifetime”, ask whose lifetime.
  6. What is the payment schedule? Covered below. A man who wants half up front is financing his last job with your money.

The two pieces of paper

A WSIB clearance certificate. In Ontario, a contractor with employees has to carry Workplace Safety and Insurance Board coverage, and a clearance certificate is the WSIB saying his account is in good standing on the day you ask. It is free for him to print and takes two minutes. If he does not have it and his helper falls off your porch with a bundle of oak, the claim can come to you as the person who hired him. An independent one-man operator can be exempt from WSIB, in which case ask for the next piece of paper and think about whether you want a man working alone carrying 80-lb boxes down your basement stairs.

Proof of liability insurance. A certificate from his broker naming the company, the policy limit (two million dollars is the ordinary number for a small trade) and the expiry date. This is for the day the tile saw’s water line lets go over your finished ceiling, or the sanding dust meets the furnace pilot. Call the broker on the certificate if the job is large; brokers confirm coverage all day long and do not mind.

Neither document costs the contractor a dollar to produce. A fellow who gets offended when you ask for them is telling you he does not have them, or that he has never been asked, and both are information.

The deposit, and the ten days

There is no law in Ontario that fixes a deposit percentage. The practice I use and recommend: 10% to sign and hold the date, a second payment when the material lands in your house (you can see it and touch it, so paying for it is fair), and the balance on completion less a holdback. Flooring material is the expensive part of a flooring job, often half the total, so the material payment is a big one; just make sure it is tied to delivery, not to a promise of delivery.

Two Ontario consumer rules matter here. Under the Consumer Protection Act, a home renovation agreement over $50 has to be in writing, and if you signed it in your own home (the salesman came to you, which is how most flooring deals are made), you have 10 days from receiving the written copy to cancel for any reason and get the deposit back. The second rule: a contractor cannot charge more than 10% above a written estimate unless you agreed to the change. Both are worth knowing before the kitchen-table signing, not after. What the contract has to say.

On jobs big enough to matter, the Construction Act also applies: you are entitled to hold back 10% of the value of the work until the lien period runs out, which is 60 days after the job is substantially done. Flooring suppliers who have not been paid by your installer can lien your house; the holdback is the thing that protects you. A good installer knows this and has it in his own contract.

Red flags, from a man who has ignored every one of them at least once

  1. A price before anyone has measured or seen the subfloor. He is guessing, and the guess will be fixed on the day with extras.
  2. Cash price, no HST, no paper. You have also bought no warranty, no lien protection and no proof the job happened. The HST saving is 13%; the first problem costs more than that.
  3. “Acclimation is not really necessary with this product.” For solid and engineered hardwood it is, 5 to 7 days in the house at living conditions, and the manufacturer’s sheet says so. Why installers skip it.
  4. A new truck, a new company name, and no address. The name on the quote should be the name on the WSIB certificate and the insurance. If it is not, ask why.
  5. He wants to start Monday and it is Friday. Good installers in this area are booked three to eight weeks out, longer in spring. The one who is free tomorrow is free for a reason, or he just had a cancellation; ask which.
  6. He has never heard of a flatness tolerance. 3/16 in. in 10 ft for hardwood and plank, 1/8 in. for large-format tile. The man who knows those numbers will mention the subfloor before you do.

Questions people ask

How much deposit should I pay a flooring contractor in Ontario?

About 10% to book the job, a payment when the material is delivered to your house, and the balance on completion less a holdback. Never half up front, and never the material payment before the material is in your hallway.

Do flooring installers need to be licensed in Ontario?

There is no provincial licence for flooring or tile installation. Some municipalities require a business licence. What you can check is WSIB coverage, liability insurance, HST registration (the number should be on the invoice) and references from floors older than two years.

Can I cancel a flooring contract after signing?

If you signed it in your home, the Consumer Protection Act gives you 10 days from receiving the written contract to cancel without a reason. Signed in the store, there is no cooling-off period unless the contract gives one. Either way, put the cancellation in writing and keep a copy.

Should I buy the flooring myself and hire an installer for labour only?

You can, and it is often cheaper. The catch is that nobody then owns the whole job: the installer blames the material, the store blames the installer. If you go this way, have the installer approve the product and the quantity before you order, in writing. The measuring page gets the quantity right.

Is a flooring store’s installer better than an independent?

Not better, different. The store gives you one phone number and usually a longer workmanship warranty backed by a business that will exist next year. The independent is often the same man the store sends, at a lower rate, without the store between you.

Know the number before you make the call

The flooring cost calculator prices your rooms at the rates on this site so you can tell a fair quote from a fishing trip. When the quotes come in, the $99 quote review is me reading up to three of them and telling you what is missing.

Price my floorsReview my quotes, $99

Sources and further reading