Guide notes | Conshy Contractor

Pennsylvania requires $50,000 in liability coverage from a home improvement contractor, and Conshohocken's registration form asks for at least $100,000

Sat, 31 Oct 2026 08:21:53 -0400

Pennsylvania’s Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act requires a contractor to show at least $50,000 of liability insurance for personal injury and at least $50,000 for property damage caused by its work before the Attorney General’s office will register it. Conshohocken Borough’s residential contractor registration form, checked on October 31, 2026, asks for more: no less than $100,000 to $300,000 for bodily injury and no less than $100,000 each for property damage, public liability and products liability. Workers’ compensation, the insurance that pays an injured worker’s medical bills and lost wages, falls under a separate state law, which requires proof of it before a contractor gets a building permit.

What the state and the borough ask for

Section 4 of the act lists the proof of insurance a contractor must file to register, and section 7(a)(11) carries the same $50,000 figures into every home improvement contract. The contract has to say the contractor will keep that coverage and state the amount of coverage in force on the day you sign. A contractor that insures itself can attest to that instead, on forms the Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection provides.

Conshohocken’s form adds three kinds of coverage the state law does not list. Products liability covers harm caused by something the contractor installed. Completed operations covers harm that shows up after the job is finished, such as a deck rail that gives way months later. The form also asks that each limit apply per occurrence and that the borough be named as the certificate holder, the party the insurer sends the certificate to.

Liability insurance minimums in Pennsylvania's Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act and on Conshohocken Borough's residential contractor registration form, checked October 31, 2026. A blank cell means the source lists no figure for that coverage.
Coverage	Pennsylvania registration minimum ($)	Conshohocken registration form minimum ($)	What the source says
Personal or bodily injury	50000	100000	State: personal injury liability of at least $50,000. Borough form: no less than $100,000 to $300,000 for bodily injury
Property damage	50000	100000	State: property damage caused by the contractor's work, at least $50,000. Borough form: no less than $100,000
Public liability		100000	Borough form only
Products liability		100000	Borough form only
Completed operations		50000	Borough form only, at least $50,000

Source: conshohockenpa.gov

The borough form waives its $90 fee for contractors registered with the Attorney General. It does not say whether the borough’s insurance figures still apply to them. The Attorney General’s FAQ adds that since July 1, 2009, municipalities cannot separately license or register home improvement contractors, apart from trade licensing standards already in effect on that date. If the difference matters for your job, ask Conshohocken’s Licenses and Inspections office at 610-828-1092 which figures it checks. The borough’s building permit application asks for the contractor’s borough license number and, when there is a written contract, a copy of it.

The Attorney General’s FAQ also notes that the required coverage is not related to contractor performance or the quality of work. The act’s coverage is for personal injury and for property damage caused by the work. A poorly built job is a contract question, which our guide to what Pennsylvania law requires when you hire a contractor covers.

Workers’ compensation and the permit

Section 302(e) of the Workers’ Compensation Act says a municipality must require a contractor to show proof of workers’ compensation insurance before it issues a building permit. A contractor with no employees can file an affidavit saying it does not employ anyone and is not required to carry the coverage. A permit issued on that affidavit has to state that the contractor may not employ anyone to do the permitted work. Plymouth Township’s residential code package lists a signed contract, workers’ compensation and liability insurance among the documents to submit when a contractor does the work.

The Department of Labor and Industry’s employer guide says that a sole proprietor or general partners with no other employees are exempt. So is an LLC whose only employees are its members. Every other employer has to insure, the department says, even for part-time workers or family members.

Two more parts of section 302 matter to an owner. When a municipality is named as certificate holder, the insurer has to notify it within three working days if the policy is cancelled or expires. Once the municipality learns that a contractor’s coverage was cancelled, it has to issue a stop-work order until coverage is restored. Under section 302(a), a contractor that hires a subcontractor is liable for compensation to the subcontractor’s workers unless the subcontractor has its own coverage, and section 302(d) bars subcontracting to a firm that has not shown proof of insurance.

A worked example

This example uses round numbers and an invented contractor, and it is not drawn from any real job. A homeowner in a Conshohocken twin signs a $40,000 bathroom remodel set to start November 16, 2026 and finish January 29, 2027. The contractor has two employees and hands over a certificate of insurance, a one-page summary from its insurer.

Worked example. An invented certificate of insurance for a $40,000 bathroom remodel, checked line by line against the contract, Pennsylvania law and Conshohocken's registration form. Not drawn from any real contractor.
Line on the example certificate	Example entry	Checked against	What the check shows
Liability limit per occurrence ($)	1000000	State minimums of $50,000 each and the borough form's $100,000 figures	Above every minimum
Liability policy period	March 1, 2026 to March 1, 2027	Contract dates of November 16, 2026 to January 29, 2027	Covers the whole job
Workers' compensation policy period	January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2026	Contract dates of November 16, 2026 to January 29, 2027	Ends about four weeks before the completion date
Certificate holder	Borough of Conshohocken	Section 302(e)(3) of the Workers' Compensation Act and the borough's registration form	Matches what the law and the form ask for
Insured name	Example Remodeling LLC	Name on the contract and on the state registration	Should match on all three

Source: conshohockenpa.gov

The liability limit of $1,000,000 per occurrence clears every figure in the table above, and the liability policy runs past the completion date. The workers’ compensation policy ends December 31, 2026, about four weeks before the job is due to finish. The certificate in hand shows workers’ compensation coverage only through December. A reasonable step is to ask for the renewal certificate when it is issued, before the final payment.

What to check before you sign

Compare the certificate with the contract. The insured name should match the business on the contract and on the state registration, and the coverage amounts should match what section 7(a)(11) has the contract state. Check the policy dates against the start and completion dates.

Look up the contractor’s registration on the Attorney General’s contractor search, which shows active registrations with their expiration dates, or call the toll-free line, 1-888-520-6680. Registrations last two years. The search results list no insurance details, so the certificate is where you see coverage. The act requires a contractor to update its registration information, including insurance, within 30 days of a change.

For workers’ compensation, Labor and Industry’s insurance search looks up policy coverage by company name. The department says the results come from databases kept by the Pennsylvania Compensation Rating Bureau, an organization outside state government, and that the bureau is not responsible for errors in them. To report an employer you believe is uninsured, the department’s Compliance Section is at 717-787-3567.

If you get the certificate from the insurer or the agent named on it, rather than from the contractor, you know the insurer issued it. Our guide to permits and inspections in Conshohocken covers the permit side, and Conshy Roofers covers hiring a roofer.

Caveats

This is general information. Whether a contractor’s policy would pay a particular claim, and how your homeowners policy would respond to an injury at your house, are questions for your insurance agent. A dispute over a contract term is a question for a lawyer.

The borough’s registration form carries no revision date, and how Licenses and Inspections applies it to contractors who hold a state registration could not be verified from the form alone. West Conshohocken, Plymouth and Whitemarsh may ask for different documents with a permit application. Their offices can say what they need. The state minimums are those in the act as posted by the General Assembly on October 31, 2026. The act’s information page that day listed HB 1148, HB 1928, HB 2016, SB 540 and SB 1324 among the bills that would amend it.

Plumbing fitting prices rose 5.1% in the year to September 2026, a record, which can push a remodel past the allowances in its quote

Thu, 29 Oct 2026 08:29:17 -0400

The Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index for plumbing fixture fittings and trim stood at 453.198 in September 2026, 5.1% above September 2025 and the highest level in a series that starts in 1947. A producer price index tracks what manufacturers receive for their goods, before any store or contractor markup. Fittings and trim are among the things a remodeling quote often leaves to be chosen later, through an allowance. An allowance is a dollar amount the quote sets aside for an item you have not picked yet, such as tile, a faucet or a light fixture. When your pick costs more than the allowance, the difference is added to the bill.

Pennsylvania’s Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act counts allowances as part of a contract’s specifications. Its definition of specifications lists plans, detailed drawings, lists of materials and stated allowances among the ways the trade describes the work and the materials for a job.

Plumbing fittings since 2019

The plumbing fittings index has held at a record since March 2026

Producer Price Index by commodity, plumbing fixture fittings and trim, index 1982 = 100, not seasonally adjusted, monthly since September 2019

June through September 2026 are preliminary and can still be revised. Source: fred.stlouisfed.org

The index moves in steps, holding flat for months and then jumping. It rose from 431.266 in September 2025 to 444.670 in December, 451.310 in January 2026 and 453.198 in March, and it has not changed since. Over five years, from September 2021, it rose 28.8%.

Six finish items compared

The plumbing index rose the most of six finish items that quotes often carry as allowances. Each index has its own base period, so compare the percentage changes across rows, and leave the index levels aside.

Producer price indexes for six finish items and for all goods used in residential repair and remodeling, September 2026. Not seasonally adjusted. June through September 2026 are preliminary.
Item	Series	Index base	September 2026	Change on year (%)	Change over five years (%)
Plumbing fixture fittings and trim	WPU1054	1982 = 100	453.198	5.1%	28.8%
Lighting fixtures	WPU1083	1982 = 100	247.574	2.5%	23.7%
Oak and maple hardwood flooring	WPU08120401	June 1984 = 100	280.924	2.5%	22.0%
Stock wood kitchen cabinets and countertops	WPU08210102	December 2012 = 100	124.959	1.6%	9.4%
Clay floor and wall tile	WPU1344	1982 = 100	139.162	0.8%	11.5%
Household appliances	WPU124	1982 = 100	152.377	-0.3%	14.9%
All goods for residential repair and remodeling	WPUIP2321001	June 1986 = 100	342.798	9.7%	29.5%

Source: fred.stlouisfed.org

Lighting fixtures and oak and maple hardwood flooring each rose 2.5% on the year. Stock wood kitchen cabinets and countertops rose 1.6%. The lighting index, which starts in 1960, and the cabinet index, which starts in 2012, both set records in September. Clay floor and wall tile rose 0.8%. Household appliances fell 0.3%.

All six rose less over the year than the index for all goods that go into residential repair and remodeling, which was up 9.7%. That broader index covers the goods a contractor buys for the whole job, including lumber, metals and fuel. The six items above are the kind a quote often leaves to an allowance, where a change in their price shows up in what you pay for your own selection.

How an allowance changes the final price

Suppose two contractors quote the same bathroom remodel in a Conshohocken twin. The numbers are round and invented for this example. Quote A is $30,000 and includes $5,000 in allowances. Quote B is $28,500 and includes $3,000. The homeowner then picks the same tile, vanity, shower trim and lights under either contract.

Worked example. Invented allowances in two quotes for the same bathroom remodel, and the price of what the homeowner picks. Round numbers, not drawn from any real job.
Item	Quote A allowance ($)	Quote B allowance ($)	Price of the homeowner's pick ($)
Floor and wall tile	$2,000	$1,200	$3,200
Vanity and top	$1,500	$1,000	$1,500
Faucets and shower trim	$1,000	$600	$1,600
Light fixtures	$500	$200	$400
Total	$5,000	$3,000	$6,700

The picks cost $6,700. Under Quote A the homeowner owes $1,700 over the contract price. Under Quote B the same picks add $3,700.

Worked example. Final price of each quote once the homeowner's picks replace the allowances. Assumes no markup on the difference and no other changes.
Quote	Contract price ($)	Allowances in the price ($)	Homeowner's picks ($)	Difference owed ($)	Final price ($)
Quote A	$30,000	$5,000	$6,700	$1,700	$31,700
Quote B	$28,500	$3,000	$6,700	$3,700	$32,200

Quote B started $1,500 lower and finished $500 higher, at $32,200 against $31,700.

Prices can also move between the day a quote is written and the day you choose. BLS describes a simple way to adjust a price with an index: change it by the same percentage as the index. A $1,000 fittings allowance written in September 2025 would have needed about $1,051 to buy the same goods a year later, if their prices moved with the plumbing fittings index. Your faucet’s price may move more or less than the index.

What the act says about changes

The act requires a written contract to describe the work, the materials and a set of specifications “that cannot be changed without a written change order signed by the owner and the contractor.” Section 9 bars a contractor from departing from the plans or specifications in any material respect without a written change order, dated and signed by both sides, that gives the price change for each departure. The act does not say whether picking an item over its allowance counts as a material change. A written change order for each selection gives you a dated record of what you chose and what it added. Our guide to change orders and payment schedules covers what to put in one.

What to ask before you sign

Ask each contractor to list every allowance as a separate line, with the item, the dollar amount and what it covers. For tile, ask whether the allowance is for the material only or includes installation, and whether it is per square foot or a lump sum.

Ask whether the contractor adds a markup or fee to the amount over an allowance, and whether you get a credit when your pick costs less. Put both answers in the contract.

When you compare quotes, add up the allowances in each one and line them up. A gap of a few thousand dollars in allowances can account for most of the difference in the totals. Price a few items you would choose at a showroom or online before you sign, so you know whether an allowance is close to what you plan to spend.

Our guide to what remodeling costs and why explains the other lines in a quote, and the guide to what Pennsylvania law requires when you hire a contractor lists every term a contract must have. For windows, see Conshy Windows.

Caveats

The indexes are national and measure prices at the producer level, before shipping, store margins and contractor markup. They show the direction and size of price changes, and say nothing about what a particular faucet or tile costs at a Montgomery County supplier. BLS says its producer price data can be revised for up to four months after first publication, so the June through September 2026 figures are preliminary. The indexes are not seasonally adjusted.

The worked example is invented. Real contracts handle allowances in different ways, and some add a markup to any overage. How the act applies to a given contract is a question for a lawyer.

The act covers work of more than $500 at a private residence, which it defines as a single-family house, a building of no more than two units, or a single condominium or co-op unit. New home construction falls outside it. The statute text described here was posted by the General Assembly on October 29, 2026. That day the General Assembly’s page for the act listed five bills of the 2025-2026 session that would amend it.

Pennsylvania caps a time-and-materials home improvement bill at 10% above the written estimate unless both sides sign a change order

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 08:37:59 -0400

A time-and-materials contract is one where you pay the contractor’s actual labor at an hourly rate and the actual cost of materials, plus a fee, instead of a fixed price. Pennsylvania’s Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act allows these contracts with a ceiling built in. Before any work starts, the contractor has to give you a written initial cost estimate, and the contract has to say that the cost may not run more than 10% above it without a written change order signed by both of you. On a $20,000 estimate, that ceiling is $22,000. The Attorney General’s office, which enforces the act, says the time-and-materials terms were added by an amendment on October 22, 2014.

How the act defines time and materials

The act describes time and materials as an arrangement where the owner pays for the actual cost of labor at a specified hourly rate and the actual costs of materials and equipment, plus an agreed percentage of those costs or a fixed amount to cover the contractor’s fee and overhead. Overhead is the cost of running the business, such as insurance and the office, that does not belong to one job.

Section 7(a)(8) of the act, codified at 73 P.S. § 517.7, lets a home improvement contract include a time-and-materials provision in place of a total sales price. When it does, the contractor must give you an initial cost estimate in writing before any work begins, and the contract must state four things.

The four statements section 7(a)(8)(ii) of the act requires in a time-and-materials contract, filled in for the worked example of a $20,000 estimate.
What the contract must state	In the example
Dollar value of the initial cost estimate	$20,000
That the cost may not exceed the estimate by more than 10%	No more than $2,000 above the estimate
Total potential cost in actual dollars	$22,000
That the cost will not rise above the estimate plus 10% without a written change order signed by both	No billing above $22,000 without a signed change order

Source: palegis.us

The third item has to appear as a dollar figure. A contract that says only “estimate plus 10%” leaves out what the act calls the total potential cost expressed in actual dollars. A time-and-materials contract also has to meet every other requirement in section 7, including the contractor’s registration number, the approximate start and completion dates, a description of the work and materials, and the notice of your right to cancel within three business days. Our guide to what Pennsylvania law requires when you hire a contractor covers that list.

A worked example on a $20,000 estimate

This example uses round numbers and is not drawn from any real job. A homeowner hires a contractor to gut and rebuild a small bathroom on time and materials. The contractor’s written initial estimate is $20,000. The contract sets labor at $75 an hour and a fee of 15% on top of labor and materials. Both of those rates are assumptions for the example; the act leaves the rate and the fee to the two parties to agree on.

Under the act, the contract states the $20,000 estimate, the 10% limit, a total potential cost of $22,000, and the statement that the cost will not go above $22,000 without a written change order signed by both.

Week 5 would carry the bill $2,150 past the $22,000 ceiling

Worked example: running total billed on a time-and-materials bathroom job with a $20,000 written estimate, dollars

Example with round numbers. Labor at an assumed $75 an hour and an assumed 15% fee. The ceiling is the $20,000 estimate plus 10%. Source: palegis.us

Worked example. Each week's fee is 15% of that week's labor and materials. Week 5 is the subfloor repair found after the old floor came up.
Week	Labor ($)	Materials ($)	Fee ($)	Billed that week ($)	Billed to date ($)
Week 1	$3,000	$2,000	$750	$5,750	$5,750
Week 2	$3,000	$3,000	$900	$6,900	$12,650
Week 3	$2,400	$2,600	$750	$5,750	$18,400
Week 4	$1,800	$1,200	$450	$3,450	$21,850
Week 5	$1,200	$800	$300	$2,300	$24,150

Source: palegis.us

After four weeks the running total is $21,850, which leaves $150 under the ceiling. When the old tile and floor come up, the crew finds a rotted section of subfloor, the layer of plywood or boards under the finished floor. Repairing it would take 16 more hours of labor and $800 of materials. With the fee, that adds $2,300 and brings the total to $24,150, which is $2,150 above $22,000.

Under the act, the contractor cannot raise the cost past $22,000 on its own. The two of you need a written change order, signed by both, before the bill goes higher. A separate section of the act, on prohibited acts, also bars a contractor from departing from the plans or specifications in any material way without a written change order, dated and signed by both, that states the price change for each departure. A change order for the subfloor would describe the repair, price it at $2,300, and state the new ceiling you agree on. If the new ceiling is the old one plus the repair, that comes to $24,300.

The ceiling scales with the estimate. The table shows the 10% allowance and the total potential cost at five estimate sizes.

Worked example. The total potential cost is the initial cost estimate plus 10%, the figure section 7(a)(8)(ii)(C) of the act requires the contract to state in dollars.
Initial cost estimate ($)	Allowed overrun at 10% ($)	Total potential cost ($)
$5,000	$500	$5,500
$10,000	$1,000	$11,000
$20,000	$2,000	$22,000
$50,000	$5,000	$55,000
$100,000	$10,000	$110,000

Source: palegis.us

What to check before you sign

Look for all four statements in the contract, with the total potential cost written as a dollar amount. Check that the initial estimate is on paper and dated before the first day of work, since the act requires it before any performance begins.

Find the hourly rate and the fee in writing. The act’s definition assumes a specified hourly rate and an agreed percentage or fixed amount for the fee. If a contract lists neither, ask the contractor to add them before you sign, because you will be checking every bill against those two numbers.

Ask for a running total. The act does not set a schedule for time-and-materials statements. A contract can still require a weekly statement of hours, receipts for materials and the total billed so far, and that statement shows you when the job is close to the ceiling, as week 4 did in the example. With it, you and the contractor can sign a change order before the total reaches $22,000.

Keep each signed change order with the contract. Our guide to change orders and payment schedules explains what to put in one and how to tie payments to inspections. Our guide to what remodeling costs and how to read a contractor’s quote covers how labor and materials show up on a fixed-price quote, for comparison.

Caveats

This is general information about the act, not legal advice for a particular contract. If a contractor bills past the ceiling without a signed change order, or you disagree about what the change order covered, ask a lawyer or the Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. The office’s FAQ gives 1-888-520-6680 as the bureau’s toll-free number for checking whether a contractor is registered, and every home improvement contract has to list it.

The act covers a home improvement at a private residence when the work agreed on totals more than $500. Its definition of a private residence includes a single-family house, a building with no more than two units, and a single condominium or co-op unit. A person who owns three or more homes in Pennsylvania counts as an owner under the act only for a primary residence and homes used for personal recreation, so a landlord with several properties may fall outside it on the rentals. The act also leaves out the construction of a new home and emergency work done under section 7 of the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.

The deposit cap on contracts over $5,000, one-third of the contract price plus any designated special-order materials, is written in terms of the contract price. The act does not say which figure counts as the price for a time-and-materials provision. In its answer on these contracts, the Attorney General’s FAQ describes the initial cost estimate plus 10% as the contract price. Ask the bureau or a lawyer before you agree to a large deposit on a time-and-materials job.

The text quoted here is the act as posted by the General Assembly on October 11, 2026. Five bills that would amend the act were listed on the General Assembly’s page for it that day. None had passed either chamber.