How to Choose a Stucco Repair Contractor in Florida

Florida has no separate stucco license. What the license you are shown covers, what the contract must include, and what to ask before you sign.

Check three things before you hire: that the contractor holds an active Florida contractor license (verified directly through the state, not just taken on their word), that the license category they hold actually covers stucco work, and that any contract over $2,500 includes the written recovery-fund disclosure Florida law requires. Most homeowners skip straight to price and photos of past jobs. Those matter too, but they don't tell you whether the person standing on your driveway is legally allowed to be doing this work at all.

Does Florida require a special license for stucco work?

No, and this trips people up. Florida's state contractor licensing law (Chapter 489 of the Florida Statutes) does not define a separate "stucco" or "plastering" trade license the way it defines one for roofing or air conditioning. Stucco application and repair fall under the general construction categories: General, Building, or Residential contractor. A Certified General Contractor license is the broadest of the three, unlimited as to the type of work the holder may do. If you see a stucco company advertise a "state-certified stucco specialist" credential, ask what license number backs it. At the state level, what you should be checking for is a real, active general, building, or residential contractor license. Some Florida cities and counties also issue their own local specialty licenses, so if a contractor cites one of those, verify it with the city or county that issued it. Stucco Home Repair's own license, CGC1534920, is a Certified General Contractor license for exactly this reason.

How do you verify a contractor's license is real and current?

Look the license number up yourself through the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, rather than trusting a number printed on a truck or a business card. DBPR's licensing portal at myfloridalicense.com lets anyone search by name or license number and see whether a license is active, and whether it carries any disciplinary history. A license number that doesn't return a match, or returns a different name or a different, unrelated trade, is a reason to stop and ask questions before signing anything. This takes a few minutes and it's the single most reliable check available to a homeowner who isn't a contractor themselves.

What happens if you hire an unlicensed contractor?

Beyond losing the ability to hold anyone accountable through the state licensing board, you take on real legal exposure. Operating as a contractor without a license in Florida is a criminal offense: a first-degree misdemeanor for a first offense, and a felony for a repeat offense. During a state of emergency declared by the Governor, which Florida issues routinely ahead of and after hurricanes, operating unlicensed is a felony on the first offense too. That last point matters specifically in this market: the period right after a storm is exactly when out-of-state crews without a Florida license show up door to door offering fast repairs, and it's exactly when the law treats unlicensed work most seriously. If you're assessing storm damage, our guide to what to check after a storm covers the damage side of that; licensing is the other half of the same decision.

What should be in the written contract?

For any residential repair, restoration, or improvement contract over $2,500, Florida law requires the contract to include a specific written disclosure about the Florida Homeowners' Construction Recovery Fund, along with contact information for the Construction Industry Licensing Board. This fund can pay a homeowner who loses money because a licensed contractor violated the law on their project, within limits. A contractor who leaves that disclosure out of the contract is violating the same statute that requires it, and the board can fine them for it. A single crack repair can come in below that threshold, but a full re-stucco job runs well above it, and plenty of ordinary repair jobs cross the $2,500 line, so check for this before you sign. None of this is legal advice, and the statute itself is the authority if a contract question turns serious. Our permit and approval guide covers the separate question of what paperwork the job itself needs with the city or an HOA.

What should you ask about how they actually apply stucco?

Ask whether they build to ASTM C1063 for lath installation and ASTM C926 for the plaster application itself. These are the industry standards that govern how the layers under a stucco finish are supposed to go together: how the lath is fastened and overlapped, how long each coat has to cure before the next one goes on. A contractor who doesn't recognize those standards by name isn't necessarily going to do bad work, but a contractor who does recognize them and can describe how their crew follows them is telling you something concrete about how the job will actually be built, not just how it will look when it's finished. Two of the most common causes of a stucco job failing within its first year, cracking across the whole wall or a finish coat separating from what's underneath, trace directly to skipping cure time or installing lath wrong. Those are process failures, not material failures, which is exactly why the process is worth asking about before the work starts, not after.

Why does a contractor's schedule matter?

A contractor who can start your job tomorrow, on a multi-day project, either has very little other work lined up or hasn't actually looked at the wall yet. A real assessment takes a site visit, and a licensed shop with steady work is booking out further than "whenever." Stucco Home Repair typically books two to three weeks out, which is normal for a company running two crews with a real pipeline of scoped jobs, not a sign of being hard to reach. Treat a contractor who promises to start immediately, especially right after a storm, the way you'd treat any offer that skips the step where someone actually inspects the damage first.

What are the signs of an unlicensed or storm-chasing operator?

A few patterns show up often enough to name directly: a demand for full payment upfront before any work starts, pressure to sign the same day the estimate is given, a business card with no license number on it or a number that doesn't check out on DBPR's search, and a crew working a neighborhood door to door in the days right after a named storm. None of these by itself proves someone is unlicensed, but a legitimate, busy local contractor doesn't usually need any of them to get your business. If you want pricing context before you start collecting quotes, that's a reasonable next step so you know roughly what range a fair estimate should sit in.

Questions to ask before you sign

What is your Florida contractor license number, and does it hold up on DBPR's search? Does the written proposal include the recovery-fund disclosure if the job is over $2,500? Do you build lath and plaster application to ASTM C1063 and C926, and can you describe your cure-time process? How far out are you currently scheduling, and does that match what you'd expect from a real, busy crew? A contractor who answers all four without hesitation has given you a genuine, checkable basis for hiring them. One who brushes past the licensing question is telling you something too. If you want a straight answer for your own home, start with an inspection and ask these questions as part of that first conversation, not after you've already signed something.