Step two of three
The questions, with the answers left blank.
Pick questions, add them to a list, print one copy per builder. Or send the list as a link and let each builder answer on screen.
Why the answers are blank
There is a professional version of this tool where the builder's software fills these answers in automatically. That is useful for the builder and useless to you. If the answers arrive pre written you learn nothing about the person you are about to give twenty thousand dollars to. So on this site the space stays empty, every time, and the builder has to put something in it.
If a builder will not write anything in the boxes, that is an answer too.
Two answers that should make you stop
A big deposit. If a builder wants half the money before a hole is dug, you are financing their business and carrying all of the risk. A deposit that covers materials is normal. Half is not.
No paperwork. No contract, no insurance certificate, cash only, no permit because it is easier that way. Every one of those is the builder moving a risk from their side of the table to yours.
Where these came from
The permit and construction numbers are read from the City of Edmonton's Uncovered Deck Design Guide and the National Building Code Part 9 rules it points at. The payment and holdback questions come from Alberta's prompt payment and construction lien rules, which give you a 10 percent holdback and a lien period. The rest is the ordinary list any home inspector would give you.
None of it is legal advice and none of it is an approved drawing. Everything on this site is a starting point you take to somebody qualified. If a number here disagrees with what your city tells you, your city is right.
A question missing? The list grows from real jobs. If you got caught by something that is not on here, it belongs on here.