Find out what his or her qualifications are. The person you hire to build your patio for you should have a significant level of experience. He or she should also have the appropriate licenses to legally complete the job for you. These licenses exist to help you feel safe hiring patio contractors.

Find out if there are any local, public areas that the contractor has worked on in the past. If there are, then you can go visit these areas and check out the workmanship on the patio. You will never get a better opportunity to understand the skill and abilities of a contractor than by seeing their previous work firsthand. Otherwise, you could also try to find local customer referrals and contact those customers for a reference.

Ensure your contractor to gives you an estimate and try to get the estimate in writing. You can place language in the estimate that affirms that you understand it is only an estimate and not a final bill. This will make most contractors more comfortable with putting the estimate in writing. A written estimate will help give you a reference point later on if the contractor tries to get more money out of you than you agreed.