Virginia general contractor marketing sized to your Class A, B or C license

Virginia licenses a contractor by the size of the job. Your class limits the projects you may even offer to take, so your ads and project pages have to stay inside it.

The state licensing law requires a license to offer contracting work, not only to perform it. An ad, a bid or an "additions built here" page is an offer.

The class definitions were amended in 2025 and now set Class C at over $1,000 and under $30,000 a job. Class B runs from $30,000 to under $150,000 a job, by the same DPOR law. Class A starts at $150,000 on one job or $1 million of work in a year, again under DPOR's figures. Plenty of guides online still print older figures, so check what your own About page says.

The class is only half of the license. The Board for Contractors also gives you a classification, which sets the type of work you may do. The classification rule keeps electrical, plumbing, HVAC and gas fitting out of both Residential Building and Commercial Building. Commercial Building also excludes houses and townhouses.

What that means for your marketing:

• Keep project pages inside your class. A Class C company showing a whole-house renovation should say which part it built, and as whose subcontractor.
• Name the licensed trades. A page promising "wiring and plumbing included" needs those classifications or a line about the licensed subs who do that work.
• Match the brand to the license. The name on your trucks and the name DPOR lists should be easy to connect for a homeowner who looks you up.

Getting this wrong is expensive. The unlicensed contracting law treats work without a license, or outside your class, as a Class 1 misdemeanor, and adds a fine that can reach $500 for each day it goes on. A builder working unlicensed also loses, in most cases, the right to sue the homeowner on the contract.

A lot of Virginia remodel contracts are signed in the homeowner's living room. When that happens the homeowner may get three business days to back out, so your contract and your crew schedule have to allow for it.

The Home Solicitation Sales Act lets the buyer cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing. The Act's definitions cover sales made in person at the home. A sale that began with an unasked-for call or message to the home counts too. When the homeowner reaches out first and the whole deal happens remotely, with no visit, the Act does not apply.

Do not assume a booked estimate is exempt. The Act carves out sales made under prior negotiations, and we have not seen that carve-out applied to a booked visit. A contract signed at the kitchen table that carries the cancel notice avoids the question.

Emergencies get one narrow exception. After a homeowner's emergency request, the right ends only if you have made a substantial start in good faith and the homeowner signed a dated writing giving it up. Any other waiver is void.

The federal Cooling-Off Rule adds its own notice for FTC-covered sales of $25 or more made at the buyer's home. It applies even when the homeowner invited you over.

Contractors who also replace roofs face new rules soon. From January 1, 2027, Virginia's roof insurance claim law bans paying, waiving or rebating a deductible on an owner-occupied home. A door hanger, flyer, call or email urging a roof claim must carry three disclosures in large type, one of them that the homeowner pays the deductible. A gift for letting you inspect the roof is banned as well. Not legal advice; confirm with counsel.

Most bids are won or lost in the follow-up. In Virginia a sales text falls under the same law as a sales call, so the schedule needs a few guardrails.

The Telephone Privacy Protection Act covers marketing texts sent to a Virginia area code or to a phone registered to a Virginia resident. Its calling hours rule keeps sales texts and calls between 8 in the morning and 9 at night, by the clock where the homeowner is. Anything earlier or later needs their consent first.

Opt-outs outlive most businesses' CRMs. Once a homeowner answers STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE, the Act's do-not-call section keeps them off your list for a decade or longer. The same section also forbids sales texts and calls to anyone whose number is on the federal Do Not Call list.

Numbers on the registry have an exemption for real customers. A purchase in the last 18 months, or a question about a job in the last three months, counts as a business relationship under the Act's definitions. So a homeowner who asked for a bid in May and never signed is outside it by September. After that you need their signed permission naming the number.

Lead vendors do not shield you. The joint liability rule holds you responsible for calls and texts made for you, even with no contract between you and the caller. A homeowner can take you to small claims court, where damages start at $500 and climb to $5,000 a violation for repeat offenses, by the Telephone Privacy Protection Act's damages section.

Watch the price in the message, too. The total price law, added in 2025, wants every mandatory fee inside an advertised price. Where the total depends on the homeowner's choices, you may instead list the price factors and the required fees and say the total can vary. The federal layer, from consent wording to AI voices, is in our texting and call recording playbook.