What warranty does California law require on remodel work?

The Right to Repair Act (SB800) sets functional standards: one year minimum on fit-and-finish workmanship, defined intermediate periods on systems like plumbing and electrical, and up to ten years on major structural elements — plus a notice-and-repair process before most litigation. It applies regardless of what your contract says.

What's the difference between workmanship and product warranties?

The builder warrants installation quality (workmanship); manufacturers warrant their products (the faucet, the dishwasher, the window). A tile cracking from a bad substrate is workmanship; a cartridge failing inside a faucet is product. Good closeout hands you every product warranty organized — ours ride in the handoff binder.

What should I do if something fails after the remodel?

Report it in writing as soon as you notice — small and early beats big and late, both for the fix and for coverage windows. Include photos and when it started. Legitimate builders schedule a look quickly; the punch-list-and-callback experience is the truest review of a contractor there is.

Are appliances covered by the contractor's warranty?

No — appliances carry manufacturer warranties (often extendable at purchase). The contractor's warranty covers their installation: the dedicated circuit, the water line, the venting. If a new range fails, the claim goes to the brand; if it fails because the gas line was kinked at install, that's on the builder. We register or hand over the product paperwork at closeout.

Does a warranty transfer if I sell my house?

SB800 protections attach to the home and generally run to subsequent purchasers within the statutory windows. Written workmanship warranties vary — some transfer, some are original-owner only; it's stated in the document. Either way, the handoff binder full of permits, product warranties, and maintenance records is genuinely valuable at listing time.

What Warranty Should Your Remodel Actually Come With?

Every California remodel comes with warranty protection whether the contract mentions it or not — the state's Right to Repair Act (SB800) sets minimum standards, including one year on fit-and-finish workmanship and up to ten years on major structural elements. The myth is that a warranty is a paragraph of legal boilerplate you'll never use. In practice, how a builder handles the punch list and the first-year callbacks tells you everything about who you hired. Here's what the law guarantees, what a good written warranty adds, and how we handle it — from 20+ years standing behind work across 130+ LA properties.

What California law already guarantees you

California's Right to Repair Act (Civil Code §895 et seq., known as SB800) applies functional standards to residential construction, with different time horizons by component:

• Fit and finish — one year. Cabinets, mirrors, flooring, interior/exterior walls, countertops, paint: the visible workmanship layer carries a statutory one-year minimum.
• Systems and components — intermediate periods. Specific standards cover plumbing, electrical, and other systems, with defined periods (several are capped at four or five years).
• Structural — up to ten years. Load-bearing failures and major structural defects carry the act's longest protection.

SB800 also defines a process: before most lawsuits, the homeowner gives written notice and the builder gets a right to inspect and repair. That's the floor state law sets under every legitimate contract.

Two things the law can't do for you: it can't make an uninsured, disappearing contractor honor anything (judgments against vanished LLCs are paper), and it doesn't cover the manufacturer side — your appliances, fixtures, and materials carry their own product warranties, separate from workmanship. Both gaps are why the written warranty and the builder's stability matter more than the statute.

What a good written workmanship warranty adds

A written warranty should improve on the statutory floor in clarity, not lawyer past it. What to look for:

Plain-language scope. What's covered (workmanship of the installed work), for how long, starting when (substantial completion — a defined date, not vibes).

The workmanship / product split, explained. The builder warrants the installation; the faucet manufacturer warrants the faucet. A good builder also registers or hands over every product warranty at closeout so the manufacturer side is actually usable years later.

A response commitment. Coverage without a response window is theater. Something failing in month two should draw a scheduled fix in days-to-weeks, not a voicemail abyss.

Reasonable exclusions, stated honestly. Normal wear, owner damage, owner-supplied materials, unmaintained items (caulk lines, grout sealing) — legitimate exclusions, fine in writing. Watch instead for exclusion lists so broad they swallow the coverage.

Our closeout practice, as clients see it: the final walkthrough generates the punch list, you flag anything imperfect, we fix within two weeks — and you get a handoff binder with the warranties, product manuals, and a maintenance schedule, so year-three questions have a place to start.

What we put in writing. Design Onn Point's workmanship warranty is one year from substantial completion — matching California's SB800 floor for fit-and-finish, running alongside your project's manufacturer warranties on cabinets, appliances, fixtures, and finishes (which we register or hand over at closeout). Punch-list items caught at the final walkthrough get fixed within two weeks. Anything you email hello@designonnpoint.com after that during the warranty period gets a scheduled inspection within two weeks and, if it's on us, we fix it at no charge on a timeline we agree with you.

The warranty questions to ask before you sign

Ask every bidder, in writing, and compare answers:

• "What's your workmanship warranty, in writing?" — The answer should arrive as a document, not a sentence. "We stand behind our work" is a mood, not a term.

• "Who do I call in month 8, and what happens next?" — You're testing whether a callback process exists. Builders who plan for callbacks build differently than ones who plan to be unreachable.

• "How long have you operated under this license?" — A warranty is only as good as the entity honoring it. Check the CSLB record (ours: #1133368, and our license-verification guide shows the 5-minute lookup) for license age, bond status, and workers' comp. Serial LLC dissolvers show up right there.

• "What happened the last time a client had a warranty issue?" — A specific story with a fix beats a claim of zero issues. Nobody who's built 130+ projects has zero callbacks; the honest ones tell you how they handled them.

• "Are punch-list and warranty visits in the quote?" — Per our kitchen cost guide, post-completion adjustments are real work (a cabinet door realignment, a drawer slide). We include them; bids that don't are quietly cheaper and lousier.

What voids coverage — and how to not accidentally do it

The common ways homeowners weaken their own warranty position:

Unpermitted follow-on work. A handyman moving plumbing through our finished wall six months later makes the resulting leak nobody's warranty. Keep records of who touched what, when.

Skipped maintenance on maintenance items. Grout sealing, caulk lines, wood-surface care — the handoff binder's maintenance schedule isn't decorative. A failed caulk joint that was never once resealed is wear, not defect.

Owner-supplied materials, installed as a favor. We'll install the vintage faucet you found — and the warranty on that faucet's behavior is between you and the seller. The line gets drawn at install time in writing, so nobody rediscovers it during a drip.

Waiting. Small issues reported at month 2 get fixed under warranty; the same issue silently tolerated until month 14 crosses the fit-and-finish window and may have grown into damage. Report early, always — a builder who welcomes the month-2 call is the builder you hired well.

None of this is exotic. Keep the binder, do the seasonal maintenance, call promptly, and the warranty works the way it should: quietly, rarely, and without drama.

Frequently asked questions

What warranty does California law require on remodel work?: The Right to Repair Act (SB800) sets functional standards: one year minimum on fit-and-finish workmanship, defined intermediate periods on systems like plumbing and electrical, and up to ten years on major structural elements — plus a notice-and-repair process before most litigation. It applies regardless of what your contract says.
What's the difference between workmanship and product warranties?: The builder warrants installation quality (workmanship); manufacturers warrant their products (the faucet, the dishwasher, the window). A tile cracking from a bad substrate is workmanship; a cartridge failing inside a faucet is product. Good closeout hands you every product warranty organized — ours ride in the handoff binder.
What should I do if something fails after the remodel?: Report it in writing as soon as you notice — small and early beats big and late, both for the fix and for coverage windows. Include photos and when it started. Legitimate builders schedule a look quickly; the punch-list-and-callback experience is the truest review of a contractor there is.
Are appliances covered by the contractor's warranty?: No — appliances carry manufacturer warranties (often extendable at purchase). The contractor's warranty covers their installation: the dedicated circuit, the water line, the venting. If a new range fails, the claim goes to the brand; if it fails because the gas line was kinked at install, that's on the builder. We register or hand over the product paperwork at closeout.
Does a warranty transfer if I sell my house?: SB800 protections attach to the home and generally run to subsequent purchasers within the statutory windows. Written workmanship warranties vary — some transfer, some are original-owner only; it's stated in the document. Either way, the handoff binder full of permits, product warranties, and maintenance records is genuinely valuable at listing time.