My friend's French doors have been in her garage for two years. Turns out that might matter.

I was talking to a friend about her kitchen remodel. I'll call her Beth.

Beth has two French doors in her garage. She bought them two years ago for $400. Life got busy. They never went in.

Now she's ready. She found a handyman, Sal, to hang them. Sal isn't licensed. That's OK in California, as long as the whole job stays under $1,000.

Sal's price for the labor: $650.

I asked Beth one question: "Do those doors count toward the $1,000?"

She had no idea. Honestly, neither did I.

Why it matters

• If the doors don't count, the job is $650. Fine.
• If the doors do count, it's $650 + $400 = $1,050. Over the line.
• Over the line means the job needs a licensed contractor.

The $1,000 rule, in plain words

California lets someone without a license do small jobs, as long as the total price, labor and materials together, stays under $1,000. The job also needs no permit. And the person has to work alone.

Most people think the rule is only about labor. It's not. It's the whole job.

So do Beth's doors count?

If Beth had bought the doors for Sal to install, they'd almost certainly count. The rule looks at what the job really costs, not just what's called "labor."

But that's not what happened. Beth bought them two years ago, for herself. Before she ever thought about hiring anyone. They sat in her garage the whole time.

That's different. Materials she already owned, bought for her own reasons, are her property. Sal is just installing something she already had. Like using her own ladder.

Where it gets fuzzy

What if she'd bought them two months ago, not two years?

• Two years, no link to this job: pretty clear.
• Two months, right before hiring Sal: a lot less clear.

No line in the law says "six months is fine, three isn't." It comes down to questions like:

• Did she buy them on her own, with no input from Sal?
• Or did the buying and the hiring happen together, as one plan?

That's a real gray area. I'm not going to pretend I have a clean answer.

So I'm asking the CSLB

I'm taking this straight to the California Contractors State License Board. Here's my list:

• Does the $1,000 limit include materials the homeowner already owned before any job was planned?
• Does it matter how long ago she bought them?
• If someone buys materials first, then hires a person just for labor, do the materials count?
• Does bringing any helper, paid or not, for even an hour, end the small-job rule?
• When does buying materials "for yourself" start to look like buying them "for the job"?

I'll update this post when I hear back.

Why this matters

It's the line between:

• A homeowner who's completely fine, and
• A homeowner who just became responsible for someone else's injury, with insurance that may not help

We wrote about that second part here: hire someone unlicensed, and their injury becomes your problem.

Other states

California's $1,000 number is California's own. Every state draws this line differently. Some set it higher. Some have no small-job rule at all. Check your state's rule here.

How PayBild handles it

• On PayBild, everything on the bid, labor and materials, counts toward the limit.
• If a job, or a change to it, would cross the line, PayBild blocks it.
• Not sure about materials you already own? Ask before the job starts. We'd rather be safe than stuck in a gray area.

See how PayBild keeps every project inside the rules

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Sources: California Business and Professions Code section 7048. Beth and Sal are changed names; this is a real conversation. I'm following up with the CSLB and will update this post with their answer. General information, not legal advice.