Methodology
How we verify — and what we won't claim.
A complete report is five checks against public records and documents. Each check that has run is stamped with the date it ran and re-checked every 90 days. When a record can't be confirmed, the listing says so — we never fill a gap with an assumption, and a check we haven't run yet is simply absent rather than implied.
WHAT IS RUNNING TODAY — AS OF 2026-07-26
- State license — running in North Carolina. Every NC listing has been searched against the NC Licensing Board for General Contractors record, with the result and its date on the listing.
- Name match — running where a licence record exists. It compares the licensed entity with the name we list; with no licence record there is nothing to compare, so the check is absent rather than failed.
- South Carolina — by hand, and behind. The SC board's own search sits behind a CAPTCHA, so it cannot be automated: those checks are read by a person and lag the NC ones. Until then SC listings carry no licence check.
- Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia — listed, not yet checked. We publish the contact details and Google rating we hold for these states so a homeowner can find and call a contractor, but our licence check is not running there yet. Every one of those listings reads CHECKS PENDING and none is counted as verified — the state page links the official lookup to use in the meantime.
- Insurance, certification and discipline — on request, not yet systematic. A certificate of insurance has to come from the contractor or their agent, so these appear on a listing only once we hold the document. No listing implies them.
Read any listing's report to see exactly which checks it has — the count on each profile is the number of checks actually on file, never out of five.
The five checks
01State license
SOURCE: State licensing board record (see table below)Status, license number, expiration and the exact licensed entity name. In states where typical crawl space jobs fall under the licensing threshold, 'none found' is recorded — not hidden.
02Liability insurance
SOURCE: Certificate of insurance (COI)Policy dates and general-liability limits. We record whether the COI came from the agent directly or from the contractor — agent-direct is the stronger signal.
03Industry certification
SOURCE: IICRC and equivalent registriesWRT and ASD are the certifications relevant to moisture work. Certification is weighted higher in low-threshold license states.
04Name match
SOURCE: Cross-reference of license, insurance and business registrationLicensed entity = insured entity = contracting entity. This single check fails more listings than any other; mismatched entities are where liability disappears.
05Public discipline
SOURCE: Board disciplinary recordsSearched for both the company and the qualifying individual — problem operators dissolve companies and keep the person.
The standard we hold work against
Verification covers the business; this is the benchmark for the work itself. A properly detailed encapsulation looks like a construction document, not a sales brochure — sealed laps, a termite inspection gap, a drying mechanism with a drain. When our quote reviews flag a scope, this is the reference.
Official sources by state
| STATE | BOARD | LOOKUP |
|---|---|---|
| NC | NC Licensing Board for General Contractors | portal.nclbgc.org → |
| SC | SC Dept. of Labor, Licensing & Regulation — Residential Builders Commission | verify.llronline.com → |
| GA | GA State Licensing Board for Residential & General Contractors | verify.sos.ga.gov → |
| TN | TN Board for Licensing Contractors | verify.tn.gov → |
| VA | VA Dept. of Professional & Occupational Regulation (DPOR) | www.dpor.virginia.gov → |
Money never touches results
- — Featured placement is the only thing contractors can buy. It is labeled, limited to 3 slots per market, and cannot change a verification result or organic rank.
- — Quote requests are forwarded free; we take no commission on jobs.
- — A High-Risk finding stays published even if the company inquires about featured placement. There is no pay-to-clean.
Corrections
Records go stale; boards lag. If a listing shows outdated information, a contractor can request a correction with the current document — we re-run the check and update the date, never silently.
Recent checks
A live feed of the latest verification runs across the directory.