Trust
How we verify listings
Listings on Siding Installation Cost come from state contractor license registries or, in cities without license data we can use, from Google Maps ratings. Here is exactly what we check, what we show and what we leave out.
Most of the contractors in a city table get checked against that state's own contractor-license record for that specific business: active status, license class, and expiration date, matched against the state's own system.
A city outside this site's license records gets a different table: its top-rated siding contractors pulled straight from Google Maps, sorted by rating and review volume and dated to the month we pulled them. Neither version is an inspection of anyone's work, a background check, or an endorsement. Flag anything that looks wrong to contact@sidinginstallationcost.com.
Where the listings come from
- California: contractor license records of the California Contractors State License Board, from the CSLB Public Data Portal: License Master file dataset. CSLB notes that license status can change at any time and points to its license check for the most current status. How to check a license in California.
- Connecticut: contractor license records of the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection. How to check a license in Connecticut.
- Minnesota: contractor license records of the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. How to check a license in Minnesota.
- Nevada: contractor license records of the Nevada State Contractors Board. How to check a license in Nevada.
- Oregon: contractor license records of the Oregon Construction Contractors Board. How to check a license in Oregon.
- Virginia: contractor license records of the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, Board for Contractors. How to check a license in Virginia.
- Washington: contractor license records of the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, from the L&I Contractor License Data - General dataset. data.wa.gov lists this dataset as updated three times a day. How to check a license in Washington.
Each license listing also links to its own record on the state agency's website, so you can check it at the source.
What we check before a business is listed
- The license is active in the registry when we pull the data. Businesses with any other status are left out.
- The license hasn't passed its expiration date.
- The business matches siding installation. We match on the registry's specialty classification, the registered business name, or both. That's why every listing shows its license class: check that it fits your job.
- The business address on record is in a city with at least 3 matching businesses. Smaller cities don't get a page yet.
What each listing shows
- Business name
- As registered with the state, with capitalization tidied up.
- Category
- Our label for why the business is listed on this site, based on its specialty or registered name.
- License class
- The specialty the registry lists for the business, for example General or Roofing.
- License number
- The contractor license or registration number the registry uses.
- Status
- Active as of the date we checked. We don't list any other status.
- Effective and expiration dates
- When the current license took effect and when it expires, as the registry reports them.
- Business type
- For example limited liability company, corporation or individual, shown on each business's profile when the registry provides it.
- City and ZIP
- From the business address on record. They show where a business is based, not the area it serves, which is why we say “based in”.
- Verify license
- A link to the business's own record on the state agency's website.
What we leave out on purpose
We don't publish phone numbers, street addresses or the names of owners and principals, even where the registry lists them. The business name is the only name we show.
How often we refresh
We re-pull the registry data and rebuild these pages from it. Every city page shows the date its listings were last checked; the current listings were checked on September 30, 2026. A license can change between our checks, so the Verify license link, which opens the live record, is always the final word.
Top-rated lists
A city only gets this treatment when its siding license count here doesn't clear this site's bar. When that happens, we run one Google Maps search built around this site's own query, centered on the city, and start from whatever list comes back.
That list gets trimmed before anything is scored: out go closed businesses, anything in the wrong Google category such as a supply store or a lead-generation site, anything beyond a radius that runs from about 6 miles up to 25 depending on how spread out the city is, and anything under 3 reviews. The businesses left get a blended score, rating times a weight tied to review count, so a thin 5-star record scores under a heavily reviewed 4.8.
Cities need 10,000-plus residents and no existing license page to qualify at all, a minimum of five scored businesses to publish, and the published list never runs past ten. None of this is a pricing audit or a license check on our part. It's Google's own customers doing the talking, so confirm licensing with the state yourself before signing anything.
The details, the same on every top-rated page (2,304 city pages on this site):
- One Google Maps search per city for “siding contractor”, for cities of 10,000 or more people where this site has no license page.
- Left out: businesses marked closed, businesses outside a matching Google category (stores, suppliers and showrooms among them), businesses far from the city center (about 6 to 25 miles, depending on the city's size), businesses with fewer than 3 reviews, and names that are a person's name or belong to a lead marketplace or a big-box store.
- Ranked by a Bayesian average of the Google rating, (rating × reviews + 4.3 × 15) ÷ (reviews + 15), so a 5.0 from 3 reviews ranks below a 4.8 from 300.
- A city needs at least 5 businesses that pass; the page shows the top 10.
- Each listing shows its rank, Google rating, number of Google reviews, Google category, the town and ZIP in its address, and a link to its Google Maps listing. No phone numbers, websites, street addresses or review text.
- Ratings were checked between September 2026 and October 2026. They change every day, so open the Google reviews link for the current figure.
A rating is not a license check and not an endorsement. Before you hire anyone, ask for the license or registration number your state or city requires and check it with the office that issued it.
What we don't do
We don't review or endorse contractors, and a listing isn't a recommendation. License listings are sorted alphabetically; top-rated lists are ranked only by Google rating and review count, as described above. No business pays to be listed, to be left off or for its position. If we ever add paid placements, they will be marked Sponsored. How we make money.
Something wrong?
Business owners can claim a listing to ask for a correction, or ask us to remove it.