How listings are built

Where the listings come from

Listings come from three sources, and every listing says which one it is, in the card under its phone number.

The federal USDOT registry

Some listings start as a record in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) company census. That's the public registry of companies holding a USDOT number, which the U.S. Department of Transportation requires of companies that run commercial trucks.

We include active registrations whose company name points to plumbing, heating or cooling work, with words like “plumbing”, “heating”, “air conditioning” or “mechanical”.

Google Business Profiles

Plenty of plumbers and heating and cooling contractors don't run trucks the registry covers. To find them we searched Google's business listings for plumbers, drain cleaning, HVAC contractors and AC repair in every county with at least 15 plumbing or heating and cooling businesses on the registry or a state license list. A result that matched a business already listed here added its Google details to that listing. A result that matched nothing became a listing of its own, marked “Listed from Google Business Profile”, when Google files it under a plumbing or heating and cooling category such as Plumber, HVAC contractor or Air conditioning repair service.

Those listings show the name, address, phone number and website on the Google profile, and the rating and review count under the rule below. Some profiles give no street address. Where Google's map puts one of those in a U.S. county and files it under one of those categories, it's listed in that county with its phone number and website, and with no street address or map. They have no USDOT number, registration year or fleet size, because there's no registration behind them, and those rows are left out rather than filled in.

State license lists

Several states publish a list of the plumbing and heating and cooling businesses they license or register. We read the lists from Arkansas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, Virginia and Washington, and the home improvement and residential contractor registrations from New Jersey and Vermont, which cover every trade. A business on one of those lists that matched no listing here has a listing of its own, marked “Listed from a state license list”. It shows the name and town the list gives, with a phone number where the list has one, and the list's entry: the licensing body, the license number, the class and the status, a link to the body's own search, and the date we read the list. From New Jersey's and Vermont's lists, only a business whose name says plumbing, heating or cooling gets a listing of its own. Lists of licenses held by individual plumbers, rather than businesses, don't make listings.

A business already listed here that's on one of those lists keeps its listing, which shows the entry in a card of its own. We match them by name and phone number, then by name and town, then by the same name in the same county.

A business that does plumbing, heating or cooling work and appears in none of these sources won't be here until it's added. If that's you, add your business.

Added by their owners

A business in none of these sources can add itself. We check its phone number with a call that reads out a code, and a person here reviews the listing before it's published. These listings are marked “Added by the owner” and show what the owner sent us: the name, phone number, town and the jobs it takes, with a street address and website where they gave one. The owner manages the listing from then on, like any verified owner.

What a listing shows

• The business name. We use the trade name (DBA) on the registration unless it's generic, like “Plumbing & Heating”, in which case we use the legal name.
• The phone number, and the address where the registration, the Google profile or the state's list gives one.
• For a registered company, the USDOT number, registration status and the year it first registered.
• For a registered company, fleet size, from the number of trucks on the registration.
• A state license entry, where one matched.
• A map of the ZIP code area, where the listing has a ZIP code. Maps are placed at the center of the ZIP code, not at the street address.

If a detail isn't on the record, we leave it out. We don't fill gaps with guesses, stock descriptions or placeholder text.

Verified owners

A business owner can claim a listing by entering a code we send to the contact details on the company's USDOT registration, or by sending details we check by hand. A listing built from a Google Business Profile or a state license list has no registration to send a code to, so it's always checked by hand. Verified listings are marked “Verified owner”.

Verified owners can change the name, phone, address, website and services shown, and add hours, photos and a short description. Text under “From the owner” is written by the business, not by us. The USDOT number, registration status, registration year and fleet size always come from the federal record.

Duplicates

Some businesses hold more than one registration. When two active records share the same company name (ignoring punctuation and endings like LLC or Inc), phone number and ZIP code, we show them as one listing and keep the other names on file.

Google ratings

For some businesses we show a star rating and review count from their Google Business Profile, labelled “via Google”. We only show them when there are at least 3 reviews, and we never copy review text. A business owner can ask us to hide their rating. Where we hold a link to the profile, the listing has a “See reviews on Google” link so you can read the reviews at the source.

Counties and ranking

A county gets its own page once it has at least 15 listed plumbers and heating and cooling contractors, counting every source. Businesses in smaller counties still have their own listing pages.

On county pages, contractors are listed in this order:

1. Businesses whose owners have claimed and verified their listing.
2. A Google rating of 4.0 or higher from at least 3 reviews, highest rating first.
3. The review count, where two businesses have the same rating.
4. Larger fleets, by number of trucks and then drivers.
5. Business name, alphabetically.

A rating below 4.0 is still shown on the listing, with its review count. It just doesn't move the business up this order, so the listing sits with the ones we hold no rating for. We only use a rating to put a business ahead of another, never to push one down, because a handful of Google reviews isn't enough to say a business is worse than one nobody has reviewed at all.

Mistakes

Registry records, Google profiles and license lists can all be out of date. If something on a listing is wrong, see the corrections page.