Methodology: Where Our Contractor Data Comes From
Every listing in Wildfire Home Hardening Directory is assembled from public records — no contractor pays to be included, and no contractor can pay to have data changed. This page describes each source, how records are verified, and how to correct yours.
Data sources
- CSLB license database — the California Contractors State License Board's public registry. It provides license numbers, classifications, status and business locations, and is the backbone of the directory.
- County Fire Safe Council vendor lists — the contractor lists that county FSCs publish for residents. Presence on an FSC list is recorded on the contractor's profile as a source.
- Google Maps — public ratings, review counts, service descriptions and contact details from contractors' public business listings.
- Yelp — public business listings used to cross-check services and contact information.
How we verify
- License numbers are checked against the CSLB database, and every license badge on a profile links directly to the official CSLB verification page — you can confirm status yourself in one click.
- Ratings shown are public Google ratings with their review counts, reproduced as-is. We do not collect our own reviews, and we never edit, weight or hide ratings.
- Each profile lists which sources its data came from.
Paid placement and data integrity
Contractors can pay for position (labeled Featured or Slot #1). Payment affects ordering only — never license data, ratings or reviews. Paid placement is always visibly labeled.
Update frequency
Regulatory and program facts — laws, insurance discount percentages, county ordinances, free chipper and grant programs — are monitored daily by an automated fact-check that compares our pages against primary sources (the Board of Forestry, CAL FIRE, the Department of Insurance, the FAIR Plan, county fire agencies and Fire Safe Councils) and flags any drift for correction. The contractor dataset is rebuilt quarterly, and additionally whenever California wildfire law changes in a way that affects the content (as with the laws that took effect January 1, 2026). The “Updated” date on a page changes only when its data actually changed — we don't fake freshness.
Found an error in your listing?
Use the “This is my business” claim form on your profile page (or the contact form on /for-contractors/). We verify claims by contacting the business through the publicly listed phone or email, then correct the record in the next rebuild. Claimed and verified profiles are marked as such.