How Listings Are Checked

The steps

• We started with 12,478 concrete businesses in Canada from public business listings.
• A program visited each company's website and looked for words about foundation work, such as foundation walls, footings, ICF, underpinning, piles and foundation repair, and noted where on the site they appeared.
• Each company was sorted into one result: clear evidence, likely, maybe, no, or unknown when the website could not be read.
• Companies with clear evidence went on to a second review. Where the words were few, or the company looked like it worked in another trade, its listing was reviewed on its own. Companies that only mention foundations in passing, such as landscapers, paving or drainage companies, suppliers and engineering firms, were removed.
• We kept the 1,629 companies that build or repair concrete foundations. Companies in the other groups are not listed.
• Services on each listing come from the words found on that company's website. Each profile links to the page where we found them.

What we do not check

• Licences, permits or registrations.
• Insurance or workers' compensation coverage.
• The quality of anyone's work, prices or customer service.
• We do not show star ratings or review counts from other sites.

Keeping it accurate

Websites change, and a program can misread a page. If something on a listing is wrong, the company can claim the listing and ask for a correction, and anyone can tell us through the contact page. Claims are verified manually before anything changes.