About So So Deep Contractor Search
Last updated July 17, 2026
The thesis
Most contractor search tools rank whoever markets hardest - SEO, ads, and review volume. That rewards spend, not fitness for your job.
So So Deep Contractor Search ranks licensed contractors on objective public-record signals: license class and standing, disciplinary history where the board publishes it, years in business, and real building-permit history where we have it. Reviews and ad budgets are signals we look past, not the scoreboard.
What you get
Describe a job in plain language. We search state licensing data from Arizona Registrar of Contractors and Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, join in permit history where available, and can pull live contact and rating details from Google Places for a shortlist. You get a ranked list with the evidence behind each pick - not a paid directory of placements.
Where we have coverage
Every result draws on two data layers. License records span each state we cover; building-permit history is added city by city and is always growing.
Contractor licenses
Statewide in Arizona and Washington - 133,864 active licenses, wherever the contractor is based.
- All of Arizona (ROC)
- All of Washington (L&I)
Building-permit history
Real permit records matched to each contractor, so you can see where they have actually pulled permits. Available city by city.
Live now
Arizona
- Scottsdale
- Tempe
- Mesa
- Peoria
- Pinal County
- Avondale
- Phoenix
Washington
- Bellevue
- Seattle
- Tempe's public feed has about 20,000 permits since 2019, but only about 1,200 name a contractor, and nearly all of those are right-of-way or utility work rather than building trades. Tempe results are effectively license-only.
- Mesa's feed names a contractor on most of its 112,000 permits, but it labels them only as residential, commercial, or service - it never records the trade. We can show that a Mesa contractor is active and how much work they pull, but not which trade a permit was for.
- Peoria's Accela layer names a contractor on issued permits, but it labels them only as residential, commercial, or miscellaneous - it never records the trade. We can show that a Peoria contractor is active and how much work they pull, but not which trade a permit was for.
- Pinal County is loaded from monthly Excel reports (about a month of lag). Most rows are typed only as standard building work; solar and pool-spa labels exist but most trades cannot be resolved from the permit type.
- Avondale's monthly Excel reports carry a contractor license number but no contractor name and no trade label. We join on the ROC number. New permits appear about a month after month-end.
- Phoenix issued-permit search names a contractor on PERS rows back to 2018. Types are city codes (BLD, RE, RPV, and similar), not trade names, so we can show who is pulling work in Phoenix but not which trade a permit was for.
- Seattle's contractor names come from its electrical and trade permit feeds, which cover electrical, mechanical, HVAC, fire-sprinkler, and sign work. Those feeds do not label plumbing permits, and Seattle's general building permits rarely name a contractor, so plumbing and other unlabeled trades are license-only there.
Coming soon
- Everett
Why we charge
Every live search costs real money: large language model tokens to interpret your request and rank candidates, plus Google Places lookups when we fetch phone numbers, hours, and ratings. Prepaid credits keep that sustainable and stop anonymous abuse from running up the bill.
Each search draws only the credits it actually needs, so a quick lookup costs less than a deep, enriched one. Credits are prepaid and aren't refunded for cash - pass credits are yours to use through the end of their window, and subscription credits refresh at the start of each billing period rather than rolling over. Full details are on the billing page and in our Terms of Service.
What we are not
We are not a workmanship guarantee, not legal advice, and not an endorsement of any contractor. Always verify a license on the issuing board's official lookup - ROC Contractor Search or L&I Verify a Contractor - and do your own due diligence before hiring.
Data sources
Licensing data comes from state boards, used under each state's public records law, and covers those states in full: Arizona Registrar of Contractors (snapshot 2026-08-27) and Washington State Department of Labor & Industries (snapshot 2026-08-16). Permit history comes from free city and county feeds in these areas today, with more metros being added. Contact and rating details come from Google Places when you (or a search) request enrichment.