How we rank builders and renovation contractors

Every list starts from Google Maps searches for the trade in the city, collected with Apify. Across the 26 cities the searches returned 2,332 places.

Langley covers the City of Langley and the Township of Langley, including Walnut Grove, Willoughby, Murrayville, Fort Langley and Aldergrove.

Some places are set aside first, and two Google listings that share one website count as one firm.

The firms that remain are weighed on the Google rating, the number of Google reviews behind it, how closely the services the firm offers match the trade, and the work in its portfolio. Ranks are our editorial order, read from the top, with those four things weighed together.

Services count where the firm's own website shows them, or its Google listing when the site cannot be read. A firm that shows no work in the list's trade, or one specialty only (roofing, waterproofing, cabinetry, insulation or commercial fit-outs), sits below every firm that does, so the top places go to firms that do the work.

A list goes up only when at least 5 firms qualify for it. A firm goes on at most two lists in a city, the trades its services match best. When a list would otherwise fall short of 10, a firm already on two lists can fill a place, after the other firms whose sites show the same work, and a list that reaches 5 only that way does not go up.

The tagline, the facts under “Why it ranks here” and the service chips on a card are written from the firm's own website, and each fact is checked against the page it came from before it goes up.

Where a firm's website could not be read, its tagline and service chips come from its Google listing, and its card shows what we hold instead: its Google rating and review count, where it is based and the services on its card.

Ratings, review counts, phone numbers and categories are Google's, and every list shows the date they were read. Lists are rebuilt from fresh Google Maps searches, and a firm that closes drops off at the next rebuild.