WA Contractor Licenses - Bonds & Insurance Profiles (wa-contractor-licenses)

Pull Washington contractor licenses - the full WA Dept of Labor & Industries contractor register (160,889 records, construction / electrical / plumbing / elevator contractors), free public open data, and go deeper than the license: every contractor joins to their current bond coverage, liability insurance and principals, all in one profile.

Washington requires registered contractors to carry a bond and liability insurance. This is the data that tells you whether a contractor actually has them - and who is behind the license.

Built for general contractors and homeowners vetting a contractor, lead-gen / list-building for anyone selling to construction (insurance, bonding, tools, materials), subcontractor qualification, and background/verification use.

The core tool: a contractor's full profile by license number

Give a license number, get the complete picture assembled from the L&I family - registration + current bond + insurance + principals:

input { "licenseNumber": "ECOSTSC758NN" }
  general     ECOSTSC758NN   !ECO STAR C G CONSTRUCTION LLC
              type=Construction  status=ACTIVE  specialty=01 GENERAL
              UBI 605854613   Vancouver WA   expires 2027-08-15
  insurance   ACTIVE   State National Ins Co    policy NXT9PTHTLT-01-GL   $1,000,000
  bond        ACTIVE   Merchants Bonding Co     $30,000   (Until Canceled)
  principal   GUERRERO MARTINEZ, CARLOS I.      started 2025-08-15

One run = the whole file on one contractor. A bond listed as Until Canceled is the standing bond; insurance with a coverage amount tells you their liability limit.

What each record has

Field	Meaning
recordType	general / insurance / bond / principal / aggregate
contractorLicenseNumber	The 12-char L&I license number (join key)
businessName / ubi	Registered company name + WA UBI
licenseType / licenseTypeCode	Construction / Electrical / Plumbing / Elevator contractor
status	ACTIVE (75.8k) / EXPIRED / SUSPENDED / RE-LICENSED / OUT OF BUSINESS /
specialtyCode / specialtyDesc	L&I specialty scope (e.g. 01 GENERAL, CB PAINTING/WALLCOVERING)
city / state / zip / phone	Registered address + phone
licenseEffectiveDate / licenseExpirationDate	License term
insurance*	Insurer, policy no., amount, effective/expiration (insurance rows)
bond*	Bond firm, amount, effective/expiration, bondIsCurrent (bond rows)
principalName / principalStartDate	A principal behind the license (principal rows)

Every row type shares the same key set, so a profile's rows land in one clean dataset.

Typical questions it answers

• Does this contractor carry bond + insurance? - licenseNumber -> the profile. The fastest due-diligence check before hiring or writing a subcontract.
• What's a contractor's liability limit? - same profile, the insurance row's insuranceAmount.
• Who is behind this license? - the principal rows (principalName + start date).
• Who's registered in an area? - city=Seattle (or businessName, substring). A lead list of licensed contractors.
• What specialty is a contractor licensed for? - every row carries specialtyCode / specialtyDesc (L&I specialty scope). Specialty is returned, not a filter input, so narrow the list with city / licenseType / businessName and read it per row.
• How many active vs lapsed contractors statewide? - aggregate=true, groupBy=status.

Inputs

Input	What it does
licenseNumber	Exact 12-char license number -> full profile (the core tool). Any status license can be profiled; the sub-table rows shown are the ACTIVE bond/insurance on file
businessName	Company name substring (search mode)
ubi	Exact WA UBI number (search mode)
city	City substring (search mode)
licenseType	Construction Contractor / Electrical / Plumbing / Elevator (search + aggregate)
status	Default Active (the ~75.8k live slice); all / specific status for the full register
aggregate / groupBy	One row per license type or status instead of individual records
maxResults	Cap records pushed (default 50)
mode	profile / search / aggregate - auto-routed from the other inputs; rarely needed

Empty input returns a safe statewide summary: the count of active licenses by license type (also the daily-quality-test default).

Example inputs

A contractor's full profile - the exact 12-char license number returns the registration plus its current bond, insurance and principals.

{ "licenseNumber": "ECOSTSC758NN" }

Electricians in Seattle - city is a substring; licenseType picks the lane.

{ "city": "Seattle", "licenseType": "Electrical Contractor", "maxResults": 10 }

A company by name - businessName is a case-insensitive substring.

{ "businessName": "Merit", "maxResults": 10 }

The statewide type mix - aggregate returns one row per group instead of individual licenses; status=all opens it to the full register.

{ "aggregate": true, "groupBy": "licenseType", "status": "all" }

Low cost

From $0.001 per record - and each record is metered individually.

A contractor's "license" is actually scattered across four separate state tables (the registration, the insurance filings, the bonds, the named principals) - we rejoin them on the exact 12-digit license number into a single profile, then judge which bond is current rather than trusting the date column (WA mixes ISO dates, MM/DD/YYYY and a literal "Until Canceled" in the same field). You query one contractor file that already carries the current bond and insurance; the four-table reassembly and bond-date judgment stay on our side. Each profile caps at 3 insurance, 4 bonds and 8 principals - most recent first; a license can carry more history than the cap shows.

Example output

One license-type rollup - aggregate=true (the default groupBy=licenseType over the active slice) returns rows like this one:

{
  "platform": "wa-contractor-licenses",
  "source": "wa-li-contractor-license",
  "recordType": "aggregate",
  "contractorLicenseNumber": "",
  "businessName": "",
  "licenseTypeCode": "",
  "licenseType": "CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTOR",
  "status": "",
  "ubi": "",
  "specialtyCode": "",
  "specialtyDesc": "",
  "primaryPrincipalName": "",
  "city": "",
  "state": "",
  "zip": "",
  "phone": "",
  "licenseEffectiveDate": "",
  "licenseExpirationDate": "",
  "insuranceStatus": "",
  "insuranceCompany": "",
  "insurancePolicyNo": "",
  "insuranceAmount": 0,
  "insuranceEffectiveDate": "",
  "insuranceExpirationDate": "",
  "bondStatus": "",
  "bondFirmName": "",
  "bondAccountId": "",
  "bondAmount": 0,
  "bondEffectiveDate": "",
  "bondExpirationDate": "",
  "bondIsCurrent": "",
  "principalName": "",
  "principalStartDate": "",
  "groupCount": 68105,
  "groupPct": 89.7
}

groupBy=licenseType, status=all - the full register by license type (groupCount per group):

CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTOR   148.5k
ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR       9.2k
PLUMBING CONTRACTOR         3.1k
ELEVATOR CONTRACTOR          121

Data source & freshness

• Source: data.wa.gov - WA L&I Contractor License family (m8qx-ubtq General + ciwg-agsx Insurance + bzff-4fmt Bond + 4xk5-x9j6 Principal, Socrata SODA API, free public, no login). Same register as L&I's public license lookup.
• Coverage: 160,889 licenses - 148.5k Construction, 9.2k Electrical, 3.1k Plumbing, 121 Elevator; ~75.8k currently ACTIVE. Insurance on file 76.4k active certificates; 166k active bond rows (176.8k total bond history).
• Update cadence: L&I maintains the register live; the Socrata tables refresh continuously.