Our Data Methodology

Data Source

All contractor permit data comes from the NYC Open Data Sidewalk Sheds dataset, published by the NYC Department of Buildings. This dataset contains every sidewalk shed permit the DOB has on record, including the contractor name, borough, address, permit status, and job number. It is a public dataset maintained by the city and available to anyone.

We filter this dataset to include only sidewalk shed permits (permit subtype "SH"), which represent the core work of the scaffolding industry in New York City.

What "Permit Count" Means

Each contractor profile shows two permit counts: total permits and active permits.

• Total permits is the number of sidewalk shed permits linked to that contractor across all time, after merging duplicate records (see below). This reflects the contractor's overall volume of work with the DOB.
• Active permits is the subset of those permits where the DOB permit status is "ISSUED" (as opposed to "EXPIRED"). This gives a rough sense of how many jobs the contractor currently has open, though it depends on how recently the city has updated the dataset.

Because some contractors appear under multiple name variations in the DOB data (for example, "ABC Scaffolding Inc" and "ABC Scaffolding"), we merge these records before counting. The merge process strips common business suffixes like INC, LLC, CORP, and COMPANY, then groups contractors whose names match after normalization.

What "Borough Coverage" Means

Each contractor profile shows which NYC boroughs the contractor has active permits in. This is derived from the borough field on each individual permit record. If a contractor has at least one permit in Manhattan and at least one in Brooklyn, both boroughs will appear in their coverage list.

The "primary borough" shown on a contractor's profile is the borough where they hold the most permits. This helps building managers identify contractors who are most active in their area.

Contractor Inclusion Criteria

Not every contractor in the DOB dataset appears in our directory. We apply a minimum threshold of 25 total sidewalk shed permits (after merging). This filters out contractors who have only handled a small number of permits, which often indicates one-time operators, administrative entries, or businesses that no longer operate in scaffolding.

The 25-permit threshold is a practical cutoff, not a quality judgment. A contractor below this threshold may be perfectly competent but simply new to the industry or operating at a smaller scale. Building managers should always conduct their own due diligence regardless of where a contractor falls in our directory.

Business Details Enrichment

DOB permit data includes contractor names and sometimes phone numbers, but it does not include business addresses, websites, Google ratings, or review counts. To fill these gaps, we cross-reference each contractor against Google Maps business listings.

This matching process uses fuzzy name comparison to find the most likely Google Maps listing for each contractor. When a high-confidence match is found, we pull in the business address, website URL, Google star rating, and review count. Contractors that do not have a matching Google Maps listing will show limited contact information.

Google ratings and review counts are captured at the time of enrichment and are not live-updated. They represent a snapshot, not a real-time feed from Google.

Data Freshness

Our data is refreshed periodically by re-pulling the latest permit records from NYC Open Data and re-running the enrichment process. This is currently a manual process, not an automated daily sync.

The NYC Department of Buildings updates the Sidewalk Sheds dataset on its own schedule. Between our refreshes, new permits may be issued or existing permits may expire without those changes appearing immediately in our directory.

Limitations

• Contractors with fewer than 25 total permits are excluded. This may filter out newer or smaller operators.
• Name matching between DOB records and Google Maps is not perfect. Some contractors may show limited business details if their Google listing uses a significantly different name than their DOB permit filings.
• Permit status ("ISSUED" vs. "EXPIRED") depends on how recently the city has updated the dataset. An "active" permit in our directory may have expired since the last data refresh.
• Google ratings and review counts are snapshots from the time of our last enrichment, not live data.
• Our directory covers sidewalk shed permits only. It does not reflect other types of scaffolding work, general contracting, or other DOB permit categories.

Not Affiliated with NYC DOB

The Shed Registry is an independent project. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the NYC Department of Buildings or any other government agency. We use publicly available data published through NYC Open Data, which is accessible to anyone.

Contact for Corrections

If you are a contractor and your information is inaccurate or missing, or if you have questions about our data methodology, please contact us at adam@madaventuresllc.com. We review all correction requests and update records as needed.