Every factual claim on this site — a licence threshold, a fee, a bond amount, an experience requirement, an exam rule — is taken from the body that sets it. Not from another article, not from a summary, and not from memory. This page explains exactly how that works, so you can judge whether to trust what you read here.
Where our figures come from
We use two kinds of source, in this order:
- The state licensing board. Its own published pages, forms, fee schedules and handbooks. This is the authority and it is what we cite.
- The statute or administrative code. Where a board’s page is ambiguous or silent, we go to the underlying law — for example NRS and NAC Chapter 624 in Nevada, or Chapter 87 in North Carolina.
That is the whole list. We do not take figures from other guides, from exam-prep providers, from licensing services, or from AI-generated summaries. Those sources are often right, but when they are wrong the error propagates silently, and we would have no way of knowing which of our numbers came from one.
What the verification date means
Every licensing page carries a line like this at the top:
Last verified against the Nevada State Contractors Board on 6 September 2026.
That is not a publication date and it is not a “last modified” timestamp that changes when we fix a typo. It is the date a person last checked the figures on that page against the board’s current published material.
We use it instead of a publication date because it answers the question you actually have, which is not “when was this written” but “is this still true”.
How often we check
Every state page is re-verified at least once a year, and sooner when we become aware of a change — a new fee schedule, a legislative session that touched the licensing statute, or a board notice.
Licensing rules move more than people expect. Fees are adjusted, thresholds are raised, bond requirements are restructured, continuing education hours change. A guide that is never revisited becomes actively misleading, and the reader has no way to tell.
Where sources disagree or go quiet
Sometimes a board’s own pages conflict with each other, or a figure appears in the statute as a cap rather than the amount actually charged. We handle that two ways.
Where a figure is a statutory maximum rather than a confirmed current charge, we label it as such rather than presenting it as the price. Where a board publishes no figure at all — processing times, for instance, which several boards decline to estimate — we say that the board does not publish one, instead of substituting a number from somewhere else.
We would rather tell you a thing is unclear than give you a clean answer that turns out to be wrong at the counter.
Who checks what
Licensing and procedural content is verified against the issuing board.
Anything discussing insurance — what a policy covers, what it costs, what a state requires — is additionally reviewed by Tyler Williamson, a licensed property and casualty insurance agent in North Carolina, whose name appears on the pages they have reviewed.
Corrections
When we find an error, we correct the page and update its verification date. We do not silently edit and leave the old date standing, because that would make the date worthless.
If you find something wrong — especially if you are a contractor who has just been through the process and hit something we did not describe accurately — write to bondedtrades@gmail.com. We would rather be corrected than be wrong.
What this is not
Verification means we checked our figures against the board on the date shown. It does not make this legal advice, it does not make us the board, and it does not guarantee your application will be treated the way a general guide describes. Confirm the specifics with the board before you file.