Telling residential crews from commercial ones

It records what each company says about its customers on its own website, and nothing more. The site's crawler read company pages on 5 September 2026. For each customer type it found (homes, commercial buildings or industrial sites), it saved a short piece of page text. A profile shows the result as a line such as "Works for homes, commercial and industrial", marked "Says so on its own site".

The methodology page calls this part of the record what a company states about itself, "read by our crawler". It adds: "It is not a check of anybody's paperwork". Counted from what the site's crawler stored, the 770 records fall into 4 groups:

• residential work only: 70
• residential plus commercial or industrial work: 354
• commercial or industrial work, no residential: 33
• no customer type stated: 313

Silence does not mean no website. The last group holds 244 records with a web address, plus all 69 that have none.

It means the word appears on the company's pages, which is weaker than it sounds. Most companies that name homes also name businesses: the 354 mixed records outnumber the 70 residential-only ones by about 5 to 1.

The stored text often shows why. Many of the saved snippets are a menu or a tagline that lists "Residential" next to "Commercial" with only a comma, an ampersand or a space between them. A menu item shows the company wants both kinds of work. It does not show what share of its jobs are houses or whether the same crew does both.

Foundation work leans residential and floor polishing leans commercial. The table counts what the records in each of the site's 8 categories say on their own sites. A record can sit in more than one category, so the category rows add up to more than 770. Most category pages show a few fewer companies than these record counts, because they fold branch records that share one phone number into a single row.

In the Polished Concrete & Epoxy Floors category, 102 of the 134 records name commercial work and none names residential work alone. In the Foundations & Underpinning category, 27 of the 155 say residential only, the highest share of any category. For a house driveway, the Concrete Driveways category holds 102 records that name residential work, and 18 of them name nothing else.

Google's label, the one-line business type Google Maps shows for each company, is a second signal separate from the site's categories. Some labels track a customer mix more clearly than others (counted from the site's records):

• Flooring contractor (86 records): 64 name commercial work and 61 industrial, and none says residential only.
• Paving contractor (36): 27 name residential work and 27 commercial, and none says residential only.
• Waterproofing service (115): 19 say residential only, more than under any other label.
• Concrete contractor (254): 126 name residential work, but 120 state no customer type.

A flooring label next to a commercial statement suggests a company geared to larger floors. Many still name homes: 58 of the 86 flooring contractors do.

Reviews give a third, indirect signal, and ratings give almost none. The site matches stored Google reviews to themes, a word match that shows what reviewers wrote about rather than a count of jobs. Reviews on 61 records match a theme about commercial projects, and 44 of those companies also name residential work on their own sites. In the driveway category, reviews on 54 records match the theme of driveway jobs, and 40 of those 54 also name residential work.

Ratings do not separate the groups. Across the 703 records with a Google rating, the averages sit close together:

• residential only: 66 rated, mean 4.85
• residential plus other work: 332 rated, mean 4.81
• commercial or industrial, no residential: 30 rated, mean 4.84
• nothing stated: 275 rated, mean 4.72

A spread of 0.13 of a star says nothing useful about who will pour a better driveway. The guide to what best-contractor lists cannot tell you explains why ratings in this index bunch near 5.

The WSIB treats a business that only does home work differently from one that also takes other jobs. Its page on independent operators in construction covers a business that "only does home repairs or renovations on private residences". If the homeowner or resident hires and pays it directly, the page says "you do not need to be covered by us". The page adds: "However, you must still have coverage for your employees".

A clearance, in the WSIB's words, "shows that a business is registered and up-to-date with us". Its clearances FAQ says that when a contractor is hired for home repairs or renovations by "a home's resident, occupant or a member of their family", a "clearance certificate is not required". So on a house job the checking falls to you.

The WSIB's construction coverage FAQ limits the exemption to businesses "performing home renovation work only". This guide reads that to mean a company that names homes and businesses would not meet it, while a residential-only owner may have no coverage for themselves. Whether a driveway counts as a home renovation is a question for the WSIB.

Ask each company whether its WSIB account covers everyone who will work on your property. The clearances FAQ says you can search for a registered business "using our online service". The guide to choosing a concrete contractor covers proof of insurance.

The published prices checked for this guide show scale in minimum charges and product grade, and they come from companies that sell the work. Nice Guy Concrete calls itself "a full service commercial and residential concrete contractor". Its 2025 Ontario driveway guide says: "A minimum project investment of $5,500 applies regardless of size".

Monarch Epoxy Coatings lists standard solid epoxy at $5 to $8 per square foot installed. The same page says commercial-grade systems, designed for heavy-duty or industrial use, are typically priced between $10 and $15 per square foot. That suggests asking which product a quote prices, since a crew used to industrial floors may quote a heavier system than a garage needs.

Ask for the minimum charge and the specification in writing. The concrete driveway cost page lists sourced driveway prices, and the guide to small-job minimums explains why a small pour costs thousands.

Combine the signals, then let each company's answers decide. A workable order:

1. Start from the Concrete Driveways category or an area page such as driveway companies in Etobicoke.
2. On each profile, read the "What it states on its own website" block and look for "Works for homes". A commercial-only statement is a reason to ask, not to rule a company out.
3. Read the Google label and any review themes the profile lists.
4. Reach the company through its Google record or its own website, linked from the profile.
5. Ask each the same questions. How many house driveways did you pour this season? What is your minimum charge? Will your own crew do the pour? Does your WSIB account cover everyone on site?

The index holds no job history, crew size or timeline for any company, so those answers have to come from the companies, in writing.