Kirklanders looking to find the right contractor to perform work on their home or find out what work has been done on a prospective house can now do so.

Through the use of a permit mapping project, California-based BuildZoom allows users to find out what types of permits were applied for homes in the city as far back as 2010, as well as the contractor who performed the work. The searches can be narrowed down by the type, such as architecture, plumbing, roofing and electrical, and the budget.

The information is gathered through a variety of sources, including over 600 local permit departments.

According to co-founder Jiyan Wei, who started the company with David Petersen, they created the map to help homeowners make more informed choices about contractors they hire.

“Any contractor that is licensed we want to establish a work history,” he said. “We want to show where they have worked.”

He said it’s also useful for realtors,  as well as insurance companies, who are looking for additional information beyond that provided by the local tax assessor.

“They realize there is a gap in the real estate data that this fills,” Wei said.

Wei said they first thought of the idea after he purchased a house five years ago and hired a contractor to do work on it, but the work was done so poorly he ended up having to hire a second one to fix the problems.

“There wasn’t a good way to find out who’s out there,” he said. “There was no central authority where I could go and get reliable information and know how to make metric based decisions.”

The idea, he said, is that the information on the site allows homeowners to find out what had been done on a home.

“The consumer doesn’t know what goes into these sorts of projects,” he said. “They don’t always know what labor costs should be, how long it should take. What we’re trying to solve is information about the contracting business.”

Along with a free bidding system for work, BuildZoom also provides contractor score rankings, based on criteria such as the consistency of their permitting work, whether their license has been revoked or not, and their status with the Better Business Bureau. Wei said they also plan to add user feedback at some point.

To look up contractors in the Kirkland area, go to buildzoom.com/kirkland-wa.

To look up permits done in Kirkland, go to buildzoom.com/map/kirkland-wa.