Methodology

This page explains how listings and pages on RentYard Finder are produced. It is written so journalists, researchers and yard owners can understand (and cite) our process.

1. Open map data, not scraped Google results

Listings start from two open datasets:

• OpenStreetMap (ODbL) — shops and amenities tagged as tool or construction equipment rental.
• Overture Maps Places (CDLA-Permissive-2.0) — places in equipment-rental categories, excluding records marked permanently closed, low-confidence records, and non-equipment categories (party, boat, bike, vehicle rental, and similar).

We merge duplicates when the same business appears in both sources. We do not scrape Google Maps or invent addresses. Full license notes are on Data sources.

2. What each listing shows

A typical listing card shows name, city/state, and when available street, phone and website — plus an Unverified badge. Optional “Website checked” labels appear only when we successfully fetched that yard’s own public website and the page text mentioned renting. Machine types named on a website are attributed to that fetch date and may be company-wide, not location-specific.

3. What we never invent

• Hourly, daily or weekly prices
• Star ratings, review quotes or “best of” rankings based on fake data
• Machine stock at a specific branch unless the yard’s own site states it (and even then we label the source and date)
• Hours, delivery fees or insurance terms we have not read on the yard’s site

4. Page generation rules

• State and city pages list every yard we have for that place.
• Machine × city pages are only generated for cities with at least 3 listed yards, to reduce thin pages. Those pages still list the city’s yards; they do not claim every yard stocks that machine.
• Guides, price guides, comparisons and tools are hand-written general guidance. Price guides explain cost factors; they do not publish invented dollar ranges.

5. Census context

State pages and the data hub show U.S. Census County Business Patterns establishment counts for NAICS 532412 (construction, mining and forestry machinery and equipment rental and leasing). Those counts are public domain and are shown next to our listed counts so gaps are visible.

6. Corrections and claims

Yard owners can claim a listing or add a missing yard via our forms. Human review is required before we change the Unverified badge. See the editorial policy.

Current open-data listing count: 7,319.