Adding LSA Categories Triggering Licensing/certification and reverification?

Hey everyone, quick question for the group because I feel like we just fell into a bit of an LSA rabbit hole and I’m curious how common this is.

We recently onboarded a client into Google Local Services Ads and went through the full Evident process already. Owners background checked, insurance verified, Google Guaranteed approved, everything cleared. Initially we only enabled residential carpet cleaning, which is the one residential service the client is willing to offer, and that went live without any issues.

This week we started adding additional categories, and that’s where things got interesting. As soon as we added categories like Flooring Pro (with job types like polishing/refinishing) and started planning others, it triggered re-verification and raised questions around additional licensing and certifications by county and service type.

What caught us off guard is that:

Even though the client is commercial and medical focused, LSA doesn’t let you separate commercial vs residential at the industry level
You can choose commercial-leaning job types, but the primary category still seems to drive licensing scrutiny
Evident didn’t ask for any of this during the initial Google Guaranteed verification, but adding categories later clearly changes the rules

Now we’re trying to navigate:

When Google actually requires home improvement licenses vs when job types are enough
How others handle clients who are commercial-first but have to live inside residential LSA categories
Whether people proactively stage categories or just wait to see what Google asks for.

Have any of you run into this after initial approval? Is this just “how LSA works,” or are there ways to structure category rollouts to avoid constant re-verification and licensing friction?

Would love to hear how more experienced LSA folks approach this, especially with cleaning, flooring, pressure washing, or similar crossover services.

I would be willing to pay for an audit or consultation to help us figure this out if needed. Thanks so much.

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