Editorial Contact
Punch List publishes no email address, telephone number or street address, and this page offers no form. It says what is worth sending, and which page usually answers a question before a note is needed.
Notes to a guide that does not sell roofs
We are an independent guide to the exterior jobs a Massachusetts house tends to need before a sale or after an inspection report. We do not carry out that work and we do not quote it, and nothing on this site is a trade's own brochure. That is the reason to read what we write, and the reason to be exact about what it cannot do.
Three kinds of note are worth sending. A correction, when a page says something the sources do not support. A question the pages missed, when you looked for an answer and did not find it. A topic you think should be covered next, with the house or the decision it would help with. Those three cover most of what we would want to hear.
If a page here is wrong, we would rather hear it than leave it standing.
If you are weighing one exterior job on your own house, start with the decision-helper on the Resources page. It asks the questions an inspector would ask first, and it says plainly that it cannot see your house.
What the site holds right now
- 12
- pages on this site, counting this one
- 5
- pages in the main menu
- 7
- pages on the rest of the list in the footer
Each count comes from this site's own navigation and page list. No outside figure is used.
Put the note together in this order
Name the page and the sentence it is about, so the note cannot be read as a general complaint. Then say what you checked and what you saw, in plain words, without guessing at what a part is made of or how old it is. Say which decision the note is for: a sale, an inspection report, or a repair already under way. The answer changes with that decision, and a note without it is hard to answer well.
Leave out the names and addresses of other people, and anything about a property you do not own. A note that stays on the question is easier to read and quicker to act on.
For a question about the work itself, the Common Questions page goes further than a short note can. A person who will inspect or quote the job can see your house in a way this site cannot, so take the question to them as well.
Questions readers get stuck on before they write
Can this site look at a particular roof?
No. This site cannot see a house, and a written note can describe a stain or a sag without standing in for an inspection. The decision-helper opens with the same caveat for the same reason.
Do you name a contractor?
This site does not rank businesses or list them as the best choice, and no page here does. If you want a name, ask the building department in your own town, or ask the people who will sign the contract which trade they recommend and why. Check any name you are given against the written contract requirements before you commit to a deposit.
Does the contract have to be in writing?
Yes, for owner-occupied homes of one to four units. Massachusetts requires a home improvement contract to be in writing, to carry the contractor's registration number and a scheduled completion date, and to limit the deposit to no more than one-third of the total price, with an exception for certain special-order materials. The statute is short and worth reading before a first meeting. General Laws, Chapter 142A, Section 2 sets it out in full.
Is a permit needed for the job?
Dracut's building permit guidance states the general rule that a permit is needed to alter or repair a building. The state building code exempts ordinary repairs, and a town's building department decides whether a given re-roof, siding or window job counts. The sourced material does not settle that for any town, so it is a question to put to your own building department before the work starts. The Town of Dracut's building permit page gives the general wording.