How We Work, and What This Guide Will Not Sell

The method behind these pages, the things this guide refuses to do, and the gap a guide like this can fill for a reader deciding on exterior work.

Start from one question, then the sources

Every page starts from one question a homeowner or a buyer is stuck on. We find the sources that bear on it, read them through before writing, and keep only what they say. When a figure goes on a page, its source goes beside it. Where a source could not be opened, the page says so rather than filling the gap.

Where sources disagree, the page sets out the difference instead of picking the answer that reads best. A page that cannot answer its question honestly says so and points elsewhere. The method is short: one question, the sources, a comparison, and a plain statement of what is still unknown.

A lifetime warranty is not a lifetime promise

Many people read the word lifetime on a shingle package as a promise about the roof's whole life. The published terms say something narrower. According to Fine Homebuilding's article on how long an asphalt roof lasts, a "lifetime" shingle warranty is prorated after the first ten years, so the owner pays a growing share as the roof ages. The warranty is not a guarantee of the shingle's full lifespan, and a reader should check the terms of the product actually on the roof.

What is never for sale on these pages

This guide does not rank trades, businesses or products, and it publishes no reviews or testimonials. It does not sell a placement and present it as advice. It makes no first-hand claim about anyone it points a reader to. A link here means a reader can check what a business offers, not that the owner has used it or seen its work.

A commercial roofer in a hard hat checking roof drains on a flat rooftop — A roofer checks drains on a flat roof. This guide describes this kind of work and does not grade the people who do it.

What this guide offers that a directory listing does not

One question per page

A reader can see what each page is for before reading it. Where a page cannot answer its question, it says so and points on.

Figures with their sources

Each figure names where it came from. Where the source carries a date or a caveat, the page prints that too, and a figure with no source is left out.

Gaps stated rather than filled

Where the sources give no number, the page leaves the gap open and says why. The reader can still act on what is there, and can see which questions to put to a building department, a lender or an inspector before any work starts.

A worker welding a seam on a roofing membrane with a hot-air tool — A seam being welded on a membrane roof, a commercial job that appears on these pages only as a description.

If you are weighing one exterior problem now, start with the decision helper on the Resources page. It asks where the water shows up and prints its reasoning under the answer.