Our Work: the guides this site publishes

A guided index of what Punch List has written, what each piece is for, and where a first-time reader should start. It shows no projects, because the site has carried out none.

A list of what we have written, not a gallery of jobs

Punch List is a guide, not a contractor, so its body of work is the material itself. This page sorts that material so a first-time reader knows which piece to open first. There are no projects, jobs, before-and-afters or case studies here, because we have carried out no exterior work and will not show a gallery as if we had. What we have is a set of guides, each written around one question a buyer, a seller or a new homeowner brings to an exterior problem.

A list you can sort is more use to a buyer than a gallery of work we never did.

A clip of exterior crews, for orientation

Before the guides, this clip shows what exterior work on a house looks like from the outside. It is stock footage, not a job this site has done, and it is here to set the scene for the questions that follow.

Exterior contractors working on a house, from a Pexels stock clip by Özgür Sürmeli. It shows crews at work, not a job this site has carried out.

Start with the sort, then read the order of work

If one exterior problem is in front of you, open the decision helper on the Resources page first. It asks a short run of questions about where the water shows up and whether a sale or an inspection report is driving the decision, then prints a recommendation with its reasoning. It cannot see the house, so treat the result as a starting point. If a sale date is what you are working toward, the timing guide sets out how far ahead each job has to happen.

Hands on floor plans beside a laptop, a notebook and a cup of coffee on a marble surface — A stock photograph of desk work: plans, a laptop and a notebook. It is a picture of planning, not a project this site has carried out.

The guides on this site and what each one is for

Each guide answers one question and points to the page that holds the depth. Read them in whatever order your sale, inspection or repair puts first.

Decision helper: one exterior problem, ending in repair, replace, monitor or a second look, with the reasoning printed under it.
Practice Notes: a dated seasonal note on the roof edge and gutters before the first Massachusetts snow.
Timelines: the order and lead time for exterior jobs against a sale calendar.
Service Offerings: a plain tour of the exterior jobs a homeowner hears about.
Sectors Served: how the answer changes by kind of building, side by side.
Service Areas: whether the guidance applies where you live.
Common Questions: short answers, each sent on to the page or office that decides it.
Professional Background: how the site reads, checks and compares its sources.
How We Work: what this site will never do, and what it offers that a trade's own website does not.
Editorial Contact: how to write to the owner with a correction, a missed question or a topic.

The rules a reader comes back to check

For an owner-occupied home of one to four units in Massachusetts, a home improvement contract has to be in writing, carry the contractor's registration number and a scheduled completion date, and keep the deposit within one-third of the total price, with an exception for certain special-order materials. The rule sits in General Laws, Chapter 142A, Section 2, which is the place to check its exact wording.

If a contractor loses an arbitration award or judgment and does not pay, the state Guaranty Fund can pay an owner up to $25,000. That payment is only open to an owner who signed a written contract with a registered contractor, so hiring an unregistered one removes the backstop. The limit is set in 201 CMR 14.21, Payments from the Guaranty Fund.

For gutters, This Old House's guide to sizing gutters and downspouts gives a 5-inch K-style gutter a capacity of up to 5,520 square feet of drainage area under moderate rain, and about one square inch of downspout for every 100 square feet of roof. Steep pitches, valleys and heavy-rain areas can need more.