Editorial policy

We publish information about roofs. We do not install them, inspect them, dispatch anyone to look at them, or sell your details to someone who will. That independence is the only asset this site has, so this page sets out exactly how we work and holds us to it.

Who writes here

Every page carries a named author with stated credentials and a visible last-reviewed date. Our authors are a roofing contractor, a former property claims adjuster, and a licensed professional engineer. Their backgrounds are on their author pages, and the pages each one is responsible for are listed there.

Nothing publishes anonymously.

The sourcing hierarchy

We tier every source and we say which tier a claim came from.

Tier 1 — primary. ICC model codes, state building departments, state departments of insurance, state licensing boards, OSHA, NOAA and the National Weather Service, FEMA, the Census Bureau.

Tier 2 — standards and manufacturers. UL, ASTM, the National Roofing Contractors Association, the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association, manufacturer installation instructions and product data, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, the Florida Building Commission.

Tier 3 — estimates, always labelled as such. Cost aggregators and remodelling cost reports.

Contractor-published content is the dominant source in this vertical and it has a direct commercial incentive to recommend replacement over repair and to read storm damage generously. We treat all of it as Tier 3, and we never source a “you need a full replacement” claim from it.

We also never cite one programmatic cost-guide site to another. The “average roof cost by state” content online is largely aggregators citing aggregators. We publish a range, name every source, and state our methodology instead.

Risk tiers

Every page is assigned a risk tier, and the tier decides what sourcing it must carry before it may publish. Our build fails if a page does not meet its tier.

R3 — legal and regulatory. Building code requirements, wind and impact mandates, permits, contractor licensing, insurance claim law, public adjuster regulation, contingency agreement enforceability. Requires a primary code, regulator or statutory source, and carries a dated Jurisdiction Notice.

R2 — safety and performance. Anything rated pro-only or caution, plus ventilation calculations, ice barrier requirements, fastener patterns and material specifications. Requires a manufacturer installation instruction, a code section, or a standards body.

R1 — general. Costs, material comparisons, brand information, aesthetics.

Our regulatory sourcing log records every R3 claim, the source it came from, and the date it was verified.

The safety verdict

Every page that touches a physical action carries one of three verdicts, directly under the heading and before the answer. The full criteria are published on the safety verdict policy page, because a rule that decides whether we tell you to climb a ladder should be public and should hold us accountable.

The short version: falls from roofs are a leading cause of fatal home-improvement injury. When we do not know the slope, the height, and the condition of the deck, the honest answer is “do not go up there”, and that is the answer we give. We do not soften a pro-only verdict for engagement, and we do not inflate a ground-level one into a reason to call somebody.

What we will not publish

• No procedures performed on a roof surface beyond the caution tier, and no HowTo markup on any of them.
• No fastener patterns, nailing schedules or installation specifications presented as instructions. We point at the manufacturer’s installation instructions instead, because deviating from them voids the material warranty, and that fact is more useful to you than the number.
• No claim that a specific damage pattern will or will not be approved by an insurer. We explain what adjusters generally evaluate. We never predict an outcome.
• No encouragement to file a claim. We explain how claims work and what the tradeoffs are, including that some carriers non-renew after claims. That neutrality is the point of the section.

Corrections

If something here is wrong, we want to fix it, and we would rather hear it from you than not. Write to the address on our contact page with the page and what is wrong with it. Substantive corrections are made in the page and the last-reviewed date is updated. We do not quietly edit a factual error and pretend it was never there.

Review cadence

R3 pages are re-verified against their primary source at least every twelve months, and sooner when a code edition changes. R2 pages are reviewed annually. R1 pages are reviewed when the underlying data moves.

Adopted code editions and state regulation go stale faster than anything else on the site, so those get checked first at every refresh.

Use of AI

We use language models as drafting and research assistants. Every published page is reviewed by the named author, every primary source is read by a person, and every figure traceable to a code, standard or regulator is verified against that source by a person before it publishes. No page publishes on a model’s say-so.

How we make money

Nothing on this site is monetised at launch. When it is, it will be display advertising and affiliate links on genuinely do-it-yourself-appropriate products — roof rakes, sealant, gutter guards, attic ventilation accessories.

Affiliate links will never appear on a pro-only page, anywhere in the insurance section, or on any fall-protection product. Those are enforced in the build, not left to good intentions. See our affiliate disclosure and advertising disclosure.

We do not sell leads. We do not accept payment for coverage, placement, or a favourable mention.