Everything on this site is meant to be checkable. Here is how we build each page and how to tell us when we get something wrong.
Where facts come from
We go to the primary source whenever one exists: the city’s own fee schedule and code of ordinances, the county’s published policies, the Texas statutes, state agencies such as the Texas Real Estate Commission, the engineering board and the Texas Department of Insurance, the USDA soil surveys, NOAA climate records and U.S. Census tables. Each page lists its sources at the bottom with the date we checked them. When a city or history site would not load for us, we say so: those sources are marked search summary, which means we read them through search results and did not open the page itself.
When no primary source exists, we say so. The clearest case is price. No Tyler foundation company publishes its prices and no government or university keeps a cost dataset for East Texas, so our cost guide uses published prices from Texas contractors and engineers outside this market plus national cost guides, names each one, and labels every range an industry estimate.
What we will not publish
- A number we cannot trace to a source.
- A rule we could not read in the official text. When we could only find an unofficial copy of a law, the page says so.
- Reviews, testimonials, ratings or stories about customers. We do not have them and will not invent them.
- Claims about any company’s licenses, insurance or workmanship.
Homeowner questions
The questions in our FAQ sections come from real homeowners’ own words, taken from public forums and question sites, lightly edited only for spelling. The source threads are listed on each page.
Dates and updates
Each page shows the date its facts were last checked. Offices move, fees change and links break, so we recheck the load-bearing facts on a schedule and update the date only when we have actually checked.
Corrections
If something on this site is wrong or out of date, email [email protected] with the page and what you found. We correct confirmed errors and change the checked date.
What you read here is general background, not engineering, legal or insurance advice. For decisions about your house, talk to a licensed professional engineer, and for legal questions, a lawyer.