Most cost content online is a national average with a city name pasted in. This page is the method behind ours: where each figure comes from, the gate it passes before it ships, who writes the guides, and what happens to your information if you ask for quotes.
Where the numbers come from
Every guide starts as a fact packet. We collect published figures first (city fee schedules, state code, Census and NOAA tables, carrier and contractor pricing pages, dated industry studies) and record each one next to the page it came from. The draft comes after that, is written from that packet, and the packet becomes the Sources list at the bottom of the page.
- Ranges instead of false precision. A roof, a furnace, a move: each is a range that depends on the job, so we publish the range and the factors that move it inside it.
- Studies stay separate. When two studies disagree, both print with their methodology named. We don't blend them into one averaged figure that belongs to nobody.
- Estimates are labeled as estimates. A published range is calibration for reading a bid. Your quote is the number that binds.
The gate every number passes
Before a guide ships, it goes through a mechanical check: every dollar figure and every percentage in the draft has to appear in that page's fact packet. A number that is not in the packet fails the gate, and the draft does not publish until it is either sourced or cut. The same check runs again whenever a guide is revised.
This is deliberately dumb and deliberately strict. It cannot judge whether a claim is well argued. What it can do is make it impossible for an unsourced figure to slip onto the page quietly, which is the failure mode that matters when the whole site is numbers.
Who writes them
- AI-assisted drafting, human-verified facts. We use AI tools to assemble drafts from the fact packet we research first. Every figure, permit rule, and claim is checked against its source before publishing, by a person, on the cited page. Claims that can't be verified get cut.
- No invented bylines. There is no fictional "Sarah, roofing expert since 1998" on this site. No individual reviewer is named yet, so guides carry the publisher instead: QuestTracking, Quest Collective LLC, Meridian, Idaho. The day a named person reviews these pages, that name appears on them, and not before.
- Nobody buys a placement in a comparison. Company comparisons are built from published, checkable facts. Paid slots are labeled as paid and sit outside the comparison, and no star ratings are collected or shown.
Dates
The date on a guide is the last time its facts were reviewed against their sources. No script bumps it. When several guides are checked in one pass they carry the same date, because that is what happened. We don't stagger dates to look busier than we are.
What happens when you ask for quotes
The quote forms are the one place this site collects anything, and the consent record is built to be auditable after the fact.
- Your ZIP and the service decide who may contact you. The form looks up the companies covering that ZIP for that service and prints their names in the consent sentence before you agree to anything.
- The box starts empty and the button stays closed. Consent is never pre-checked, and the form cannot be submitted until you check it yourself.
- The exact sentence you agreed to is stored with the request. The text as it appeared on your screen, not a pointer to a policy page somewhere else.
- If the company list changes while the page is open, consent restarts. The server re-derives the sentence when the request arrives; if it no longer matches what you saw, the request is rejected and the form asks you again with the current text.
- Text and email permissions are separate. They are their own optional boxes, and leaving them empty does not block your quote request.
- Your request goes to the companies named in that sentence. It is not resold to anyone else, and consent records are not deleted.
How the site pays for itself
Quote requests, affiliate links, and labeled paid listings. The full breakdown is on the disclosure page. Nothing on that list changes a published range or the order of a comparison.
Corrections
Spot a wrong number or a stale permit rule? Email us. Corrections ship fast, and the updated date changes when they do.