About
How this site works
Plain-language guides for American homeowners: energy bills, repairs, gardens, pools, wood heat, septic, security, pests, outages and aging in place. This page exists so you can judge whether to trust what you read here.
Who writes it
One person. Adrián González Chico writes and edits everything here, and that page sets out what he is and is not qualified to tell you.
What we publish
Home & Porch is for people who own or run a house and keep meeting decisions with a price tag attached: a water heater that is failing, a quote for a new septic field, a pool that costs more than expected, a parent who can no longer manage the stairs. Most pages about these things are written by the companies that sell the fix. These try to explain the problem, the options and how the price is built, so you can judge a quote before you sign it.
How we handle numbers
Prices vary by region, by house and by year, so a single national figure would be wrong for most readers. We explain how a cost is built, what each part covers and which figures come from published sources. When we use a number we say where it came from and when we last checked it.
Sources and verification
We start with government agencies, public universities, official standards and primary product documentation. Manufacturer sources explain their own products and are identified as such. We distinguish sourced facts from example calculations, state assumptions, and check important numbers against the original source. Prices vary by place and date; an example is not a quote. An editor’s source review is not an independent clinical or engineering review.
Corrections
Pages carry an updated date when the content has materially changed. If something here is wrong, send the URL, disputed passage and supporting source to our editorial email. We check the evidence, correct confirmed errors and show a material update date.
Email the editor about a correction.
Advertising
This site is funded by display advertising. Advertisers have no input into what we cover or what we conclude. There are no sponsored articles or affiliate links.
Safety
Nothing here replaces a licensed professional who can see the house, your local building department, or the label on a product. Some subjects on this site carry real danger: carbon monoxide from generators and stoves, gases in septic tanks, pool drowning, pesticide misuse and falls. Each article that touches one says so, and in an emergency the right call is 911 or your local officials, not a web page.