How we research and update our guides
Fixerlane’s cost guides, service pages, homeowner guides and software comparisons are written by the Fixerlane editorial team. This page says where what they contain comes from, what we will and will not print, and how a page is kept current.
Reviewed and updated by the Fixerlane editorial team · How we research
Who writes the pages
The pages are signed “Fixerlane editorial team” because that is who writes them. We do not put a made-up name or credentials on a page to make it look more authoritative. The pages are written for the person hiring, not as instructions for licensed work: where a job needs a licensed pro, they say so rather than explain how to do it.
Where the advice comes from
- Safety and standards come from public bodies — the EPA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the CDC, the Department of Energy, state licensing boards — and from trade associations where they publish consumer guidance. Each one is linked on the page, with the date that page shows, in a sources list at the foot.
- Advice is called advice; law is called law. A publisher’s recommendation is not presented as a rule, and a rule is quoted from the body that makes it.
- Licensing and permits differ by state, and often by city. The pages say what to ask and where to check rather than stating one rule for the whole country.
Where the prices come from
Fixerlane does not set prices and has no price data of its own — the businesses listed here quote their own work. Every figure in a cost guide is another publisher’s range, shown with who published it, a link to the page and the date that page carried, and read from it on the date the guide shows.
- Figures are never averaged or blended into a Fixerlane number.
- Where two publishers disagree, the guide shows both and says so.
- Service pages and homeowner guides describe what moves a price; a guide that quotes a figure takes it from a cost guide, with the same publisher named beside it.
- A figure whose source page has moved or changed is corrected or removed, not left standing.
Where the listings and local figures come from
Directory listings are compiled from public sources. A business can claim its listing to run it itself, or ask for it to be removed. Counts on a city page — how many businesses, how many run their own listing, how long they have been trading — are worked out from those listings, and describe the listings rather than the whole local market.
A local share or median is printed only when at least 10 listings in that city state the figure it is drawn from. Below that, a page either leaves it out or gives the national figure and says it is national.
Ratings, review counts and “verified” marks from other platforms are not shown. The only badges on a listing are earned from documents Fixerlane staff reviewed, and they come off when a document expires. Results are not for sale: a business cannot pay to appear above another.
Software comparisons
Fixerlane sells software to the businesses it lists, so its comparisons with other products are written by an interested party, and they say so. Competitor prices and features are read from each vendor’s own website on the date the page shows and linked; where a vendor does not publish something, the page says “not published” rather than guessing.
How pages are kept current
- Each page shows a “Reviewed and updated” date: the last day its copy and its sources were read through. Search engines get the same date.
- Cost figures are re-read from their publishers at least once a year, and sooner when a publisher’s page changes.
- Listing counts and lists update as listings are added, claimed, edited or taken down; those pages carry no review date because they are not written copy.
If something is wrong
Tell us through the contact page — a wrong figure, a dead source link, a rule that has changed in your state. We check it against the source, correct the page, and move its date.