Editorial policy
This applies across all four perils: water, fire and smoke, mold, and biohazard.
The four emergency rules Link to this section
These render above the heading on every page where they apply, cannot be dismissed, and are built without JavaScript so they appear even on a failing connection.
- Water and electricity. Standing water in a room with outlets, appliances or a panel: do not enter.
- Structure holding water, or fire-weakened. A bulging ceiling is holding weight. After a fire, wait for the fire department to release the structure.
- Carbon monoxide and smoke inhalation. Get everyone and every pet outside, then call 911 from outside.
- Biohazard exposure. Sewage, blood, or other potentially infectious material is not cleaned without training and protective equipment.
The framework disciplines Link to this section
- Never answer a water question without establishing the category.
- Never answer a smoke question without establishing the residue type.
- Never answer a coverage question without naming the peril and whether the water was internal or external.
Guidance without those is not merely imprecise. It is dangerous, because the answer genuinely differs.
The compound-loss discipline Link to this section
Every event page and every professional-required peril page states which downstream perils the loss produces and roughly when. A fire page that does not mention suppression water and mold has failed the reader at exactly the point other sites fail them.
The tone mandate Link to this section
On any page touching death, injury or displacement: no sensational language, no trauma or disaster imagery anywhere on this site, person-first and dignity-preserving language, crisis resources above the fold, no urgency mechanics anywhere, and cost content that never reads as extraction.
Sourcing hierarchy Link to this section
- Tier 1 — FEMA/NFIP, state insurance departments, EPA, CDC, OSHA, NFPA, DOT/PHMSA, state licensing boards, NOAA.
- Tier 2 — IICRC standards, RIA, ASHRAE, Insurance Information Institute, manufacturer technical documentation.
- Tier 3 — cost-estimate aggregators and industry blogs, for estimates only and always attributed.
Restoration-company and public-adjuster content is Tier 3 and incentive-distorted in opposite directions. We never source a coverage claim, a category or residue-type determination, or a “this must be removed” claim from either.
Legal, regulatory and insurance claims require a primary source and carry a dated jurisdiction notice. Safety and health claims require a Tier 1 or Tier 2 source. Health claims come from CDC, EPA and OSHA only, and nothing on this site diagnoses anyone.
What we will not publish Link to this section
Procedures for Category 2 or 3 water, smoke or soot cleaning, mold beyond the EPA small-area guidance, or any biohazard. Instructions for using ozone in an occupied space. Any prediction of a claim outcome. Any advice on whether to sign an assignment of benefits. Any cleanup instruction on a trauma or unattended-death page.
No franchise affiliation Link to this section
We do not name the site after, imply affiliation with, or build pages targeting any restoration franchise mark. Our build fails automatically if a franchise mark appears in the domain, brand name, any page title, any heading, our organization schema, or any body copy.
Review, corrections and AI use Link to this section
Every page shows a named author and a visible review date. Pages that require professional work or carry a safety warning also show a named safety reviewer; pages touching death or displacement show a named sensitivity reviewer.
Corrections are made on the page, with the review date updated. Substantive corrections are noted.
AI use: we use AI tooling in drafting and in the build pipeline. Every page is reviewed by a named human before publication, and no page touching safety, health, insurance or a sensitivity topic is published on machine output alone. Spanish pages are human-authored localisations, never machine translations — an English page is not published until a genuine Spanish localisation exists for it.