About HomeServicesBook
We publish city-level guides for four home services — plumbing, roofing, water damage restoration and appliance repair — covering 450 cities across the United States. This page explains how they are written and what we refuse to publish.
Who publishes these guides
These guides are published by HomeServicesBook as general information for homeowners. They are summaries written for orientation. They have not been inspected, certified or signed off by a licensed contractor, insurance adjuster, engineer or other professional, and they are not professional advice. The “updated” date on a page shows when its text last changed; it is not the date of an independent review.
We do not publish invented author biographies, invented professional credentials, or reviews and ratings that a real customer did not leave.
Where to check the local details
The local notes on each page (climate, terrain, water supply, housing) are general summaries and can be wrong for a particular street or property. For authoritative figures, use these public sources and your own city, county or utility:
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information — historical climate normals, precipitation and temperature records. ncei.noaa.gov
- NOAA Storm Prediction Center — hail, tornado and severe-thunderstorm climatology. spc.noaa.gov
- FEMA Flood Map Service Center — designated flood zones and base flood elevations. msc.fema.gov
- EPA Safe Drinking Water — drinking-water standards, hardness and contaminant guidance. epa.gov/sdwa
- USGS Water Science School — groundwater, aquifers and water-supply science.usgs.gov
- International Residential Code (ICC) — residential construction, roofing and electrical code requirements. iccsafe.org
- USGS Geographic Names Information System — official place names.usgs.gov
How we handle cost figures
Cost ranges on these pages are planning ranges, not quotes and not prices charged by anyone in particular. They exist so a reader can tell whether an invoice is plausible. A quote can only come from a contractor who has seen the job, and every page says so. Where we do not have city-specific pricing, we use a broad national range and label it as such rather than inventing a local number.
What we will not publish
- Star ratings, review counts or testimonials that do not come from a real customer.
- Awards, badges or "best in town" claims we cannot evidence.
- Guarantees, free-estimate offers or price promises made on a contractor's behalf.
- Invented credentials, or a named expert who has not actually reviewed the page.
- A specific local price presented as what you will be charged.
How this site works
HomeServicesBook is a referral directory, not a service provider. When you call a number on this site you are connected with our customer service team, who can dispatch a service professional in your area. We are not the contractor, and we do not control their pricing, scheduling or workmanship — which is why we describe what a job typically involves and let you compare quotes yourself.
Corrections
If a fact on one of our pages is wrong for your city, tell us and we will correct it. Local conditions vary street to street, and a page that generalises beyond what the public record supports is a page we want to fix.