Editorial standards

These are the rules a page has to meet before it is published. They exist because most calculator sites publish a number without saying where it came from, and that is the failure mode worth avoiding.

1. Every tool states its formula

Not a description of the formula — the formula. If a page cannot show the arithmetic in a form a reader can reproduce on paper, it does not get published. This is why each calculator page has a "How this is calculated" section with the equation written out.

2. Every tool has a worked example

A specific input set, the output, and the hand calculation that produces it. The example doubles as a regression test: the published numbers are the numbers the automated test checks against.

3. Every tool says what it does not do

A limits section is mandatory. It is the most useful part of the page, because the failure mode of a calculator is not a wrong number — it is a number that looks authoritative outside the range it was built for.

The heading has to name what that page refuses to do, rather than carry a generic label. Someone who opens four calculators in a row should not read the same sentence four times, and a heading that would fit any of them is a heading that says nothing about any of them.

4. Code citations carry the clause number and the edition

Where a page cites the International Residential Code, it gives the section (for example R312.1.2) and the edition (2021). Where jurisdictions commonly amend the provision, the page says so instead of presenting the model code as the local rule.

5. Numbers that change are given as ranges

Lumber prices, installed costs and labour rates are ranges with the year attached, not single figures. A price presented without a date is a price that is wrong within a year.

6. No calculation of a decision that requires a design

This site will not compute a joist size, a beam span or a footing diameter. Those require a span table and, often, an engineer. Where a reader needs one, the page links to how to read the table rather than producing a number that cannot be justified.

7. Review dates are real

Every page carries a review date that reflects an actual read-through, not a build timestamp. If a page has not been re-read, the date does not move.

8. Corrections are public

When a published number turns out to be wrong, the fix goes on the corrections page with what was wrong and what it was changed to. Corrections are not quietly edited away.

9. No sponsored content, ever

Advertising does not appear on calculator pages and no payment changes a result. Where a page links to a product, the link is marked and the disclosure explains the arrangement.

10. One page, one question

Two pages targeting the same query compete with each other. Every page has one primary query, registered before the page is written, and pages are merged rather than duplicated when they overlap.

11. No heading is reused across pages

Functional headings are exempt: the formula block, the questions block and the section indexes keep the same name on every page, because a reader scanning for them wants the same label in the same place. Every other heading has to name the specific thing that page is about.

This is checked, not trusted. The build prints a warning if any non-exempt heading appears on three or more pages, which is how a template gets caught before it spreads.

What this page is not claiming

It is not a claim of professional authority. Nobody here is a licensed engineer, and the site does not present itself as one. What it claims is narrower and more testable: the arithmetic is shown, the examples are reproducible, and the limits are stated.

Questions people actually ask

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