How the checking works

No black box: this page describes exactly what the pipeline does, and the pipeline is the only thing that writes this site.

1. This site is not an estimate service

Nobody publishes a citable, state-specific price for a roof or a heat pump — local labor, materials and scope decide it. Sites that display “roof cost in your state” figures anyway are estimating, usually from undisclosed blends. This site refuses: it shows what citable sources actually say, labeled by what they are, and says “get local quotes” where nothing citable exists. The gaps ARE information.

2. Two kinds of figures, labeled differently

Official figures — rebate programs, tax credits — come from government pages and carry a verbatim quote plus the source URL. Named estimates come from commercial cost guides (Fixr.com, This Old House), are attributed by name, carry their fetch date, and are labeled as estimates everywhere they appear. The two are never mixed, and no figure is ever averaged, blended or invented by this site.

3. A machine re-checks every quote on every refresh

The pipeline re-downloads every cited page and verifies each stored quote still appears there. The date next to a figure is the last day the quote was actually re-found — not the day someone last felt like updating the site.

4. Lost evidence is flagged, never patched

If a quote disappears, the row flips to no citable figure — get local quotes the same day and the event lands in the change log. We do not guess the new number. A build gate also refuses to publish any dollar figure that does not literally appear inside its verbatim source quote.

5. What the honest markers mean

Many rows say no citable figure exists. Each says why: permit fees are set city-by-city (no statewide schedule exists to cite), some state rebate pages are not machine-fetchable, and some programs are funded but not yet open. The build-day attempts and errors behind every gap are recorded.

6. What this site is not

Not an estimate of your project, not tax or contracting advice, not a contractor ranking — no contractor is named or recommended anywhere. Verification proves what a source page says, not what your project will cost. City and county programs are out of scope and can be substantial.

Last full check: 2026-09-05. Sources cited: 21; fetch failures this run: 0.