The library · all free
One guide for each stage. Read the one you need tonight.
Every guide stands on its own, and every one ends with a worksheet built for the kitchen table. Put in your email and we send you the PDF. No price, no card.
Guide 1 · Before you hire
Before You Hire
Most homeowner problems start before a contract is ever signed. This guide gives you the checklist, the questions, and the red flags so you have leverage while you still have it. It also covers the kitchen-table sales conversation: how to recognize pressure, slow it down, and end a meeting without a signature.
7 chapters · Toolkit: Contractor Comparison Scorecard: fourteen things to verify, three contractors side by side · Questions to Ask Any Salesperson
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Guide 2 · Comparing bids
Bids, Estimates and Scopes of Work
A low bid is usually a short scope. This guide shows you how to lay three proposals side by side, find the gaps, and stop paying for assumptions.
8 chapters · Toolkit: Bid Comparison Sheet · Trade Gap Checklists for roofing, siding, windows and gutters
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Guide 3 · Insurance claim
The Insurance Claim Survival Guide
Insurance does not manage your project for you. This is the long guide, written for the night after the storm: what to do first, how the claim moves from the first call to the last check, and what the two checks mean.
8 chapters · Toolkit: 13-Step Claim Timeline · RCV and ACV Worksheet with blanks to fill in
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Guide 4 · Signing and paying
Contracts and Payments
The contract is where your protection lives or dies. This guide walks through deposits, payment schedules, change orders, and lien waivers, so you pay for work as it is done and never lose the leverage you started with.
8 chapters · Toolkit: Payment Schedule · Lien Waiver Tracker
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Guide 5 · During the work
Installation Quality
You do not need to be a contractor to know when a job is being done right. This guide shows you the checkpoints, trade by trade, and what to photograph before it gets covered up.
8 chapters · Toolkit: Photo Checkpoint Log
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Guide 6 · When something goes wrong
Problems, Disputes and Escalation
Most disputes are communication failures that hardened. This guide gives you the order of operations: who to talk to, what to put in writing, and when it is time to bring in a third party.
8 chapters · Toolkit: Problem Resolution Map
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Guide 7 · Close-out
Close-Out and Warranties
The last ten percent of a project protects the other ninety. This guide covers the walkthrough, the paperwork you must collect, and how warranties really work, including who you call in year six.
8 chapters · Toolkit: Close-Out Checklist · Warranty Registry
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Guide 8 · Storm season
Storm Ready: Hail, Wind and Winter
Written for the places where the damage arrives as hail, wind and ice. How to tell damage from wear, what to document before the season, and what to know before you call your insurance company.
8 chapters · Toolkit: Do I Have Damage? Inspection Sheet · Pre-Season Documentation Checklist
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Four free things. No card, no salesperson.
Take what you need tonight. Each one is a checklist or a page you can use before you talk to anyone.
The eight guides
One guide for each stage of the job, free to read here and free as a PDF with your email.
Read the guidesThe storm damage checklist
Do I Have Damage? Inspection Sheet: what hail and wind mark, what wear looks like, and the photos to take.
Get the checklistThe 17 lines every exterior bid should answer
The scope list on one page. Lay any estimate next to it and see what is not stated.
Get the scope listDoes your roof breathe?
Attic airflow in plain language, the 1/150 rule, and the six ventilation questions to ask any roofing bidder.
Check the airflowBids in hand? Compare them free.
Send two or three contractor bids. We read each one into the same seventeen lines, mark what it states and what it leaves out, and print the questions to ask. Free for one project.