Editorial policy and how we review

Who writes and reviews

All guides on Below the Sill are written by Robert Stulpt and checked against their sources before publication. Guides on moisture, water and mold are based on Robert’s own work in Virginia. Content about the structure of a home, such as joists, beams, piers and foundations, is also reviewed by Daniel Mercer.

Sources

We start from primary sources: government agencies such as the EPA, the Department of Energy and the USDA Forest Products Laboratory, building codes, published studies, and manufacturer information when we discuss a product’s specs. We don’t repeat a sales pitch from a manufacturer or contractor as fact. All guides link to their sources.

Sources are used to back up what experience alone can’t: building codes and permits, official safety recommendations, figures and statistics, prices published by others, limits or standards attributed to an organization, and technical specifications. What Robert and Daniel have seen in their work is presented as their experience, and we keep the two apart. We will not attribute something to an agency unless the agency actually says it. If something falls outside their experience or area of expertise, we say so.

Building codes and permits

Building codes and permit requirements vary by location. We specify which code and edition we are referencing, for example, the 2021 Virginia Residential Code. We don’t present a code as if it applied to all of the United States.

Field examples and prices

Our field examples come from real jobs done by Robert or Daniel. We leave out anything that could reveal a customer’s identity or address. If an example is hypothetical, we say so.

Prices come from Robert’s and Daniel’s own work in Virginia, or from published information that we cite and date. They are estimates to help you budget, not quotes, and they can vary with location, access and the scope of the job.

How we use AI

We use AI tools for website development, for SEO research and to help prepare first drafts. Drafts are prepared under Robert Stulpt’s direction; he checks, corrects and rewrites them, and approves every guide before it is published. He is responsible for the content.

Images

Our diagrams are drawn for this website. They are schematic and not to scale. If we use an AI-generated image, we note that in the caption. We don’t use AI images to show damage or construction details.

Independence

Robert is a relative of Estefanía André Feijóo, who runs this website. He owns a remediation company in Virginia. Below the Sill does not send him customers or promote his company. Right now, Robert and Daniel pay the site’s costs with income from their own work. Robert and Daniel have worked on projects together in Virginia for more than 10 years. Daniel’s role on this website is editorial only.

Reviews and corrections

Some things in our guides can go out of date: prices, agency advice, building codes and local permit rules. We add a date next to figures that may age quickly, such as “Prices checked October 2026,” and we say where a published figure came from and when we checked it. Guides with the most time-sensitive information, such as our cost guides, are reviewed every few months. Guides that explain how things work, like how condensation forms, change less often.

Every guide shows the date it was last technically reviewed and who reviewed it. That date only changes when someone has gone back through the content technically, not when we change a word or an image.

If you come across an error, please let us know. Minor errors are simply corrected. If an error could change what a homeowner decides to do, for example about mold safety, electrical hazards or when it’s safe to enter a crawl space, we also check every page that repeats that information and note the correction on the page. If a source seems to contradict one of our guides, we first check whether the problem is the source, our interpretation or our wording. If our wording is wrong, we correct it.

What our contributors do and don’t do is explained in About our experts and contributors.