The Rules We Publish By
One page, so you can check us against it. This is the standard our editor enforces, the sourcing rule our writers work to, and our position on the things home blogs usually leave vague: affiliate money, AI, and corrections.
- Written by named people
- Sources on every claim
- Corrections dated and visible
Who writes this site
Every guide carries the byline of a real person on our team, and every one is reviewed by our editor before it publishes. We do not publish under invented personas, house pen names, or a generic “HomeNerdy Team” byline used to hide who actually wrote something.
- 3 writers and 1 editor, all named on the About page
- Every guide has a byline; every byline is a person
- Guest contributions are labelled as guest contributions
The sourcing rule
In descending order of what we will accept:
- Manufacturer documentation
Product manuals, care instructions, safety data sheets and official service intervals. The strongest source for anything about a specific appliance or material.
- Standards and regulators
The EPA, OSHA and the relevant national equivalents, plus recognised trade associations. Used for anything with a safety or health consequence.
- Professional consensus
What licensed plumbers, electricians and cleaning specialists consistently recommend, where the documentation is silent.
- Documented user outcomes
The weakest tier, used only for things like “this is a common mistake”, and always labelled as reported rather than established.
Where a method is widely practised but has no source in any of those four tiers, the guide says exactly that. We would rather print “this is common practice but not formally documented” than imply an authority that does not exist.
Language rules
These exist because overclaiming is the most common way home advice does damage.
| We do not write | We write | Why |
|---|---|---|
| This always works | This works on most sealed surfaces; see the exceptions below | Absolute claims are almost always false, and they are the ones that ruin worktops |
| Guaranteed to remove any stain | Effective on fresh water-based stains; set-in oil usually needs a solvent | Real results depend on the material and how old the mark is |
| We tested this | Commonly recommended by manufacturers, per their care guidance | Only Nerdy Reviews may claim hands-on testing |
| Experts agree | The EPA recommends, and names the document | An unnamed expert is not a source |
Safety
We would rather over-warn than under-warn, and we accept the cost in readability.
- Protective equipment is named where a job needs it, not implied
- Chemical combinations that produce toxic gas are called out explicitly, even in guides where nobody would obviously try them
- Every guide has a “stop and call a professional” threshold with a concrete trigger, not a vague “if unsure”
- Anything involving gas, mains electricity or structural work defaults to calling a professional
Our position on AI
We do not publish machine-generated articles. Not as drafts polished by a human, not as “AI-assisted” guides, not under a real byline. A generated article cannot tell you where its claims came from, which makes it exactly the thing this site exists as an alternative to.
We also do not accept AI-generated guest submissions, and we check.
Where we do use software is the boring end: spelling, checking a link still resolves, and flagging a guide that has not been reviewed in a while. None of that writes a sentence you read.
Affiliate disclosure
Some product links on this site are affiliate links, mostly Amazon. If you buy through one we earn a small commission and you pay the same price. This is disclosed on the pages that carry them, and it is how the site is funded.
- A product is never included, ranked higher, or described more kindly because it earns more
- We name the cheaper option when it performs nearly as well, and we lose money doing it
- No brand has ever paid for placement here, and we do not accept sponsored posts
- We do not run affiliate links inside safety warnings
Corrections and updates
A correction goes on the guide that was wrong, dated, saying what changed. Substantive corrections are never made silently.
Routine updates, where a guide is still accurate but has been refreshed, are shown as an updated date. We do not re-date an unchanged guide to make it look current, which is a common trick and a dishonest one.
- Safety corrections are made the day we learn about them
- The correction note stays on the page permanently
- If a guide can no longer meet this standard, we unpublish it rather than leave it up
Think a page on this site breaks one of these rules?Tell us which page and which rule. Safety issues jump the queue.
Contact the editor