Editorial policy
Sourcing hierarchy
Tier 1 — regulators and standards bodies: EPA, OSHA, the eCFR, state air districts, state licensing boards. Tier 2 — manufacturer colour pages and technical data sheets, which are the authoritative source for LRV, coverage, dry and cure time and application conditions. Tier 3 — third-party cost surveys and trade publications, used only for estimates and always attributed by name.
A page classified as legal or regulatory may not cite Tier 3 sources alone. That is enforced by the build, not by good intentions.
Risk tiers
R3 (legal/regulatory) — lead rules, VOC limits, licensing. Requires a primary regulatory source and a dated jurisdiction notice on the page. R2 (safety/damage) — respirators, application conditions, work on pre-1978 substrates. Requires an EPA, OSHA or manufacturer source. R1 (general) — colour, sheen, product, cost.
How LRV is sourced and computed
Set out in full on the colour methodology page, including the measured divergence between our computed values and manufacturers' published ones.
What we decline to publish
We do not publish figures we have not retrieved. Specifically: RRP penalty amounts (inflation-adjusted annually), VOC limits in grams per litre, and state licensing thresholds. Where a reader needs one, we name the agency that holds it. A confidently wrong number is worse than an honest gap.
Application specifications
Coverage, dry time, recoat time, cure time and temperature limits are product-specific. We cite the manufacturer's technical data sheet or we say the figure is a general industry starting point. We do not present one as the other.
Review cadence and corrections
Every page carries a visible last-reviewed date. Regulatory pages are reviewed when the underlying rule changes and at least annually. To report an error, email [email protected]. Corrections are made on the page with the date noted.
AI-use disclosure
Automated tooling is used to process keyword data, derive colour values from manufacturer hex, and generate the site. Factual claims are written and checked against the sources listed on each page. No page is published from generated text that has not been checked against its cited source.