HomeFix Pro is a home repair and improvement site. It covers flooring, plumbing, electrical, walls and ceilings, insulation, windows and doors, and the tools that go with them — with the costs and quantities included, because those are the parts most guides leave out.
Who writes this
Guides are published under the byline Marcus Hale. That is a pen name for the site’s editorial voice, not a claim about anyone’s trade credentials.
We are not licensed tradespeople. Nobody here is a licensed electrician, plumber, or general contractor, and nothing on this site should be read as though we are. Where a job involves gas, the inside of a service panel, structural framing, or anything your local authority requires a permit for, we say so and tell you to get a licensed trade and pull the permit — rather than giving you a number that looks authoritative.
Where the numbers come from
Anywhere this site gives you a figure, we try to make its provenance obvious:
- Published standards are cited. The targets in our insulation calculator are the U.S. Department of Energy’s recommendations for existing wood-framed homes (DOE/CE-0180), not our opinion. Climate zones follow the 2021 IECC map.
- Our own estimates are labelled as estimates. Material costs are the obvious case. Prices move and vary hugely by region, so those ranges are deliberately wide and marked as materials-only.
- Rules of thumb are called rules of thumb. The 20–30% overage on rough lumber is a woodworking convention, not a standard, and the board foot calculator says so.
- Where we will not guess, we say why. The deck calculator counts boards, joists and fasteners but refuses to size a joist span, because span depends on species, grade, snow load and local amendments — and a wrong span is a deck failure, not a bad shopping trip.
The free tools
Five calculators, no sign-up, no email, nothing stored: insulation R-value, paint quantity, flooring boxes, deck materials, and board feet. Each one shows its method and sources at the bottom of the page so you can check the arithmetic rather than take our word for it.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, we want to know — particularly a number. Email info@thehomefixpro.com and point at the specific figure and page. Corrections get made to the page itself rather than buried in a comment.
Safety
Home repair advice can hurt someone if it is wrong. Read the safety notes in a guide before the steps, not after. If a job involves a gas appliance, a service panel, a load-bearing element, or anything you would need a permit for, treat this site as background reading and hire the relevant trade. Nothing here is a substitute for your local building department, and local code always wins over anything written on the internet.