Editorial standards

Independence

Advertisers, timber yards and builders do not sign off copy. If a piece mentions a product or a firm because someone paid for the mention, the link is marked rel="sponsored" and the prose says so. Guest essays follow the same rule; see write for us.

Sources

We prefer documents a reader can check: the National Construction Code, AS 1684 residential timber framing, AS 3959 for bushfire, state planning instruments, and manufacturer data sheets. Where we rely on a tradesperson’s experience, we say it is experience, not a code clause. We do not invent quotes.

Australian English and place

Colour, metre, aluminium, organisation. Council names and climate zones are written as a household would use them. A piece set in Cairns does not pretend the detailing works unchanged in Hobart.

Corrections

If a fact is wrong, we correct it in the article and note the change when the error would have changed a decision — a span table, a BAL rating, a chemical warning. Send evidence through contact. We do not silently rewrite history for tone.

Safety

Nothing here is a substitute for an engineer, a certifier or a licensed builder. Where a job is notifiable or needs a development consent, we say so and point to the relevant hub rather than offering a workaround.

Pictures

Photographs are Creative Commons or public domain, self-hosted, and credited on the page and on image credits. We do not crop a credit off someone else’s labour.