About CostGuideHQ
Independent cost guides for 125 US home-improvement projects. Two layers of numbers on every guide where we have them: a cited national range, and what 104,055 real building permits declared in US cities. Free, no sign-up, no pay-to-rank.
What we publish
- Cost guides. One page per project with a national range, cost factors, a calculator and FAQs. Every dollar figure traces to a listed source with a retrieval date.
- Permit cost data. Our own dataset, compiled from public building-permit records in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle and Austin. Median declared cost, middle-half range and permit count per city and project. Browse it or download the CSV.
How it is built
National figures are synthesised from published contractor-cost sources and cited on each guide. Permit figures are computed by our own scripts from city open-data portals using the rules on the methodology page, and re-compiled monthly. We never invent a number and we never copy another site's tables.
What we are not
- Not a contractor and not a lead-generation form. We do not sell your details to anyone.
- Not a quote. Declared permit values run below invoice prices, and national ranges are estimates. Get local quotes before you sign.
- Not sponsored by any source we cite or any contractor we mention.
Who runs it
CostGuideHQ is published by the CostGuideHQ editorial team, a small independent group that builds public-data reference sites. Contact: hello@costguidehq.com.