Editorial policy

Our guides are written for people dealing with damage right now. That means they have to be accurate, specific, and honest about what we don't know.

Where our information comes from

• Safety and cleanup: U.S. EPA mold and moisture guidance, CDC, American Red Cross, and the IICRC S500 water damage and S520 mold remediation standards.
• Insurance: each state's insurance code and claim-handling rules, its insurance regulator, and the National Flood Insurance Program. State guides cite the specific law where we've verified it.
• Costs: published national cost guides, cited on each page. We label ranges as national, not local quotes.
• County data: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey estimates and NOAA daily county weather data. See data sources and methodology.

How county pages are written

Every county page is generated from that county's own data. Each sentence that describes a county is tied to a number in its record: housing age, heating fuel, vacancy, freeze nights, heavy-rain days, humidity. If two counties read alike, it's because their numbers are alike. We don't add claims about a county that the data doesn't support.

Review

We're bringing on an IICRC-certified restoration professional to review our guides. Until then, every guide is checked against the primary sources listed at the bottom of the page.

Updates and corrections

We review guides at least once a year and when rules or data change. Each page shows its last review date. If you spot an error, email hello@localwatermold.com and we'll fix it.

Independence

We're paid for referrals (see how it works). Companies can't pay to change what our guides say, and we don't publish reviews or rankings of companies.