Skip to main content
Hammer & Hearth

How we research

Where our figures come from, what we refuse to publish, and how to check a contractor without taking our word for any of it.

Why this page exists

This site used to publish a 4.8-out-of-5 rating from 127 reviews. No such reviews existed. It showed eleven customer testimonials with names, suburbs and dates, all of them invented. Its cost pages carried statistics that contradicted each other — the same “Austin premium” appeared as 12–18%, 15–20% and nearly 25% on different pages — and it recommended structural engineers by name with fees attached, including one firm that operates in a different state and another we could not find any trace of.

All of it is gone. None of it should have been published, and the standards below exist so that it does not happen again. Removing it cost the site most of what it had; publishing it cost readers something worse.

What we hold ourselves to

Every figure has a source, or it does not run

Cost ranges are our own estimates assembled from the published sources listed on the cost page. Where we could not source a figure we removed it rather than rounding it into something that looked researched. That is why you will not find an "Austin costs X% more than the national average" line here: the number could not be substantiated, and the versions circulating online contradict one another.

We publish the gaps, not just the findings

On the companies page, "not stated" appears wherever a company does not publish something. It is the most useful cell in that table, because it converts a missing fact into a question you can put to them before you sign.

We do not perform repairs

Hammer & Hearth is a referral and information service. We have no crew, no premises and no equipment, and we do not take payment for work. Anyone who tells you otherwise about us is wrong, including us if we ever slip.

We do not collect or publish reviews

There is no rating on this site and no testimonials, because we have never run a review programme and any number we showed would be invented. Read reviews at their source, where you can see the reviewer.

Texas licenses no foundation repair contractor

There is no state licence for this trade, so nobody can hold one and no page here ranks companies on it. What you can verify instead is liability insurance with the insurer named on the certificate, City of Austin contractor registration, and — if an engineer signs your repair plan — that engineer on the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors roster.

Corrections stay visible

When a check shows we had something wrong, the correction is published next to the entry rather than quietly swapped out. The company comparison carries several, and every one of them was our error.

Who writes this

Hammer & Hearth is independently owned and run from Austin. The research here is desk research: public records, company websites, published cost data and Texas soil and permitting sources, all cited where they are used. We are not structural engineers and we do not inspect houses, which is exactly why every page ends by telling you to get three written quotes and put an engineer on anything structural.

How we make money

No company pays to appear in our research, to rank higher in it, or to have anything removed from it. Separately, if you ask us for a quote we introduce you to one vetted local partner who can do the work, and that partner may pay us a referral fee. The partner does not have to be a company we have written about, and the fee has no bearing on what we publish.

What we will not publish

  • A rating, a review, or a testimonial — we run no review programme, so any figure would be invented.
  • A price we cannot trace to a published source, or a quote we have not seen.
  • A named professional's fee, availability or quality, unless they have told us and we can show you where.
  • A market trend, index or forecast. We do not collect the volume of quotes needed to measure one.
  • A claim that any contractor is licensed for foundation repair in Texas. No such licence exists.

Check us, and check them

None of what follows requires trusting this site. These are the same sources we use, and they are free.

Found something wrong?

If a figure here does not match what a company publishes, or a source no longer says what we say it says, the company and the source are right and we are out of date. Tell us and we will re-check it. Our company comparison already carries several corrections, and our cost guide lists every source it draws on.

Get a Free Quote