Who writes this

Shade & Steam is written and maintained by Avishay Shabtai, from Davis, California.

I have built out two commercial premises from empty shells — permits, contractors, electrical, inspections, the lot. That is not the same as being a structural engineer or an electrician, and this site does not pretend otherwise. What it did teach me is how much of a build quote is the thing itself and how much is everything arranged around it, and how rarely the document that governs a decision is the document you are shown.

That is the whole premise here. Backyard structures are sold on marketing numbers and governed by code documents, and almost nobody puts the two side by side.

How the research works is written up separately, at Method. How the site is funded is at Disclosure. Both pages exist because a site that asks you to trust its numbers owes you the ability to check them.

Contact

Corrections, documents and disagreements: record@shadeandsteam.com.