How we research

A useful buying guide should help you understand the project before asking you to choose a supplier. We begin with the property, the material families, the practical constraints and the questions that make quotes easier to compare.

Only completed editorial guides appear on this website. Research notes, possible subjects and unfinished pages are not published.

A published guide should help a UK homeowner decide whether a substantial project is even the right next step, which questions to take to a supplier, and which official rules may apply. It should stand on its own without affiliate links.

Each published guide states who it is for, who it may not suit, advantages, disadvantages, a buyer checklist, questions for a supplier, a last-reviewed date, and a sources section.

Our current guides do not rank named products, and they never treat a sample board as a complete specification.

We do not describe desk research as a product test. Unless a guide says otherwise, Home Project Brief has not installed, laboratory-tested or mystery-shopped the products it discusses.

Where an answer depends on your building, current law, a product certificate or a merchant’s terms, the guide tells you what to confirm and who to ask.

If we later report a test, visit or first-hand result, the guide will explain what was tested, when, and with what limitations.

Official UK government pages are cited as starting points, not as a complete legal opinion for your address. Planning, building control and consumer-contract rules differ across nations and can change.

Manufacturer literature and third-party certificates can be useful evidence, but only when they cover the exact product and proposed build-up. Always read the current document rather than relying on a category-wide claim.

Links to GOV.UK and similar official sources are reviewed on the date shown on each guide. Rules and web pages can change, so check the latest position before making a decision.

There are currently no live affiliate tracking links or merchant recommendations on this publication. If a future page includes a commercial link, it will be labelled as advertising where it appears.

Acceptance into an affiliate programme does not automatically make a merchant a recommendation. Commercial access and editorial judgment are kept separate.

Home Project Brief is not presented as an official partner of any merchant.

These pages are not installation manuals. They do not tell you how to cut boards, fit cavity barriers, or work at height. Weatherproofing and fire detailing are specialist work.

Check the manufacturer’s current guidance and use a qualified professional where the work affects structure, weather resistance, fire, or services. If you are unsure, stop and ask someone who can see the building.