Disclaimer

Information, not instruction

Everything on Spatiais general information and inspiration for a typical home. It is written without seeing your floor plan, your ceiling height, your wiring, your windows, your climate or your local rules, and any one of those can change the right answer. Nothing here is a substitute for a site visit, a measurement, an inspection or a professional’s judgment about your specific space.

We aim to be accurate and we correct what we get wrong, but we do not warrant that any guide is accurate, complete or current on the day you read it. Products change, standards get revised and prices move.

This is not professional advice

Reading Spatia does not create a professional relationship between you and STUDIO DID IT or any of our writers. Nothing published here is:

• licensed or registered interior design services
• architectural services
• structural engineering advice
• electrical advice or electrical design
• heating, ventilation and air conditioning engineering
• plumbing advice
• a building code interpretation, a code compliance opinion, or permitting guidance

Building codes, electrical codes, ventilation requirements and permit rules differ by country, by state or province, and often by city. Rental buildings add their own restrictions. Before you commit to anything structural, electrical, mechanical or permanent, get advice from a licensed professional in your own jurisdiction and check what your local authority requires.

Safety

Read this part before you act on any guide that involves wiring, a combustion or cooling appliance, or paint. You take on the risk of any work you do yourself, and we accept no liability for injury, fire, carbon monoxide exposure, water damage or property damage arising from it.

• Electrical work. Anything hardwired belongs to a licensed electrician. That includes fixtures wired into a junction box, recessed and track lighting, dimmers and smart switches, new outlets or circuits, anything inside the service panel, and anything you would need to open a wall to reach. Much of it requires a permit and an inspection. We write about lighting constantly, and a guide about how a room should be lit is not a guide to installing the light. Plug in lamps and plug in fixtures are the reader’s own territory; wiring is not.
• Portable air conditioners, heaters and ventilation. The manufacturer’s instructions govern, and they beat anything we write. Follow them on venting the exhaust hose to the outside, never into a wall cavity or an attic, on draining condensate, and on clearances. Check the electrical load: a portable unit on a shared circuit with an extension cord is a fire risk, and most makers require a dedicated grounded outlet and no extension cord at all. Never run, vent or modify a fuel burning appliance on the strength of a blog post, never block a combustion appliance’s air supply or flue, and keep working carbon monoxide alarms on every level of a home that has any fuel burning appliance. If an appliance smells, trips a breaker or sets off an alarm, stop and call a professional.
• Paint and finishes. Ventilate while you paint and while it cures, follow the safety data sheet and the label, and use the respirator or gloves the label calls for. Low VOC is not no VOC, and spraying atomizes what brushing does not. Take extra care in a home built before 1978 in the United States: paint under the top coat may contain lead, and sanding or scraping it releases dust that is dangerous to children and pregnant women. Test before you disturb it, and use a certified renovator under the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Renovation, Repair and Painting rule where it applies. Dispose of paint, solvents and rags the way your municipality requires. Solvent soaked rags can ignite on their own.

We do not endorse contractors or brands

When a guide names a trade, a retailer, a platform or a brand, that is not a recommendation of any particular company. We do not vet contractors, we do not check licences or insurance for you, and we have no relationship with the tradespeople you will hire.

Hiring is your decision and your check. Verify a licence directly with your state, provincial or municipal licensing board, ask for proof of liability insurance and workers’ compensation, confirm who pulls the permit, get written estimates from more than one company, and read the contract before money moves. If something goes wrong between you and a contractor, it is between you and that contractor.

Money is not our field either

We write about what renovations cost and how people pay for them, and that is journalism, not financial advice. Anything we publish about home equity lines of credit, personal loans, promotional credit card rates, contractor financing, insurance or tax treatment is general background only. It is not financial, lending, investment, insurance, tax or legal advice, and it is not a recommendation of any product or lender.

Rates, fees, terms and eligibility change constantly and depend on your own circumstances. Talk to a licensed lender, broker, accountant or financial adviser, and read the actual terms of any credit you take on.

Results vary

Two people can follow the same guide and get different rooms. Outcomes depend on your layout, your natural light, your climate, the condition of what is already there, local code, the materials you can actually buy, and the quality of the work. Nothing here promises a particular result, a particular saving, or a particular effect on your property’s value.

Most images on this site are illustrative rather than documentary, as our editorial policy explains. An image shows the idea. It is not a photograph of a result you should expect.

Prices and availability

Any price, cost range or budget figure in a post is an estimate as of the date that post was written or last updated, for the region the post names, which is usually the United States or Canada. Prices vary by city, by supplier, by season and by the specifics of the job, and labour rates vary more than materials do. Products go out of stock and out of production. Confirm current pricing and availability with the vendor before you budget on it.

Links off this site

We link to manufacturers, standards bodies, retailers, government agencies and other publications because a reader should be able to check our sources. We do not control those sites, we are not responsible for their content, their products or their accuracy, and a link is not an endorsement. Once you leave Spatia, their terms and their privacy practices apply, not ours.

How we are paid, and where we have an interest

Spatia is free to read because it carries advertising. We display third party ads, including Google AdSense, and we are paid for them. We do not choose individual ads, advertisers do not see posts before they publish, and advertising does not decide what we cover or what we recommend.

The connection you should know about: Archie is our own product. Archie and studiodidit.com are owned and operated by STUDIO DID IT, the same company that publishes Spatia. When a post points you to Archie, we have a financial interest in you using it.

So we mark it. Archie appears as a clearly labelled link or card, never as a neutral pick in a comparison and never dressed up as independent editorial advice. If Archie ever appears in a roundup of tools, the ownership is stated in that post, next to the mention. We do not publish testimonials or reviews of Archie that were written by anyone other than a real named person who actually said them, and we do not generate them.

If we ever add affiliate links, posts that contain them will say so at the top of the post, before the first link, and the commission never costs you extra. Our editorial policy covers the rest of how editorial decisions get made.

Telling us we got it wrong

Corrections are welcome and we would rather hear it from you than leave a bad figure standing. Email workplace@studiodidit.com with the page and the line. Substantive corrections are made in the post itself and the update date changes with them.

Contact

STUDIO DID IT publishes Spatia from British Columbia, Canada. Reach us at workplace@studiodidit.com or through the contact page. The terms of use and the privacy policy apply alongside this page.