Updated 2026-07-21 · Published 2026-07-15
Alan Lee
Alan builds MoistureCost’s crawl-space cost planning tools and writes the site’s cost guides. He focuses on turning versioned rate models into clear homeowner planning ranges—not contractor leads.
Role on MoistureCost
Founder & Editor. Product owner for the MoistureCost crawl-space cost model (v1.0.0) Responsible for source registry, editorial standards, and public methodology documentation Prior experience building consumer planning tools and technical content systems.
Alan’s editorial standard is simple: every public cost claim should trace to the live model version or a registered source, and vapor barrier must never be silently relabeled as encapsulation.
How rates are collected and validated
National planning rates start from multiple independent references (government wage relativity, industry cost data, manufacturer coverage guidance, and publisher cost summaries). No single contractor webpage sets a national unit rate. Each RateDefinition stores source IDs, a review date, and notes on whether the figure is cost-basis or installed retail.
Before content cites a range, fixtures must keep low ≤ typical ≤ high, and unsupported cases must still return no estimate. Climate context is reviewed to ensure it never mutates dollars.
Corrections
If you find a factual error, use the contact page. Content wording updates change the content updatedAt date. Monetary constant changes require a new model version.
Sources
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics — construction trades — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (accessed 2026-07-01)
- Gordian RSMeans construction cost data — assemblies & labor (industry reference class) — Gordian (RSMeans) (accessed 2026-07-01)
- HomeAdvisor / Angi cost guides — crawl space encapsulation & vapor barrier ranges — Angi (and cross-checked publisher cost guides) (accessed 2026-07-01)