About this site
Tap & Trowel is a home-project site by Jordan Hale: calculators for buying the right amount of material, and guides for doing the job.
Who
Jordan Hale is a pen name. The person behind it doesn't claim to be a contractor, engineer, plumber or electrician. There's a short bio on the author page.
How the calculators are built
- Each calculator shows its formula, a worked example and the published figures it relies on, such as bag yields from QUIKRETE and Sakrete or grout coverage from CUSTOM Building Products, with links.
- The math lives in one shared library with automated tests. The tests check results against manufacturer and supplier reference values, so a change that breaks a known answer fails before it reaches the site.
- Prices are never hard-coded. If you want a cost estimate, you enter today's price from your store.
How the guides are written
Guides draw on manufacturer instructions, the International Residential Code, tile industry standards, OSHA and university extension services, and they cite them. An AI assistant helps gather sources and draft. Notes and photos from real projects are added as they're done, and never made up. There's no invented “30 years in the trade” persona.
What this site won't teach
- Gas. Gas lines and gas appliance connections are for a licensed professional. If you smell gas, leave the building and call your gas utility or 911 from outside.
- Electrical work beyond simple like-for-like swaps. New circuits and panel work usually need a permit, and in many places a licensed electrician.
- Structural work. Footings for additions, load-bearing walls and foundation cracks are for a contractor or engineer. Your local building department decides what needs a permit.
Rules differ between states, counties and cities, and outside the US. Pages say when a rule comes from a specific code, so you can check your local version.
Ads and links
The site is meant to earn from display ads and, later, ordinary product links, which will be labeled. No ad code is installed yet.
Corrections
If a number or step is wrong, the contact page explains how to report it.