Free Resources
Research and Tools You Can Use (and Cite)
We publish the data we wish existed when we started painting homes in Charlotte: what local HOAs actually require, how old the housing stock is, what paint really costs, and how far apart the national cost guides are. Every figure links to its public source. Journalists, realtors, and HOA newsletters are welcome to quote any of it with a link.
Original research
Datasets we compiled from public documents and government data, kept current and sourced line by line.
Original research
What Colors Do Charlotte HOAs Actually Allow?
Second look at the same 29 published documents plus every palette we could open publicly: who names colors, who says only "earth tones", and what no document does.
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Original research
Charlotte HOA Exterior Painting Rules Index
Published architectural rules from 29 Charlotte-area associations — approval requirements, palettes, review windows, and enforcement, each linked to the association's own document.
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Original research
6 Published Cost Guides Compared
The same 16 jobs priced by six national cost guides. The published estimates disagree by as much as 24x — see exactly where, and why a line-item estimate beats any national average.
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Census data
Charlotte Housing Stock by the Numbers
U.S. Census ACS data on when Charlotte and Mecklenburg County homes were built, plus what each era means for lead-safe prep and ceiling-texture testing.
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Price index
Paint Price Index
Publicly listed per-gallon prices across Sherwin-Williams, Benjamin Moore, Behr, PPG, and Valspar lines, with a calculator that turns your square footage into a material estimate.
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Interactive tools
Decision aids for homeowners weighing an update — no email required.
Interactive tool
Paint Sheen Picker
Three questions — surface, use, and wall condition — and you get the sheen a finisher would specify, with the MPI gloss ranges behind it.
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Interactive tool
Cabinet Update Decision Tool
Four questions that point you toward refinishing, painting, refacing, or replacement — with the industry cost, lifespan, and resale data behind each answer.
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Checklist
Pre-Listing Cabinet Refresh Checklist
A six-step checklist for sellers deciding what to update before listing, with progress that saves in your browser.
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Free to cite
Every page here may be quoted, screenshotted, or summarized with a link back to the page you used. If you write for a neighborhood newsletter, a realtor blog, or a local publication and need a specific cut of the data, ask us — we will pull it.
Deeper how-to reading lives on the Carolina Renew blog.
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