Ownership Disclosure
Below the Slab is owned by the same team as SoftPro Water Systems, a store that sells water filters and softeners, and the site earns money when readers buy from it.
On this page
Who owns this site
Below the Slab is owned by the same team as a water treatment store, SoftPro Water Systems. SoftPro sells whole-house filters, water softeners, salt-free conditioners and under-sink reverse osmosis systems. When a reader follows a link from this site and buys from the store, that sale is revenue for the same owners. No other store, brand or contractor pays this site or is linked from it.
Where we link to the store
Store links appear only on five city-water pages, where a filter or softener is a reasonable optional choice:
- The tap water safety guide: a carbon filter and an under-sink reverse osmosis unit
- The hardness guide: a city water softener and a salt-free conditioner
- The chloramine guide: a whole-house carbon filter
- The whole-house filter guide: a whole-house carbon filter
- The softener guide: two softeners and a salt-free conditioner
The store's home page is also linked from this page and the About page. Each of those five pages opens with a disclosure, and every product link is followed by a note that the store is owned by the same team. Pages on slab leaks, sewer lines, water heaters, lead in drinking water, boil water advisories, freezes, backflow and the plumbing code carry no store links.
How we handle the store's claims
Water figures come from the utilities' 2025 reports and federal agencies, not from the store. Where a product page makes a claim, such as what a filter is designed to reduce, the guide reports it as the store's own claim. A product is described as certified only for what its NSF, WQA or IAPMO listing or the maker's performance data sheet actually covers. Prices are the store's listed prices on the day they were checked, labelled as such.
What we don't do
The guides do not make tap water sound dangerous to sell a product. East Bank New Orleans water is moderately hard, so a softener is described as optional; chloramine is a regulated disinfectant, so a carbon filter is described as a taste and odor choice; no home filter is offered as a fix for a boil water advisory. The site publishes no ratings, rankings or reviews of the store's products, and it does not hide the ownership link to win a click.
More guides: the Below the Slab home page.