News & Perspectives
News, case studies, and founder perspectives on restoration estimating.
What Goes on a Water Mitigation Invoice: Line Items, Documentation, and What Gets Cut
The WTR line items that belong on a water mitigation invoice in the order the work happened, the documentation package a carrier requires to pay it, and the four things third-party auditors flag most often.
Detach and Reset vs Remove and Replace in Xactimate: How to Pick the Right Activity Code
What detach and reset (R) and remove and replace (&) actually pay for in Xactimate, which items on a water loss belong in each, and the WTR detach code overlap that gets scopes flagged in review.
Xactimate Labor Minimums: What "Labor Minimums Applied" Means on a Water Loss
How Xactimate calculates a labor minimum adjustment, why a single wet bathroom triggers six of them, and when re-associating a line item is the correct fix instead of zeroing the adjustment out.
How High to Flood Cut Drywall (and How to Bill It in Xactimate)
What height a flood cut should be, why the decision comes from moisture readings instead of a fixed number, and how the 2 foot, 4 foot, and full height cuts each map to a different Xactimate line item measured in linear feet.
Which Xactimate Price List to Use for a Water Damage Estimate
How to pick the right Xactimate price list for a water loss: reading the region and month code, matching the property zip, what the XactAnalysis checkpoint price list compares against, and what a wrong list costs on per-24hr equipment lines.
Mold Remediation Xactimate Line Items: WTR, HMR, and How to Scope Each Phase
Mold remediation line items in Xactimate are split between the WTR and HMR categories. A breakdown of which codes live where, what each phase of an S520 remediation bills to, and the documentation that keeps the invoice intact.
Overhead and Profit on Xactimate Water Damage Estimates
Why Xactimate unit prices exclude general contractor O&P, where the 10 and 10 markup lives in the estimate, why WTR line items default to non-O&P, and how to bill job-related overhead as line items instead of losing the argument.
How to Estimate Hardwood Floor Drying in Xactimate
The Xactimate codes for hardwood floor drying (WTR WFI, WFDAD), when to dry in place versus tear out, the IICRC S500 moisture targets that set the drying goal, and the documentation that keeps mat days from getting cut.
How to Bill Content Manipulation in Xactimate Water Damage Estimates
Content manipulation is the hourly Xactimate line item (code CON) that pays crews to move contents during water damage drying. Here is how to code, calculate, and defend it.
The Line of Sight Rule in Water Damage Claims: How to Estimate Flooring That Cannot Be Matched
What the line of sight rule means on a water damage claim, which states have written matching into law, and how to scope and document continuous flooring in Xactimate so an adjuster pays the full run instead of a patch.
Nobody Knows the Number
In restoration, you don't get paid when the work is done. You get paid when the fight ends. Why we built Wave, from a family that lived it.
Water Damage Drying Log Requirements: What a Drying Log Has to Include
What a water damage drying log must contain to survive carrier review, including the daily readings the IICRC S500 requires, the dry standard that ends the job, and how the log ties back to the WTR equipment line items on the invoice.
How to Write a Category 3 Water Damage Estimate in Xactimate
A step-by-step guide to writing a Category 3 (black water) estimate in Xactimate, including the WTR line items that separate a Cat 3 scope from a Cat 2 and the documentation adjusters need before they approve it.
How to Write a Water Damage Supplement in Xactimate
A step-by-step guide to writing a water damage supplement in Xactimate, from opening the carrier's ESX file to the WTR line items adjusters most often miss and the documentation that gets a supplement approved.
How Many Air Movers and Dehumidifiers Do You Need for Water Damage?
The IICRC S500 formulas for sizing air movers and dehumidifiers on a water damage job, plus the Xactimate line items that keep the equipment days from getting cut.
How Franchisors Are Killing Their Franchisees (And What I'm Doing About It)
Working with restoration companies across the country, I keep hearing the same story from franchisees: We're cooked.
We Must Change Everything, Or We Die
The traditional restoration workflow is a death sentence for cashflow. Here is how we can fix it.