Wave
Docs menutap to expand

Estimate Types

Repairs estimates

Price the put-back after mitigation, room by room, by telling Wave what got opened up. Start fresh or from the job's water estimate, and Wave won't bill what the mitigation already billed.

Last updated

A repairs estimate prices the put-back: everything that goes back after somebody dried, demoed or abated. Drywall, paint, flooring, base and trim, cabinets, countertops, doors, electrical and plumbing.

It assumes the mitigation already happened. If you're still drying, that's a water estimate. The repairs estimate is the one you write after.

Start a repairs estimate

  • Ask for it. On Home, type or dictate into the command box, for example "repairs estimate for Jordan Park at 482 Sycamore". Or open the job and tell Wave in the chat beside it. "Repairs", "rebuild", "reconstruction" and "put-back" all work.
  • Take Wave's offer. When a water or asbestos estimate on the job is done, Wave offers the next one as a button, Start the Repairs estimate. Tap it and a confirm box names the one-credit cost, and Add estimate starts it. Not now, beside the offer, puts it away without spending anything. (After a mold estimate, Wave offers the water estimate first.)

On a fire job, Wave doesn't offer a next estimate. Ask for the rebuild yourself. The job's Estimates tab has no start button, so every new estimate starts in Wave's chat.

How the conversation goes

Wave does the estimating. You tell it what happened.

You won't be asked to name trades or line items. For each room, give Wave the size and describe what got opened up, in your own words. Wave works out the put-back for that room and asks focused questions only where your description leaves something open. Kitchens and baths take a few more, because there are more decisions in the room.

Wave states any assumption it made so you can correct it. It also explains, right on the estimate, the lines adjusters commonly question.

Starting from the water estimate

If the job already has a water estimate, the repairs estimate goes faster, because the demo lines on the mitigation estimate already say what got opened up.

Wave comes back with the proposed put-back first, room by room with a total, then asks only the judgment calls the water estimate can't answer. It builds after your yes. It never builds silently.

It also won't bill what the mitigation estimate already billed. If your repairs crew genuinely did some of that work too, tell Wave and it bills it.

Overhead and profit, and trade minimums

When Wave builds a repairs estimate, it adds the trade minimums a small job needs and overhead and profit, then tells you what it applied and the new total. On small jobs it leaves overhead and profit off. If you'd rather not carry one of them, remove it with a line edit. If you want one back, ask Wave. See Overhead, profit and minimums.

Fire rebuilds

A fire rebuild is a repairs estimate: same conversation, same put-back. Ask for it on a job that has a fire estimate and it's labeled Fire Rebuild. Fire mitigation and smoke cleaning are their own fire estimates. See Fire estimates.

Work outside a repairs estimate

  • Roofing has its own estimate type. See Roofing estimates.
  • Trades Wave doesn't price, like HVAC, window units and re-pipes, come in as a bid item: your sub's written quote rides the estimate as its own line, at their number. Wave won't invent a price.
  • Exterior work other than roofing is outside what Wave scopes. If a sub quoted it, the quote can ride as a bid item.

Drying and the Xactimate export

A repairs estimate doesn't dry anything. The job has one drying log, on the job's Drying tab, on plans that include drying logs. The log is AI-generated, so techs should verify readings daily.

Repairs estimates go through the same check as any other estimate before an Xactimate export (.ESX), on Basic and above. Whether a line travels depends on the line, so Wave tells you before you download and names any line that can't. Trade minimums travel with the file. Overhead and profit don't travel as lines: Xactimate applies its own settings when you import.

Changing scope later

Tell Wave what changed and it changes only that. Rooms you didn't mention carry forward as they are, including lines you added or edited by hand. Ask it to drop a room and it drops that room.

Related