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Estimate Types

Water mitigation estimates

Tell Wave about a Category 1, 2 or 3 water loss and it builds the mitigation estimate, bills the equipment you placed, and creates the job's drying log for your techs to verify daily.

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Water is the job Wave was built around. Tell it what happened and where, answer a few focused questions, and you get a complete mitigation estimate priced for the loss address, plus a drying log for the job.

What Wave builds for a water loss

A water estimate covers the mitigation work for Category 1, 2 and 3 losses: getting the water out, taking out what's wet and can't be saved, drying the structure, and the protection and cleaning the category calls for. Wave builds it room by room, and every line is priced for the region of the loss address.

The category drives the scope. A sewage backup carries more protection, containment and cleaning than a clean supply line, and Wave builds the estimate to match the category you set. See What Wave estimates for examples of each category.

The put-back (drywall, paint, flooring and trim going back in) is a separate repairs estimate on the same job.

Tell Wave about the loss

  1. On Home, type or dictate what happened in the command box. For example: "Water estimate for Jordan Park at 482 Sycamore. Supply line under the kitchen sink, Cat 1, kitchen and dining room wet." You can also open the job and tell Wave in the chat beside it.
  2. If the customer or address is already in Wave, Wave asks which job you mean. Otherwise it creates the job. Starting the estimate uses one estimate credit.
  3. Answer Wave's questions. It asks one at a time, only when the answer changes the estimate. Tap a choice or type your own answer. If you'd rather say everything up front, do that and Wave skips what you already told it.

A few things save you questions:

  • Job notes. Wave reads the job's notes before it asks anything, so a site walk your tech already logged doesn't get asked again.
  • The job's details. If the Overview already has the Water category or the address, Wave uses them.
  • Photos and PDFs. Attach them in the chat. Wave describes what's visible, compares it with the estimate, and offers changes for you to approve.

Wave needs a real US ZIP code or Canadian postal code before it prices anything. When a measurement is missing, it states what it assumed so you can correct it. Lines still waiting on a number show a question mark and stay out of the total until you answer, or you can click the quantity and set your own.

Equipment you already placed

If your crew already set equipment, say so, in the chat or in a job note: "four air movers and one dehu in the kitchen." Wave bills the counts you give it.

If your counts come in below what drying science supports for those rooms, Wave tells you what it noticed and asks once whether to go with your counts or the drying science. Your answer sticks.

The estimate bills one drying period for the whole job. If you ask Wave to bill one drying line for a different number of days, it changes nothing yet and asks whether to keep the estimate at the job's days or change the drying period for the whole job. See Drying equipment and drying days.

Drying days and the drying log

Drying logs come with Basic and above, and with the free trial. Starter doesn't include them, so there's no Drying tab on Starter.

When a water estimate with drying days finishes, Wave creates the job's drying log on the Drying tab. There's one log per job. Later estimates on the same job don't create a second one.

The drying log is AI-generated from the estimate and local weather. It's a plan, not a record, until your techs verify the readings daily. They can type readings into the grid on the Drying tab, or tell Wave in the job chat ("laundry room 68 and 44"), typed or dictated.

A few things to know:

  • A job scoped for only one or two drying days gets no log. The Drying tab explains why, and you can add drying days by telling Wave.
  • If the estimate is done but no log shows up, use the Generate now link on the Drying tab, or ask Wave to generate the drying plan.
  • When you change equipment or room sizes on the estimate later, the Drying tab asks whether to update the log to match. Readings you already logged are kept either way.
  • If you hand-edit an equipment quantity so it no longer divides evenly into the drying days, the log won't build until you fix that line. The message names the line.

See About drying logs and Record drying readings.

Review, adjust and export

  • Edit by telling Wave or by hand. "Add a dehu to the dining room" works in chat, or click a cell and type. Your hand edits stick when Wave updates the estimate later, and undo covers both kinds of change.
  • Line modifiers. On eligible lines, you can turn on After Hours, Category 3, Heavy Cleaning or No Bagging. See Modify a line item.
  • Ask about drying science while you build. On Basic and above, and on the trial, Wave carries the industry's water damage standard itself. Ask why a room needs more drying time, or what the standard says about a situation, and Wave answers with the section its answer rests on.
  • The next estimate. When the water estimate finishes, Wave may offer to start the repairs estimate. The confirm box says it uses one estimate credit, and nothing is charged until you confirm.
  • Export. Use the job's Export button. Build a PDF of the estimate, and tick Drying log under Include in PDF to send one packet. On Basic and above you can also produce an Xactimate export (.ESX) or send a draft invoice to QuickBooks. See Export reports.

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