---
title: "Categories"
description: "Wave's loss-type categories: water (Cat 1, 2, 3), mold, and storm today. Fire is on the roadmap. Category drives the questionnaire path and the line items Wave generates."
group: "reference"
lane: "reference"
status: "published"
publishedAt: 2026-05-15
sidebarOrder: 50
tags: ["reference", "loss-types", "categories"]
relatedSlugs:
  - "estimates/filing-an-fnol"
  - "concepts/how-wave-prices"
  - "concepts/what-wave-does"
---

Every Wave estimate has a loss-type category. The category drives the questionnaire path the chat takes and the line items Wave generates.

## Supported categories today

- **Water — Cat 1** (clean source, e.g., supply line, fresh-water leak)
- **Water — Cat 2** (gray water, e.g., dishwasher overflow, toilet supply line)
- **Water — Cat 3** (black water, e.g., sewage backup, flood)
- **Mold remediation**
- **Storm** — wind, hail, and the water mitigation that often follows

For the canonical Jordan Park scenario we use in docs (Cat 2 toilet supply line, hall bathroom + hallway), the category is **Water — Cat 2**.

## On the roadmap

- **Fire / smoke** — coming soon. Not in the product today.
- **Asbestos** — coming soon.

For the full capability matrix, see [What Wave does and doesn't do (yet)](/docs/concepts/what-wave-does).

## How the category gets set

Wave reads your first chat message and picks a category. *"Cat 2 water loss in a hall bath"* sets the category to **Cat 2 water**. Once set, the FNOL block in the right pane shows a **Category** dropdown if you need to change it later.

## What changes when the category changes

- **The chat questionnaire** follows a different path (Cat 3 asks about containment in ways Cat 1 doesn't)
- **PPE requirements** scale with the category
- **Containment levels** depend on category and class
- **Antimicrobial application** is conditional on category
- **Documentation line items** referenced in the estimate may differ

Flipping the category mid-estimate doesn't auto-rewrite the line items already on the estimate — review the right pane after the flip and add or remove what changed.

## Mixed losses

If a job involves both water and mold (common after a delayed Cat 2 or Cat 3), you can capture both — start with the primary cause of loss in the first chat message and Wave will ask about mold during the per-room interview if it's relevant.

Fire-plus-water combos (which are extremely common after extinguishing) aren't fully supported until fire ships — for now, build the water mitigation estimate in Wave and handle the fire portion in your existing flow.

## Related

- [Filing an FNOL](/docs/estimates/filing-an-fnol) — where the category is captured
- [Wave's regional price list](/docs/concepts/how-wave-prices) — pricing across categories
- [What Wave does and doesn't do (yet)](/docs/concepts/what-wave-does) — roadmap items