The process
How restoration works, from loss to closed claim
The two jobs inside every restoration project, who owns each decision, what finished looks like at each phase, and what moves the clock.
Get Help With Your Restoration Project What drives the cost
Written by HyreRestore Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The short answer
Restoration runs in five phases: make-safe, inspection and scoping, mitigation and structural drying, the insurance claim running alongside, and reconstruction. The first three are one trade, working to the IICRC S500 standard for water. The rebuild is a separate job with its own invoice, and it can go to a different company.
If this is happening right now
If water is still running or the loss happened in the last few hours, start with the first 24 hours. This page is the map of the whole project; that one is the sequence for right now.
What should you know before the first company arrives?
Mitigation stops the damage and dries the house. Reconstruction puts it back. Different pricing, different timing, and the second can go to a different company.
A written scope names the category and class, the drying goal and what comes out. It is what an adjuster checks the bill against.
Not on a number of days. Ask for the moisture log.
Get help with your restoration project
Free, with no obligation. A person at HyreRestore replies by email. Not an emergency line: matching is not live yet, and nobody is sent to the property.
Mitigation or reconstruction: which job is which?
Restoration is two different jobs sharing a name. Knowing which one you are in tells you how it is priced and whether you can shop around.
| Question | Mitigation | Reconstruction |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Stopping the damage and drying the building | Putting the building back |
| The work | Extraction, controlled demolition, containment, air movers and dehumidifiers, contents pack-out | Drywall, flooring, paint, cabinets, trim, roofing |
| How it is priced | Equipment units times days, plus labor and materials | By trade, material and quantity, like any building job |
| When it starts | Straight away | Once the building is dry and the scope is agreed |
| Competing bids | Hard to arrange in an emergency | Practical and normal |
| Who does it | A restoration company | A restoration company that also holds a contractor license, or a separate builder |
You can choose a different company for the rebuild than the one that dried the house. That choice is where much of the money is still negotiable. Reconstruction covers how rebuild bids compare.
Who does what in a restoration project?
Each party owns different decisions, and only one of them works for your insurer.
| Who | Their job |
|---|---|
| You | The policyholder and the customer. You make it safe, document it, read the scope, and decide what to accept. |
| The restoration company | Makes safe, inspects, writes the scope, dries the building and keeps the moisture log. It is not your representative in the claim unless you sign something that makes it so. |
| The adjuster | Works for your insurer. Inspects, decides how the policy responds and writes the estimate the settlement comes from. See working with an adjuster. |
| The rebuild contractor | Holds the license for the building work, pulls permits and rebuilds. Can be the same company or a different one. |
| A public adjuster | Optional. Represents you in the claim, for a fee. |
| HyreRestore | Publishes guides like this one. Dries nothing, scopes nothing, rebuilds nothing and adjusts no claims. |
What happens in each of the five phases?
Each phase has a finish line you can check yourself.
Power off where water meets wiring, the source stopped, openings covered with board-up and tarping, standing water extracted. Done when the source is stopped and checked, the water is out, and you hold photos from before anything moved.
The company sets the water category and class, maps the wet area with a moisture meter, and takes dry readings from unaffected material as the goal. This should happen before equipment goes down. Done when you hold a written scope.
What cannot be dried comes out. Contaminated areas get containment first. Then air movers and dehumidifiers dry the rest: fans alone just move wet air around. Done when readings reach the goal and hold. See structural drying.
The claim runs beside phases 1 to 3, not after them. Notice, inspection, the adjuster’s estimate, reconciling the two scopes, then settlement. Done when you hold a written settlement you can read line by line.
Drywall, insulation, flooring, trim, paint, cabinets, and roofing where the envelope was breached. Done when the scope is finished, permitted work has passed inspection, every change order is in writing and the final invoice matches.
What belongs in the written scope
The inspection decides everything after it. Before the equipment arrives, the written scope should state these.
How contaminated it was, from Category 1 (clean) to Category 3 (grossly unsanitary). In the ANSI/IICRC S500 framework, category can worsen with time, so a leak found days later is a different job.
How much material absorbed water, and how readily it will give it back.
Mapped with a moisture meter. Water wicks up walls and runs under flooring past the visible edge.
Readings from the same materials in a dry part of the house, and where the reading points are marked.
Room by room, with quantities, and what is being dried in place instead.
Asbestos or lead testing in an older house, before anything is cut. Containment where contamination is involved.
Contents are a separate scope from the structure. See contents restoration.
How does the claim run alongside the work?
The claim is not a phase after the work. It runs beside it and settles before the rebuild.
| Question | How the claim treats it |
|---|---|
| Notice | You report the loss. A claim number is issued and an adjuster assigned. |
| Inspection | The adjuster inspects, or works from your documentation on a smaller loss. |
| Estimate | The adjuster writes the scope and estimate the settlement is calculated from. |
| Reconciliation | The company’s scope and the adjuster’s are compared. Gaps are settled with photos, moisture logs and material specs. |
| Settlement | Paid after the deductible, on an actual cash value or replacement cost basis. Where there is a mortgage, the lender can be named on the check. |
| Depreciation | On a replacement cost claim, held-back depreciation is released once the rebuild is done and documented. See ACV vs RCV. |
Your declarations page and your insurer govern your claim. How the claim runs sets the process out in full, and the claim timeline explains what drives its pace.
The rebuild is where you can compare bids.
Mitigation happens under time pressure. Reconstruction does not. Compare rebuild bids against the agreed scope, not against a headline number, so every company is pricing the same work.
What should you ask at the first conversation?
And why.
And where are the reading points marked?
In writing, per location, with dates.
Or do you refer the reconstruction out? It changes who you compare against.
A limited emergency authorization is normal. An assignment of benefits is a different document.
What makes each phase longer or shorter?
Longer: a widespread event, or a source nobody can stop. Shorter: knowing where your shut-off is, and photos already taken.
Longer: hidden water paths, asbestos or lead testing, a large loss. Shorter: one contained room with easy access.
Longer: plaster, hardwood over subfloor, wet wall cavities, humid weather, no heat. Shorter: early extraction, the right equipment count, a closed and conditioned house.
Longer: scope disputes, a lender on the check, a regional catastrophe, missing documentation. Shorter: photos before anything moved, a clear written scope, prompt notice.
Longer: permits, material lead times, discontinued finishes, hidden damage. Shorter: an agreed scope and early decisions on finishes.
After a widespread storm or freeze, every company, adjuster and supplier in the area serves the same surge. See storm damage restoration.
Where do restoration projects go wrong?
Emergency work can start on a limited written authorization naming the work and the rate basis.
Mitigation bills units times days. Check the log against the equipment count. Is this estimate fair? walks through the line items.
A company that places equipment and works out the scope later has the job backwards.
Two totals for two different scopes tell you nothing. Hold every bid to the agreed scope.
Your inquiry
Tell us about the damage
Nothing goes to a restoration company unless you agree.
A person reads it and replies by email, free and with no obligation. Matching is not live yet, so this is not a dispatch line and nobody is sent to the property.
Get Help With Your Restoration Project
One short form: your address and how to reach you. A person at HyreRestore reads it and replies.
Questions
How long does water damage restoration take?
Is the restoration company the same as the rebuild contractor?
What does the insurance adjuster do?
How do I know drying is finished?
Can I live in the house during restoration?
Who pays the restoration company, me or the insurer?
What if the adjuster and the restoration company disagree?
Where does HyreRestore fit in the process?
Written and audited by
HyreRestore Research Desk
Primary-source research and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a restoration company and not an insurance adjuster.
We read the federal agency guidance, the state insurance statute or the industry standard ourselves, and we publish the rule with the document it came from and the date we read it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. The counts below are taken from the pages on this site.
- 56
- source documents linked from these pages
- 15
- government (.gov) domains among them
- 0
- average prices published without a source
- 0
- restoration jobs we perform
How this desk works
- Primary sources only. A mold rule comes from the EPA, a flood rule from FEMA and the NFIP, a claim rule from the state insurance statute. We do not cite an article that cites a source.
- Every figure carries its retrieval date. Guidance is revised and statutes are amended. A number without the date it was read cannot be checked.
- Paywalled standards are named, not quoted. IICRC S500 and S520 define the categories and classes of water and mold work. We describe their public structure and say plainly when the controlling text sits behind a purchase.
- Safety before the claim. Electricity near water, sewage, smoke and mold come first on every page where they apply. We explain the work; we do not tell you to do it yourself.
- We do not dry, remediate or rebuild anything, we do not adjust claims, and we take no payment for placement, ranking or a favorable mention.
Authorship on this site is organizational: the analysis belongs to the desk rather than to a named individual, and we do not publish credentials we do not hold. Our editorial policy sets out how we source, date and correct what we publish.
Sources & retrieval dates
Information on this page is general and may vary by location, building code, zoning, the condition of your house and your own circumstances. It is not legal, insurance, medical or engineering advice.
HyreRestore is not a restoration contractor and not an insurance adjuster: we dry nothing, remediate nothing and rebuild nothing, and we do not supervise or warrant anyone's work.
This page explains the work so you can read a scope, judge the company that wrote it and follow your own claim.