Restoration services
Reconstruction is the phase that puts the building back: drywall, flooring, paint, trim, cabinetry, mechanical and electrical work. It is a construction job priced like a construction job — by scope, materials and labour — not like mitigation, which is priced by equipment and days. It is also the phase where you have the most time and the most leverage, because nothing is getting worse while you compare bids, and you are generally not required to use the company that dried the building.
HyreRestore is not a restoration contractor and not an insurance adjuster. We dry nothing, remediate nothing and rebuild nothing. This page explains the work so you can read a scope, judge the company that wrote it, and follow your own claim.
The short version
Starting the rebuild before the structure is genuinely dry is how a water loss turns into a mould claim the following year. These are the conditions that should be true before anything is closed up.
An estimate you cannot compare is not an estimate. These are the things that make two bids comparable, and their absence is what makes the cheapest one look cheapest.
Final readings in hand, mitigation closed, any remediation cleared. Everything after this assumes it.
A room-by-room, line-item description of what will be rebuilt and in what materials. This document is the thing bids are compared on and the thing the adjuster negotiates against.
Your contractor’s scope and the adjuster’s estimate are two documents about the same house and they will differ. They get reconciled before work starts, in writing. See working with an adjuster.
Two or three contractors pricing the same written scope. This is the leverage step, and it exists only in this phase.
Structural, electrical, plumbing, mechanical and, in some jurisdictions, roofing and floodplain approvals. The contractor pulls them for their own trades. Inspections are scheduled around the work.
Framing repairs, electrical, plumbing and mechanical work while the walls are open, followed by the inspections that have to happen before anything closes.
Cavity insulated, board hung, taped, finished. The point of no return for anything hidden, which is why the rough-in inspection matters.
Flooring, trim, cabinetry, tiling, paint. Where matching is involved this is where it either works or is visibly seen not to.
Fixtures, devices, appliances, HVAC commissioning, final inspections and the certificate or sign-off where the jurisdiction issues one.
You walk the job, list what is unfinished or wrong, get it done, and then release the final payment. Not before. Ask for the warranty document and the permit sign-offs at the same time.
There are three routes and each is legitimate. The mistake is drifting into one of them without noticing there was a choice.
| The mitigation company’s rebuild division | Continuity, one point of contact, and they already know what is behind the walls because they opened them. The risk is that continuity is presented as a requirement when it is a convenience, and that the rebuild price is never tested against anything. |
|---|---|
| An independent general contractor | A builder who does this work all the time, competing for the job. Frequently better on finish quality and price discipline. Needs a clear written scope to bid against, and needs to be willing to work with the adjuster. |
| The insurer’s preferred contractor | A managed-repair programme company. Often smooth, sometimes with a workmanship guarantee attached, and the insurer has an existing pricing relationship. In most cases you may still choose someone else; what the insurer controls is what it pays, not who holds the hammer. |
| You act as your own general contractor | Possible, occasionally sensible for a small scope, and much harder than it sounds mid-claim. You take on scheduling, permits, subcontractor liability and every supplement conversation yourself. |
| Split scope | Common and perfectly workable — the restoration company does the drywall and paint, your own cabinetmaker or floor layer does the finish work. Say so early, because it changes both the programme and the estimate. |
Reconstruction is priced the way any building job is priced: scope, materials, labour, overhead and profit. Nothing about it is special because the cause was a loss, which is exactly why it can and should be competitively bid.
| Factor | Why it changes the number |
|---|---|
| Scope and area | How many rooms, how many floors, and how much of each room. A ceiling repair below a bathroom can be a larger scope than the bathroom. |
| Finish level | Drywall and paint is one number. Stone, custom cabinetry and specialist tiling is another. Policies generally rebuild to like kind and quality, not to an upgrade — and the gap between the two is yours. |
| Matching existing materials | A discontinued floor, a tile no longer made, a custom cabinet run. Matching may require replacing a whole continuous surface rather than the damaged part, and how much of that the policy pays is a genuine negotiation. |
| Trades involved | Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, tile, cabinetry and flooring each bring their own rates, licensing and scheduling. Every extra trade lengthens the programme as well as the bill. |
| Permits and inspections | Fees plus the time inspections impose on the sequence. Both are legitimate lines. |
| Code upgrades | A rebuild may have to meet current code even where the original did not — wiring, egress, insulation, floodplain requirements. Ordinance or law cover, where the policy carries it, is designed for exactly this. |
| Hidden damage found after demolition | Rot, old leaks, undersized framing, prior unpermitted work. Routine, handled through a supplement, and the reason an estimate written before the walls were open is provisional. |
| Overhead and profit | Normal on a job coordinating several trades, and commonly recognised by insurers on that basis. It should be a visible line rather than a hidden margin. |
| Local labour and material costs | The same scope costs differently by region, and materially differently in a region that has just had a widespread event. |
| Programme length | A longer rebuild extends contents storage and, where the property is uninhabitable, additional living expenses. Time is a cost on this phase in a way it is not on others. |
HyreRestore publishes no average reconstruction price. It is a building job, and building costs vary by scope, finish, region and moment. What is portable is the structure of the estimate — which is what lets you compare the bids in front of you.
How standard homeowners policies commonly handle reconstruction, not what yours says. Your declarations page and your adjuster decide the real answer.
| Like kind and quality | Policies generally pay to restore what was there to a comparable standard, not to improve it. An upgrade is normally your money, added deliberately while the walls are already open — which is often the sensible moment for it. |
|---|---|
| Matching | Where a damaged material cannot be matched, how much of the undamaged surrounding surface the insurer will replace is one of the more common disputes in property claims. Some states have specific rules or bulletins on matching. It is worth asking your state department of insurance rather than assuming. |
| ACV then recoverable depreciation | On a replacement-cost policy the first payment is frequently depreciated, with the held-back portion released once the work is done and evidenced. That means you may need the work completed before you see the balance. |
| Mortgage company on the cheque | Where there is a mortgage, the lender is commonly a named payee on the rebuild payment and releases funds in stages against inspections. Start that conversation early; it is a frequent source of delay that has nothing to do with the builder. |
| Supplements | Additional damage found once work starts is submitted with documentation and photographs. Normal practice, not a sign of anything going wrong — but it needs to be submitted and approved rather than absorbed. |
| Ordinance or law cover | Pays for the extra cost of meeting current code during a covered repair. Often a limited amount, sometimes an optional endorsement, and precisely the thing to check before a scope is agreed on an older house. |
| Your choice of contractor | In most cases you choose who rebuilds your property. The insurer decides what it will pay. A preferred contractor programme is an offer, and it is worth knowing whether accepting it changes any guarantee you would otherwise have. |
| Additional living expenses | If the property is uninhabitable, many policies cover the extra cost of living elsewhere while it is repaired — which links the rebuild programme directly to a cover limit that can run out. |
Coverage is decided by your own policy and the peril, not by what is typical. Read the declarations page, and where the answer matters, put the question to your insurer in writing.
This is the one phase where slowing down costs nothing. Mitigation is urgent because the damage compounds by the hour. Reconstruction is not: a dry, secured building is stable. Get the scope in writing, have two or three contractors bid the same document, and read the contract before signing it. A week spent here is a week that cannot make anything worse, and it is the only real leverage in the entire process.
The full ten-point checklist is on choosing a restoration company.
Closing a wall over material that never reached the drying goal is how a water loss becomes a mould claim months later. The final readings are not a formality, and if nobody can produce them, the answer to whether it is dry is no.
Drying a building and rebuilding it are different trades and different contracts. Continuity is genuinely convenient and sometimes the right answer — but it should be a decision you made, not one you drifted into because they were already there.
Two numbers for “repair the kitchen” tell you nothing. A cheaper bid usually assumed less: a lower cabinet grade, less flooring, no permit fee. Compare only bids priced against one written scope.
A contract that references “work as per insurance proceeds” commits you to pay whatever the claim produces for whatever the contractor decides to do. The scope document is the contract’s substance; without it there is nothing to hold anyone to.
Unpermitted electrical, plumbing and structural work surfaces at resale, at the next insurance inspection, or at the next claim. The saving is borrowed from your future self at a poor rate.
A deposit is normal; a large front-loaded payment is not. Payments should follow milestones, and the final payment should follow the punch list being cleared, not precede it.
If the flooring cannot be matched, deciding whether the whole continuous run is replaced is a conversation to have with the adjuster while it is still an estimate — not once half the floor is down.
Mitigation is the emergency phase: stopping the source, extracting water, removing unsalvageable material and drying the structure to a measured goal. It is priced by equipment, labour and days. Reconstruction is putting the building back — drywall, flooring, paint, cabinetry, mechanical and electrical work — and it is priced like any other construction job, by scope and materials. They are separate scopes, usually separate invoices, frequently separate companies, and only the first of them is urgent.
Generally no. Hiring a company to dry your building does not commit you to hiring it to rebuild. Check what you signed — a mitigation work authorisation should cover mitigation, and if a document you were handed on day one also commits you to the reconstruction, that is worth reading carefully before the drying is finished. Using the same company is often reasonable; it just should not be assumed.
Yes, and this is the phase to do it. Nothing is deteriorating in a dry, secured building, so time spent comparing costs you nothing. The requirement is a written line-item scope that every bidder prices against — without that you are comparing assumptions rather than prices. Tell the adjuster you are obtaining comparison bids; it is completely normal and frequently welcomed.
This is one of the most common disputes in property claims. Materials get discontinued, dye lots shift, and a repair to part of a continuous surface can be visibly obvious. The argument is about how much of the undamaged surrounding material the insurer will also replace to produce a reasonably uniform result. Some states have specific regulations or bulletins on matching, so it is worth asking your state department of insurance what applies where you are — and raising it while it is still an estimate rather than after the work starts.
It depends on the scope and the jurisdiction. Replacing drywall and painting frequently does not require one. Structural repairs, electrical and plumbing work, mechanical replacement, and in many places roofing, generally do. In a floodplain there may be additional requirements attached to the repair. The contractor pulls the permits for their own trades; ask which are required and check the number appears on the job. Unpermitted work becomes your problem at resale, not theirs.
No. Policies generally pay to restore like kind and quality — what was there, to a comparable standard — not to improve it. That said, the walls being open is genuinely the cheapest moment you will ever have to pay for an upgrade yourself, because the demolition and access are already done. Keep it explicitly separate in the paperwork: the covered scope on one document, your own upgrade on another, so the claim is not muddied.
It is a construction programme, so it depends on scope, trades, permits, inspections and material lead times. A single room of drywall and paint can be a week or two. A kitchen with cabinetry, or a multi-room rebuild with several trades and inspection holds, runs for months. The honest signal is whether the contractor can name the long-lead items and the inspection points; a duration quoted without them is a guess.
Because coordinating several trades is work in itself, distinct from the trades. On a job that involves three or more trades needing scheduling and supervision, a general contractor’s overhead and profit is a standard line and adjusters commonly expect to see it. What matters is that it is visible and stated rather than concealed inside the unit rates, so you can see what you are actually comparing between bids.
A request to add to the approved claim when work uncovers damage that nobody could see when the estimate was written — rot behind a wall, a prior leak, framing that is not what the drawings said. It is submitted with photographs and documentation and approved before the extra work is done. Supplements are routine on restoration jobs. What is not routine is a contractor proceeding with extra work and presenting it afterwards.
After the punch list is cleared, not before. Walk the job, write down everything unfinished or wrong, agree it, have it completed, then release the final payment. At the same time, collect the written workmanship warranty and evidence that the permits were signed off. Those three things together are what closes a job properly, and they are much easier to obtain before the last payment than after it.
Information on this page is general and may vary by state, by policy, by peril, by building and by your own circumstances. It is not insurance, legal or medical advice, and it is not a substitute for professional assessment of a damaged property. HyreRestore is an independent restoration information resource and connection platform, not a restoration contractor, insurer or public adjuster, and does not perform, supervise or warrant any restoration work.
Tell us what happened and the zip code. Free, and no obligation to hire anyone.