There is no honest single price for water damage restoration. Two houses flooded by the same storm can land thousands of dollars apart. What follows is exactly what moves that number — water category, square footage, materials, drying time, equipment, and repairs.
We quote from a free inspection and measurements, and you get a written scope before any work begins — not a phone estimate that changes after the first wall opens.
Free inspection • Written scope before work • Answered 24/7
Tell us what happened and we'll set up a free inspection and a written scope.
What Drives the Price
Restoration pricing is built from scope, not from a menu. A crew prices the work by measuring what is wet, identifying what the water carried, deciding what can be dried in place versus what has to be removed, and counting how many days the equipment has to run. Those are the same six variables for every company in Denver — which is why two bids for "the same" flooded basement can differ so much.
Clean supply-line water is handled differently from water that has picked up contamination. Category 2 and Category 3 losses add protective equipment, containment, disposal, and disinfection — real labor that a clean-water loss never incurs.
How categories workThis is the biggest single multiplier — but it is measured, not guessed. One wet bedroom is a different job from three rooms, a hallway, and a finished basement. Water also travels sideways and down inside wall cavities, so the visible wet spot is almost never the full extent of the loss.
Carpet pad and drywall are usually removed rather than saved. Hardwood may be dried in place with specialized mats, or it may cup and need replacement. Tile, vinyl, and concrete dry differently again. What the water touched determines what can stay — and what has to be bought again.
Drying is billed by the day the equipment runs and the monitoring visits it requires. A clean leak caught in hours may dry in two or three days. Saturated structural material, humid Denver summer air, or a loss that sat for a week before anyone noticed can run far longer.
Extraction units, air movers, dehumidifiers, negative air machines, and specialty drying panels are deployed by count and by day. A third floor condo, a crawlspace, or a basement with no exterior access changes how much equipment and hands are needed to do the same work.
Mitigation and reconstruction are two separate jobs. Drying and removing damaged material is one scope; replacing drywall, trim, flooring, cabinets, and paint is another. Some claims cover both, some cover only the first — which is often where a budget surprise comes from.
Why we don't publish a price list: a per-square-foot number quoted before anyone looks at your house is a guess dressed up as a quote. We'd rather measure your loss and give you a scope you can compare against another contractor's.
Request a free inspectionCategory of Water
Water losses are classified by what the water picked up before it reached your floors. The category isn't a formality: it decides whether material can be dried and kept, or has to be bagged and hauled out.
Category can also get worse with time. Clean water that sits in a warm house for a couple of days, soaking carpet and insulation, starts behaving like gray water. Waiting genuinely costs more.
Not sure which category?
You don't need to diagnose it yourself. We identify the category during the inspection and explain what it means for your materials. If it came from a toilet, a drain, or outside flooding, say so when you call.
Supply lines, a failing water heater, an overflowing sink, or rain coming through a failed seal. Sanitary at the source.
Washing machine discharge, dishwasher water, an overflowing toilet with no solids, or clean water that has been sitting and warming. Carries a measurable level of contamination.
Sewage backups, toilet water with solids, sump or groundwater intrusion, and river or storm flooding. Presumed to contain harmful pathogens.
Categories describe the source of the water, not the condition of your house. Where a loss is borderline, we tell you what we observed and let you decide — we don't inflate a category to justify more work.
Insurance
We are not an insurance company, an adjuster, or a public adjuster, and we can't tell you what your policy covers. What we can tell you is what we consistently see when homeowners file water claims in the Denver metro — and what we do to make that process less painful.
Straight answer
No restoration contractor can promise your claim will be approved, or that your carrier will pay a specific amount. Anyone who does is guessing on your behalf. Read your policy or call your agent before you assume anything is covered.
A pipe that burst overnight is the classic covered loss. Water that seeped from a failing seal over months, or damage from a lack of maintenance, is commonly excluded or heavily limited. This single distinction decides more water claims than anything else.
Groundwater coming in through a foundation, an overtopped window well, or surface flooding is generally handled by flood insurance, not a standard homeowner's policy — and standard policies often exclude it outright. If your water came in from outside, ask your agent that specific question first.
Many policies cover the emergency work — extraction, drying, removing damaged material — and also the rebuild. Some cover one and not the other, or pay them from different line items. Knowing which bucket you're in early prevents a nasty surprise when the drying is done and the drywall still isn't back.
Coverage doesn't mean zero out of pocket. Your deductible, and any limits on the specific peril, come off the top. For a small loss it can genuinely cost less to pay directly than to file — we'll tell you when that looks like the case instead of pushing a claim.
One more thing: you choose your contractor. A carrier may suggest a preferred vendor or network, and that's a question about your policy terms worth asking your adjuster directly. It's your call either way, and we'll work with whatever you decide.
Common Losses
Every job comes down to water category, square footage, materials, and drying time. Here's how that plays out in the losses we get called for most — described by what drives the work, not by a made-up figure.
Free written estimate
We inspect the loss, measure the affected area, and give you a written estimate before any work starts. Nothing begins until you've approved it in writing — and the inspection and estimate cost you nothing.
One room, caught within hours. Extraction with a few air movers and a typical 2–3 days of drying.
Main drivers: small footprint, dryable materials, short dry time.
Multiple rooms with saturated drywall. A larger equipment count, cavity drying, and usually 4–5+ days.
Main drivers: more square footage, wall cavities, longer dry time.
Standing water over carpet and pad. High-volume extraction, tear-out of what can't be saved, and dehumidification.
Main drivers: water source, volume, and how long it stood.
Contaminated material. Containment, disposal, disinfection, and full protective equipment.
Main drivers: disposal of porous material and added protective measures.
Mitigation and rebuild together — drywall, trim, flooring, and paint after the structure is dry.
Main drivers: how much material was removed and what has to be replaced.
We don't post dollar figures for these scenarios because the same call can land at very different numbers depending on category, square footage, materials, and drying time. Your written estimate is the number that counts.
How We Quote
Our quoting process is deliberately boring. We look at the loss, measure it, write down what we found and what it will take, and you approve it before anything starts.
We walk the space with you, find the source and the true extent of the water, and take moisture readings where it matters. No charge, no obligation, and no pressure to book work on the spot.
Square footage, affected materials, and category get recorded room by room. That's what turns a vague "a few thousand" into a real scope you can compare against another contractor's.
You get it in writing — what gets removed, what gets dried, how equipment is counted, and what the estimate covers. You approve it before a single air mover is unloaded.
Hidden damage behind drywall isn't visible until the wall opens. When that happens we stop, document what we found, and revise the scope with you before continuing. You won't discover a bigger bill you never approved.
Photos and moisture readings recorded at monitoring visits. It's how we track the dry-out — and it's the same record your adjuster will want if you file. See how we document a claim.
Inspection and written scope are free. If your situation turns out to be something a shop vac and a fan will handle, we'll tell you that too.
Phone answered 24/7, including holidays.
Questions
If your question isn't here, call and ask it. We'd rather spend five minutes explaining what a job involves than have you guess from a number a stranger posted online.
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