The insurance claim
process, plainly.

Don’t call your carrier first.

This is counterintuitive but it matters: call your restoration company first, get them on-site to document the situation, then both of you call the carrier together. The reason: the first call to your carrier opens a claim file, starts a clock, and locks in some details. Calling before you have proper documentation can lock in a smaller scope than the work actually requires.

A claim filed without baseline documentation is a claim with a built-in disadvantage.

• Take photos of everything before any cleanup or restoration starts
• Find your policy declarations page and check coverage limits + deductible
• Note any sewer-backup or mold riders specifically
• Save receipts for any temporary mitigation (towels, fans you bought, hotel costs)

What you actually need to file.

Once your restoration company is on-site and you have baseline photos and moisture readings, you call the carrier (or have them call together with you). Information they’ll ask for: policy number, time and cause of loss, brief description of damage, contact details, contractor’s information.

You’ll get a claim number. Save it. You’ll need to reference it on every subsequent call. The carrier then assigns an adjuster, who will reach out to schedule a site visit, usually within 1–3 business days.

The single most important meeting.

The adjuster comes out to inspect the damage in person. This is where they confirm cause of loss, document affected areas, and start building their internal estimate. Your contractor should be there too, for two reasons. One, to walk through the scope they’ve already documented. Two, to answer questions about damage that may not be visible to a non-specialist (saturation behind walls, hidden mold, etc.).

Adjusters approve scopes they can validate. Your job (and your contractor’s) is to make validation easy.

Where most claims stall.

While drying continues, your contractor builds the mitigation file: scope-of-work in Xactimate format, daily moisture readings, equipment counts and run hours, before/during/after photos, lab results if any. This package goes to the adjuster for review.

If the file is complete and Xactimate-aligned, the adjuster’s software can reconcile it automatically and approval is fast. If it isn’t, wrong format, missing readings, mismatched line items, the adjuster has to manually validate or supplement, and you’re suddenly two weeks into a claim that should have been resolved.

• Xactimate-aligned line items with codes
• Daily moisture readings, every surface, every day
• Equipment counts + run hours
• Cause-of-loss documentation
• Lab results (mold, asbestos) where applicable

When the original scope wasn’t enough.

Sometimes the work uncovers damage that wasn’t visible at the start, hidden mold, deeper saturation, or something that comes out only when other materials are removed. That’s a supplemental: an additional scope item filed with documentation supporting it.

Most claims that “drag on” are actually claims with supplementals working their way through review. A clean original file plus well-documented supplementals usually clears in 2–3 weeks total. A poorly-documented original file plus disputed supplementals can drag for months.

Money flows, work continues.

Once the carrier approves, payment is issued, usually directly to the contractor when authorized, sometimes to the homeowner who then pays the contractor. Mitigation closes; rebuild scope starts (or finishes, if it was already underway).

Rebuild can be the same contractor, a different contractor, or a partnership, your choice. We can do reconstruction when scope warrants, or hand off to a trusted partner when it makes sense.

• Carrier issues payment within 7–14 days of mitigation file approval
• Rebuild scope finalized + approved (separate from mitigation)
• Final closeout: lien waiver, certificate of completion, all documentation archived
• Keep digital copies of everything, useful at sale time