Gateway/Pricing
What it costs.
Honestly.
There is no flat-rate price for water damage or mold remediation, anyone who quotes one without seeing the job is making it up. What we can tell you is what drives pricing, what insurance typically covers, and what an out-of-pocket job looks like at different scales.
What drives the number
Why every job is priced
after we see it.
Mitigation pricing is mostly about three things: the size of the affected area, how saturated everything is when we arrive, and how long the equipment has to run. A small clean-water job in a single bedroom might be 4–6 hours of crew time and three days of drying. A whole-basement Cat 3 sewer backup could be 16+ hours of crew time and a week of drying. Same company, same protocols, very different numbers.
Affected area + saturation
Square footage of materials affected. How much standing water versus saturated material. Whether the subfloor is involved. These are the biggest single drivers of equipment count and crew time.
Water category
Clean water (Cat 1) is the cheapest scenario. Gray water (Cat 2, washing machine, dishwasher overflow) requires antimicrobial treatment. Cat 3 (sewer, unknown source) requires full PPE, biohazard disposal, and significantly more material removal.
Drying time
Some materials dry in 2 days, some in 7. Older buildings, plaster walls, hardwood floors, finished basements all take longer. Equipment running for more days = more cost.
Insurance reality
If your homeowners policy
covers it, the numbers above don’t matter much.
Most water damage from sudden, accidental causes (burst pipe, appliance failure, sewer backup with rider) is covered by standard homeowners insurance. When a claim is approved, the carrier pays the mitigation cost minus your deductible. Our job is to deliver an Xactimate-aligned file the carrier can approve quickly.
Mold has its own coverage caps (often $5K–$10K), we’ll tell you what’s likely covered and what’s not before you commit to scope.
Slow leaks ignored over months, foundation seepage from groundwater, and any damage where the carrier determines the homeowner failed to mitigate promptly are typically not covered. We’re honest about this on-site.
Out-of-pocket reference
Rough numbers if you’re paying
without insurance.
These are rough and St. Louis-market specific. They’re meant to ground expectations, not to quote your job. We give a fixed quote after seeing the job, usually within 30 minutes of being on-site.
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Mold inspection + air-quality test
Roughly $375–$550 for a residential air-quality inspection with control sample and one affected-area sample. Surface samples $75–$125 each.
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Small water mitigation (single room, Cat 1)
Roughly $1,500–$3,500. Single-room saturation, 3–4 day drying, no demo or selective demo only.
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Mid-size water mitigation (multiple rooms, Cat 1–2)
Roughly $3,500–$8,000. Multiple rooms or whole basement, 4–7 day drying, some material removal.
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Large mitigation or Cat 3
Roughly $8,000–$25,000+. Whole basement, sewer water, significant tear-out, longer drying cycles.
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Mold remediation (single area)
Roughly $2,000–$6,000 for typical residential remediation including containment, removal, antimicrobial, and clearance test.
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Whole-home mold remediation
Roughly $8,000–$30,000+ depending on extent. Always preceded by testing, we don’t quote whole-home remediation without lab confirmation that whole-home work is what’s required.
Want a real number for your job?
Estimates are free. Live phone, twenty-four seven.