Pricing and quoting for restoration companies: insurance jobs, self-pay jobs and how price shapes your marketing
How to present restoration pricing when most jobs bill to a carrier, what to say to a self-pay mold customer, deposits and deductibles, good-better-best on rebuilds, and how pricing choices change which leads you should buy.
Restoration pricing is strange compared with other trades. On an insurance water loss the price is set by an estimating standard, negotiated with an adjuster, and paid weeks later by a carrier the customer barely talks to. On a self-pay mold job the homeowner wants a number on the phone. On a rebuild you are a general contractor again. A company that handles all three the same way loses money on at least one of them, and the way you price shapes which marketing is worth doing.
Insurance jobs: the price is the documentation
On a covered loss, the homeowner rarely asks what it costs. The adjuster does, line by line. The price you get paid depends on how well the job was documented, not on how well it was quoted.
That means the quote conversation on an insurance job is really a process conversation. What the homeowner needs to hear on the first call: you provide an itemized estimate using the same software the carrier uses, you document moisture readings daily, you photograph everything before demo, you bill the carrier directly, and the only money they pay you is the deductible. Say the deductible part out loud and early. The single most common complaint review in this trade is a homeowner surprised by a deductible invoice after the job.
Collect the deductible at the start of the job or at the first milestone, not at the end. A signed work authorization and a deductible payment on day one changes the end of the job from a collection problem to a walkthrough. Where state law allows direction of payment, get that signed on day one too.
Self-pay jobs: give a range on the phone
Mold inspections, small dry-outs the homeowner would rather not claim, odor removal after a cooking fire, crawl space moisture work: these are self-pay and the caller wants a number. Refusing to give one sends them to the next listing.
Give a range with a reason. "Most mold remediation jobs we do run between $1,500 and $6,000 depending on how many square feet are affected and whether we have to open walls. A bathroom ceiling is at the bottom of that, a finished basement is at the top. I can have someone meter it and give you a firm number tomorrow." That answer gets an appointment. "We would have to come out and look" does not.
Put those ranges on the website too, on a pricing page that explains how insurance jobs work and gives honest ranges for self-pay work. The website guide covers the page. Ranges on the site filter out the callers who thought mold removal cost $200 and bring in the ones who are ready to spend.
Typical self-pay ranges in most markets, for reference and not as a price list:
- Mold inspection with moisture readings: $200 to $500, often credited against remediation
- Small mold remediation, one room: $1,500 to $3,500
- Larger remediation, basement or attic: $3,500 to $8,000 and up
- Minor water dry-out, no demo: $1,200 to $3,000
- Odor removal, smoke or pet: $800 to $3,000
Adjust for your market. The point is to have a range you can say without hesitation.
Good-better-best on the rebuild
Mitigation has little room for options. The water has to come out and the structure has to dry. The rebuild is where a three-tier quote earns its keep.
After a kitchen loss, the carrier pays to restore to pre-loss condition. The homeowner often wants better than pre-loss, and the moment they are already living with a torn-out kitchen is the moment they decide. Quote three ways: the carrier-covered restoration to match what was there, an upgraded version with better cabinets and counters where the homeowner pays the difference, and a full remodel option using the loss as the starting point. Most pick the middle. The upgrade is pure self-pay margin on a customer who is already yours.
Do the same on floors after a water loss and on a bathroom after a supply line failure. Present it in writing, with the carrier portion and the homeowner portion on separate lines, so the adjuster never sees the upgrade mixed into the claim.
Deposits, payment and the deductible conversation
For self-pay work, take a deposit of 30% to 50% at signing and the balance at completion. For rebuilds, milestone payments: a deposit, a payment at rough-in, the balance at final. For insurance mitigation, the deductible at the start and the carrier payment on their schedule.
Offer financing for self-pay mold and rebuild upgrades. A $5,000 remediation becomes a monthly payment, and the share of self-pay callers who book goes up noticeably. The financing partner's fee is a marketing cost, and usually a cheaper one than another lead source.
Write the deductible conversation into the script for whoever answers the phone. "Your insurance covers the work and you pay us your deductible, which is usually $500 to $2,500 depending on your policy. We collect that when we start. Everything else goes to the carrier." Said once, early, it prevents the review that says "they surprised us with a bill."
How pricing changes your marketing
Pricing decisions decide which leads are worth buying. Some examples with round numbers:
A company that only does mitigation and refers out rebuilds has an average job around $3,000 to $5,000. At a $200 cost per booked job from Google Ads, the lead cost is about 5% of revenue, which is sustainable. At a $350 shared aggregator lead that closes one in four, the cost per booked job is $1,400, which is not.
A company that does mitigation and rebuild has an average job that can run $15,000 to $40,000 on a serious loss. For that company, a $600 property-manager relationship built through cold calls or a $150 mold lead from Meta that becomes a rebuild is cheap, and it can afford to bid more aggressively on emergency search than the mitigation-only competitor next to it.
A company that leans on self-pay mold needs a lower cost per lead because the ticket is smaller and the close rate on price shoppers is lower. For that company, Meta inspection offers and the Google profile matter more than expensive emergency search terms.
Know your average job by type and your margin by type before you set an ad budget. The benchmark report tells you how you compare on reviews; your own books tell you what a job is worth. Both numbers decide what a lead should cost.
Frequently asked
Should I publish a price list? No. Publish ranges for self-pay work and an explanation of how insurance billing works. A fixed price list invites adjuster disputes and boxes you in on jobs that turn out bigger.
What if the adjuster cuts my estimate? Supplement with documentation. Daily moisture logs, photos and the standard's drying requirements are what win supplements. This is also why the documentation paragraph belongs on your website; it tells the next adjuster what to expect.
Do I discount for cash? A small discount on self-pay work for payment in full is reasonable. Never discount the deductible. Where state law treats deductible waivers as insurance fraud, it is also illegal, and carriers watch for it.
If you want the pricing page, the phone script and the financing offer set up alongside the marketing that depends on them, any service on this site can be tried in the free 14-day trial.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, restoration companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor