You have water in your basement, you called three restoration companies in Fort Collins, and the numbers came back wildly different. One is a fraction of another. Nobody explained why.
This is one of the most common questions we get, and the honest answer is that the estimates aren’t measuring the same job. Here’s how to read them.
First: Any Number Given Before an Inspection Is a Guess
If a company quotes you over the phone without moisture readings, they’re pricing a scenario, not your house. It might be low to win the job and grow later, or high to cover unknowns.
Water damage pricing depends on how far the water travelled, which materials absorbed it, how long it sat, and whether it’s contaminated. None of those are knowable from a phone description — which is exactly why our inspection is free and why we won’t put a figure on a webpage.
The Five Things That Actually Move the Number
1. The affected area, which is bigger than the wet floor
The most common source of a low estimate is a scope built on what’s visible. Water travels along framing, wicks up drywall against gravity, moves under flooring and soaks insulation inside walls. Two inches of standing water routinely means sixteen to twenty-four inches of wet drywall.
If one company measured with thermal imaging and penetrating moisture meters and another looked at the floor, you’re comparing two different rooms. Ask every bidder: how did you determine the affected area, and can I see the moisture readings? A company that can’t produce numbers didn’t measure.
2. Water category
Clean water from a supply line is Category 1. Water with some contamination — a dishwasher, a washing machine discharge — is Category 2. Sewage or floodwater from outside is Category 3, and for Category 3 every porous material that absorbed it must be removed rather than dried. Carpet, pad, drywall, insulation, particleboard.
A bid that treats a sewer backup like a clean-water loss will always be cheaper. It will also leave contamination inside your home.
3. Equipment count and how long it runs
Air movers and dehumidifiers are billed per unit per day, and the correct number isn’t a preference — it’s calculated from affected square footage, the class of loss and the materials involved.
Under-equipping is a common way to look cheap: fewer machines, a shorter estimate, and a job that doesn’t actually reach dry standard. Over-equipping happens too. Ask: how many units, for how many days, and what calculation produced that?
4. What gets removed versus dried in place
This is often the single largest difference between two Fort Collins estimates.
Aggressive demolition is fast and easy to scope — tear it out, rebuild it. Drying in place with injection systems and drying mats takes more equipment, more days and more skill, but saves materials.
On a modern build, removal is frequently the sensible economic choice. On an Old Town home with plaster over lath, original hardwood and period trim, aggressive demo destroys value you cannot buy back at any price. A higher bid that preserves original material may be the far better deal — and a low bid that quietly assumes gutting your 1920s dining room isn’t a bargain.
5. Whether reconstruction is included
Mitigation is stopping the damage and drying the structure. Reconstruction is putting it back — drywall, texture, paint, trim, flooring, cabinets.
Some estimates cover only mitigation. Compare a mitigation-only bid against a mitigation-plus-rebuild bid and the first looks dramatically cheaper, right up until you’re hiring a separate contractor and coordinating them yourself. Ask plainly: does this include putting my house back?
Questions Worth Asking Every Bidder
- Can I see your moisture readings and the dry standard you’re drying to?
- What category and class did you assign this loss, and why?
- How many air movers and dehumidifiers, for how many days?
- What are you removing, what are you drying in place, and why?
- Does this include reconstruction, or mitigation only?
- Will you monitor and document daily readings?
- Do you bill my insurer directly, and do you handle the adjuster conversation?
- Do you do mold remediation in-house if we find it?
- Are you local, and what’s your actual response time at 2 a.m.?
A company that answers all nine comfortably has done the work. A company that gets vague on readings and scope has given you a number, not an estimate.
The Insurance Piece Changes the Math
Most water damage losses in Fort Collins — burst pipes, failed supply lines, appliance failures — are covered by homeowners insurance. So the practical question usually isn’t “which bid is cheapest,” it’s “which scope will my carrier approve, and what am I paying out of pocket?”
Insurers approve scopes supported by documentation. A properly measured, photographed, thoroughly logged scope gets approved. A vague one gets negotiated down, and the gap comes out of your pocket.
Which is why we keep saying this: call a restoration company before you call your insurance company. If you call your carrier first, a claim opens based on a description of damage nobody has assessed. If we document first — moisture mapping, thermal images, a real line-item scope — the claim is filed with evidence behind it and the approved scope reflects the actual damage.
Two Warnings
Storm chasers. After a big Front Range hail or flood event, out-of-state crews arrive, knock doors, take deposits and leave. Use a company with a local address you can drive to and a real history in Northern Colorado.
“We’ll waive your deductible.” This is a red flag, not a favor. It generally means the cost is being recovered by inflating the scope elsewhere, and it can create problems for you with your carrier.
What We Do
We inspect free, measure with thermal imaging and moisture meters, log daily readings until materials hit dry standard, dry in place wherever the numbers allow, handle mold in-house, do the reconstruction ourselves so one team is accountable start to finish, and work directly with every carrier.
We’re based in Johnstown, so Fort Collins is a straight run — typically about 60 minutes, 24/7. Revive is owned by Levi, born and raised in Northern Colorado, and family operated since 2016.
Water damage in Fort Collins? Call (720) 340-3499 — 24/7. And call even if you’re not sure it’s bad enough. Our meters answer that in minutes, and we’d much rather tell you your house is dry than meet you in a month with mold behind the baseboard.
See our full Fort Collins water damage restoration services, or read our other Fort Collins guides: water damage in Old Town’s older homes, flash flood risk after Spring Creek, water damage for rental property owners, and the first 24 hours after water damage. We also serve Timnath, Wellington, Windsor and Loveland — full list on our service areas page.