Water damage gets estimated in Xactimate from the affected materials outward, with the drying itself written as its own block of lines. Extraction, air movers, dehumidifiers, air scrubbers, wall cavity drying, and antimicrobial treatment live in the WTR category, and the drying equipment lines are per-unit, per-day lines, so the drying log drives what the file shows. A working water scope moves room by room: what got wet, what comes out versus what dries in place, how the work area is contained, and the repairs that follow the dry-out. The standard most restoration firms document against, IICRC S500, labels every loss by water category (1 through 3) and class (1 through 4), and those labels set how much drying the structure needs. Then the adjuster compares that plan to the scope on file, which is where the omissions usually show.
Where drying equipment lives in a Xactimate estimate
Drying equipment is not a note at the bottom of a water scope. In Xactimate it is its own block of line items inside the WTR category, measured the way the equipment is used on site. Standard air movers (the WTRDRY family) are day lines. Dehumidifiers (the WTRDHM family) are day lines sized by capacity. HEPA vacuuming bills hourly, wall cavity drying runs per 24-hour period, and applied treatments like antimicrobial are area lines. The full category is browsable in the water category of the code directory, so you can see the exact line text and unit a given machine or treatment expects.
The count of machines is a documented judgment, not a guess. The class of the loss sets the drying load, the moisture readings set where the machines go, and the daily readings keep both honest. A dryer count you can defend is a count that traces back to a reading.
Write the scope of work room by room
A water damage scope reads in four passes per room, and the order matters more than the wording.
- What got wet. The materials and assemblies, floor by floor: carpet and pad, hardwood, tile and its substrate, drywall, insulation, framing, and cabinets. Note the water category (1 through 3 under IICRC S500), because a contaminated loss changes what can be dried and what has to go.
- What comes out and what dries in place. The tear-out decisions: baseboards and shoe mold, drywall cut heights, carpet and pad removal, cabinet toe kicks. Set the cut lines from the moisture readings rather than from habit, and photograph the readings at the cuts.
- How it is contained. Containment and protection: negative air with HEPA filtration, zip wall partitions, and floor protection along the work path, so the rest of the house stays out of the work zone.
- What follows the dry-out. The repairs: drywall, texture and paint, trim, flooring, reinstalled after the structure reaches the dry standard. Price the rebuild to the dry-out plan, never before it.
The class of the loss (1 through 4) captures how much water the space took on and how far it has spread. It is the label the equipment count hangs on, so it belongs on the scope before the machine list is written.
What carrier scopes tend to leave off
First-pass water scopes share a pattern: the equipment gets priced and the world around the equipment does not. The items that come back missing most often are the setup and treatment lines.
- Containment. Zip wall partitions and the peel and seal zippers at the entries, negative air machines, and the HEPA filters on the exhaust.
- Antimicrobial treatment. The area treatment after tear-out, billed by the square foot of affected surface.
- HEPA vacuuming and filtration. The cleaning pass after demolition and the final pass before the rebuild.
- Wall cavity drying. Injection-style cavity drying when the wall assembly is wet but the drywall stays, written as per 24-hour period lines with the monitoring behind them.
- Moisture documentation. The test lines and reading days that prove the dry-out was real, including the pre and post readings the adjuster will ask for.
None of these are exotic. They are the standard mechanics of a professional dry-out, and they are exactly where a template scope stops. Run the finished scope against a checklist instead of your memory: while competitors convert what is already on the PDF, ESXPress identifies and restores what the carrier omitted, item by item, in the same pass.
From the carrier's PDF to a working estimate
Most water claims arrive as a carrier PDF, an adjuster's estimate with the rooms and the equipment already written into it. Upload the PDF, and the converter builds an import-ready .esx with every line keeping the price printed on the carrier's document. Lines that cannot be matched to a code keep that price and are flagged for review instead of being guessed at, which matters on a water file more than almost anywhere, because an equipment day that never gets logged is an equipment day that never gets billed.
Import the file into your licensed Xactimate and let it reprice against your region's price list. Then work the scope: confirm the equipment days against the drying log, add back the containment and treatment lines, and check the structure with the free ESX validator before the file goes anywhere. The import mechanics have their own guide, and the taxonomy of what carriers omit maps the omissions by trade.
Ready to see what the last carrier water scope left off? Start free. 5 conversions a month, no card required. The PDF to Xactimate page covers the conversion itself, and the supplement workflow covers what to do with the list once you have it.
Review required: AI-assisted content requires professional review. Verify every line item, price, and total against your actual scope before submission.