FlashCrafterProperty restoration (water, fire, mold, storm) playbook
A working checklist for owners of independent restoration and local service businesses in the United States, built on 2023–2026 published figures and Google's own profile policies.
This playbook covers three things a restoration owner can actually check this week: whether the numbers inside the business line up with published benchmarks, whether the rate card matches what the market publishes, and whether the Google Business Profile will survive contact with Google's guidelines. Every figure is dated and attributed. Where published sources disagree, both numbers are shown.
Practical playbook
Pull your last full year and compare it to the RIA 2024 Cost of Doing Business Report figures: gross profit margin about 50%, net profit margin about 14%, total overhead 36% of revenue with overhead labor at 27%. Then write down where your project-management and estimator labor sits — overhead or cost of goods sold — and restate your overhead number both ways. Why it works: The report states that firms split on whether project-management labor belongs in overhead or COGS, and that this single classification choice creates substantial variations in reported overhead. Until your classification is fixed, an overhead percentage cannot be compared to anything, and a marketing budget sized as a percentage of revenue has no baseline.
Place your company in a revenue band and note where the RIA sample sits: the $1M–$5.99M band is the predominant segment of respondents, with significantly higher average revenues at the top end. Use that band, not national averages, when you decide what an owner's salary, overhead ratio, and lead budget should look like at your size. Why it works: The benchmark data is concentrated in the $1M–$5.99M band, so the averages describe companies of that size. Comparing a $300K owner-operator to a 50% gross margin figure derived mainly from multi-million-dollar firms produces conclusions about the wrong business.
Compare your trailing 12-month average ticket per service line to these published values: residential restoration project about $8,000, commercial project about $15,000, water damage job about $3,000 typical with most jobs $1,200–$5,000 (Fixr) and a $3,865 national average (Servpro's own guide), fire damage about $11,900 with most jobs $3,000–$40,000, mold remediation about $3,500 with a typical range of $1,500–$9,000. Flag any line where you sit far below the range and inspect your scoping, not just your lead volume. Why it works: These are the ticket values the market publishes. If your water jobs average well under the published typical, more leads raise revenue slowly while fixing scope on existing jobs raises it without new acquisition cost.
Build your water rate card around published category differentials per square foot: extraction of clean water $3.75–$4.25, gray water $4.10–$6.50, black water $7.00–$7.50 (Fixr). Servpro's guide runs $3.50 for minor clean-water work, $5.25 for moderate, $7.50 for severe black water. Add the published class ranges as gut checks: Class 1 $150–$400, Class 2 $500–$1,000, Class 3 $1,000–$3,000, Class 4 $20,000–$100,000. Why it works: The published ranges show extraction cost rising roughly with contamination severity, and the class ranges span two orders of magnitude. A flat water price undercharges black water and Class 3–4 structural work, where the published spreads are widest.
Compare your hourly rate card to the published band of $70–$200 per hour charged by restoration companies. Then stop quoting national cost-guide figures as your prices: Xactimate price lists vary by ZIP, so build quotes from the price list that applies to your market. Why it works: The published figures are national estimates, and cost-guide prices are presented as though they were what a company charges. Carrier-paid amounts and local price lists differ by ZIP, so a national average used as a quote will be wrong on any given job.
Line-item mold on every water estimate instead of absorbing it. Published figures to test your line item against: mold following water damage adds $1,200–$3,800 (Servpro's guide); remediation runs $10–$30 per square ft; by location, bathroom $500–$1,500, basement $1,500–$4,000, attic $1,500–$9,000, whole home $10,000–$30,000. Why it works: The published ranges treat mold as a separate priced scope with its own per-square-foot rate and location tiers. Bundling it into a water number makes the added remediation work invisible on the estimate and leaves the whole-home tier, which runs to $30,000, unpriced.
On your site and in phone intake, state the boundary US EPA guidance sets: a moldy patch under about 10 square feet is usually a job a homeowner can handle. Qualify anything above it as professional work, and say so plainly before the inspection. Why it works: It is the published size boundary at which the homeowner-versus-hire decision flips. Publishing the boundary builds trust on small calls and makes the case for professional work on larger ones without arguing about it.
When a customer cites an insurance payout figure, note that the compiled claim averages are 2018–2022 figures and that the compiler states they will be higher today. Quote current price-guide and local price-list figures instead, and date any claim average you publish. Why it works: The claim averages are multi-year figures from a period the compiler itself flags as dated. A quote anchored to 2018–2022 averages understates today's job and starts the negotiation at a number the industry has already moved past.
Set the profile name to exactly the name on your signage, website, and stationery. Remove city names, service keywords, and any other addition from the name field. Why it works: Google's business representation guidelines require the profile name to match the real-world name and name adding location or service keywords to the name as keyword stuffing. This is one of the enforcement points where profiles are restricted, so a stuffed name trades a possible short-term relevance nudge for suspension risk.
For a restoration company that visits customers rather than receiving them at a storefront, configure the profile as a service-area business: set the service areas and do not display an address. Why it works: Google's guidelines direct service-area businesses to set a service area rather than show an address. It is the rule that governs the standard restoration setup, and it keeps the profile consistent with how the business actually operates.
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Vendor pages change. Figures are as published on the capture date; confirm before deciding.