$1,000 An Hour: Five Xactimate Codes for Water Damage Success

4 min readFeb 9, 2015

Five Ways to Rev Up Your Mitigation Revenue.

Would you like to make $1,000 an hour? Did you know that you’ve already got the tools to do so? You’re probably already doing these things. But you’re not getting paid for it if you’re not properly documenting your losses.

A properly trained and equipped Water Technician should be creating at least $1,000 per hour of revenue for his or her company. Do you know what your hourly revenue is currently?

For better or worse, we all have to use Xactimate for water damage estimates (aren’t they actually bills?). If we have to use it, then why not find every line item available to help our bottom line? It’s plain and simple — master your Xactimate and make more money.

Here are five simple things that your crews are likely already doing. These are things, that if written down properly, can generate real profits for you. For our example, we’re going to imagine a carpeted room with wet carpet measuring 10 x 10 (100 ft2 of Floor Area).

Carpet Mask

– Xactimate Code: WTR-MASKFL

You charge: $0.41ft2 Time to Install: 3min

Revenue/Hr: $820

Floor masking is adhesive-backed plastic. It comes in rolls and is applied using a handled applicator

. I recommend using it on all entry and traffic areas that the crew will walk through during the course of their work. Just make sure it gets removed once the drying is done.

Cover and Protect

–Xactimate Code: WTR-PROT

You charge: $0.29ft2 Time to Install: 1.5min

Revenue/Hr: $1,160

Water Extraction — Xactimate Code: WTR-EXT

You charge: $0.53ft2 Time to Install: 3min

Revenue/Hr: $1,060

Water extraction is one of our most requested services, as well as one of the most profitable, if you do it efficiently. Truck-mounted equipment is much faster than portables. The key to proper documentation is getting the entire area extracted into your notes.

Water Extraction Weighted — Xactimate Code: WTR-EXTW

You charge: $0.92 ft2 Time to Install: 4min

Revenue/HR: $1,380

If you don’t own a Water Claw

, go buy one right now. A lot of people say that they take too long and aren’t worth the hassle. A lot of people are allergic to money. If used properly, weighted extraction takes a little longer than a regular wand. And the price per foot is nearly DOUBLE! At almost a DOLLAR per foot extracted, your ROI could be less than a day.