What to Expect During Mitigation & Repair
A typical insurance restoration with Keystone Restoration Group runs in five phases — emergency response, drying (3-5 days), insurance approval, rebuild, and final walkthrough — with one company managing all of it and billing your carrier directly.
Restoration feels chaotic from the inside — strangers, machines, insurance jargon, and your home opened up. It's actually a predictable process with five phases. Here's each one, what's normal, and what we need from you.
Phase 1 — Emergency response (Day 1)
A crew arrives within 45 minutes, stops further damage, extracts standing water, and documents everything: photos, moisture readings, the source of the loss. Drying equipment is set the same visit. You'll know exactly what's wet, what we're doing about it, and what happens next before we leave.
Phase 2 — Drying & monitoring (Days 2-5)
Commercial dehumidifiers and air movers run continuously — they're loud, and that's normal; please leave them on. A technician checks moisture readings daily and adjusts equipment. Materials that can't be saved (soaked pad, swollen baseboard) are removed and logged. Drying ends when meters — not the calendar — say the structure is dry.
Phase 3 — Insurance scope & approval (Week 1-2)
We write the repair estimate in Xactimate, the same pricing system your adjuster uses, and submit it with the photo and moisture documentation. The adjuster may visit or approve from the file. This is usually the quietest stretch of the project — approval timing belongs to the carrier, and we follow up so it doesn't stall.
Phase 4 — Rebuild (timeline varies by scope)
Once approved, our BuildWorks crew restores what was removed: drywall, texture, paint, flooring, trim, and finish work. You pick selections; we schedule work in consecutive blocks so the project moves instead of dribbling. A patch-and-paint takes days; a full basement takes a few weeks.
Phase 5 — Walkthrough & closeout (final day)
You walk the finished space with us, anything on the punch list gets fixed, and we close out the claim file with your carrier. You pay your deductible; we collect the rest from insurance directly.
Your job in all of this? Two things.
Leave the equipment running, and call us the moment anything feels unclear. Everything else — drying science, paperwork, adjuster phone tag — is what you hired us for.
Straight Answers
Process Questions, Answered
How long does the whole process take, start to finish?
Typical residential water losses run two to five weeks start to finish: roughly a week of emergency work and drying, one to two weeks for insurance approval, and the remainder for rebuild. Small losses move faster; large or complex claims take longer. We give you a written timeline at the scope stage and update it if anything shifts.
Do I have to be home while equipment runs?
No — after setup, daily monitoring visits take 15-30 minutes and can be scheduled around you, or done with your permission while you're out. The important thing is leaving the equipment running; turning it off at night adds days to the dry-down.
What will I actually have to pay?
For a covered claim, your policy deductible — that's typically it. We bill your insurance carrier directly for both mitigation and rebuild. If any part of your loss isn't covered, we tell you before that work begins, with a clear price, so there are no surprises.
What if the adjuster's estimate seems too low?
It happens — first estimates sometimes miss scope. Because our file documents every removed material and moisture reading, we submit supplements with evidence, and they're usually approved. You shouldn't accept an incomplete repair to fit an incomplete estimate, and with us you don't have to argue it alone.
Want This Process Working for You?
One call to (801) 948-2501 starts Phase 1 — and the rest follows the plan you just read.
(801) 948-2501Answered 24/7 by a real person — never a machine