United Water Restoration Group Cost (2026): What You'll Actually Pay

How Franchise Restoration Pricing Actually Works

United Water Restoration Group, like nearly every national restoration brand, builds estimates in Xactimate — the same line-item pricing software insurance carriers use. That means the per-unit rates are rarely the negotiation; carriers recognize them. What decides your final number is scope: how many rooms enter the estimate, how much material gets torn out, and how many days of equipment rental the drying log justifies.

The Ranges to Expect

For typical residential water losses, franchise pricing lands in familiar bands: roughly $1,500–$4,500 for standard mitigation — extraction, drying equipment, monitoring — on a contained loss, and $5,000–$15,000+ once Category 3 water, mold remediation, or reconstruction joins the job. Where a specific invoice falls inside those bands is mostly decided in the first 48 hours, when scope gets defined.

Franchise Reality: The Brand Isn't the Crew

United Water Restoration Group locations are independently owned and operated. The national brand sets standards and marketing; the local owner sets hiring, training follow-through, and scheduling. Practical translation: reviews for your specific branch are worth more than the national name — check them, and ask who on the crew holds IICRC WRT (and ASD for structural drying claims).

Keeping the Invoice Honest

Three habits cover most of it:

1. 1Line-item scope in writing before demolition. You're entitled to the full Xactimate estimate — read it before tear-out, not after.
2. 2Daily moisture logs. Every equipment-day on the invoice should map to a documented reading that justified it. Drying that isn't measured isn't managed.
3. 3Separate mitigation from reconstruction. Emergency drying deserves speed; rebuild work deserves competitive bids. They're different agreements, and treating them that way is often the single biggest saving on a large loss.

Where HearthDry Fits

If you're comparing options for an active water emergency, any 24-hour IICRC-standard company can take the job — including in areas where franchise response times run long. For insured losses either path prices similarly; response speed and crew quality are the real differentiators.

What the Estimate Looks Like

A United Water Restoration Group estimate is an Xactimate document: a sketch of the affected rooms with dimensions, then line items priced per square foot, per linear foot, per day or per each. On a typical clean-water loss the list runs to emergency service, extraction, pad removal, a drywall flood cut where the walls got wet, detach-and-reset of baseboard, antimicrobial where the category calls for it, air movers and dehumidifiers per day, and a monitoring visit per day. Reconstruction — drywall, paint, flooring — is a separate estimate, and it should be, because it deserves competitive bids while the drying does not have time for them.

Insured vs. Out of Pocket

For a covered loss — sudden and accidental water — the insurer pays Xactimate rates as mitigation and the franchise usually bills the carrier directly; the homeowner's exposure is the deductible plus anything the adjuster declines. Read the authorization for a clause that makes you liable for declined lines before signing it. For an uninsured loss, the same estimate is a negotiable document: ask what is dried rather than replaced, whether equipment days are tied to readings, and whether the emergency premium applies to a daytime call. What restoration costs across the market gives the ranges; the SERVPRO price page is the closest franchise comparison.

Questions for the Estimator

• Which technician on this job holds IICRC WRT or ASD?
• What is the drying goal in moisture readings, and will I get the daily log?
• What is coming out, and what is being dried in place — and why?
• Does this estimate include reconstruction? If not, who does it and when?
• What happens if the insurer declines a line item?

If a Franchise Can't Come Tonight

Franchise territories run thin during regional storms and freezes, and a two-day wait on a wet house is the expensive outcome. Any 24-hour company working to the IICRC S500 standard can start extraction; what to expect when you call and the five-minute vetting apply to whoever answers.