Why this site exists

Restoration is a fair industry with an unfair information problem: you shop for it once, usually at 2 a.m., standing in water. Quotes vary wildly and there's no menu on the wall.

RestoreMeter is a data project, not a contractor directory. We build budgeting estimates for restoration work from public records — Bureau of Labor Statistics wages for the trades that do the work and the IICRC S500 definitions the industry itself prices by — and we publish every assumption so the numbers can be checked, criticized, and corrected. Estimates are a heuristic model's output, not quotes or appraisals.

Use the calculator before you sign anything, read the guides so the process holds no surprises, and treat every figure here as a sanity check on a written scope — never a substitute for one.

Corrections

If a number looks wrong, it might be. The model, its inputs, and its build date are published on the methodology page; corrections and challenges to any assumption are genuinely welcome.