Water Damage Repair Cost Calculator: $3 to $7.50 a Sq Ft

Extraction and drying only, at HomeAdvisor's June 2026 per square foot rates. Repairs come on top; the calculator adds them.

Is it urgent? Water damage repair cost rises while it sits

• Call now: sewage or floodwater inside, a sagging or dripping ceiling, or water near outlets or the electrical panel.
• Today: any wet drywall, carpet or subfloor. The EPA says drying within 24 to 48 hours usually prevents mold; the how fast mold grows counts the hours for you.
• Can wait a few days: an old, dry stain with firm drywall and no musty smell.

How the water damage repair cost calculator works

The calculator starts with the biggest line on most bills: getting the water out and drying the structure. HomeAdvisor prices that by the square foot and by the water category, $3 to $4 for clean water, $4 to $6.50 for gray and $7 to $7.50 for black. Everything else is added only if you tick it: flooring that has to come out, drywall cut out of the walls, a ceiling, mold, or an after-hours start.

Every rate in it is printed below with its source and date, so you can check the math by hand. Nothing is adjusted for your state or ZIP code, because none of the national guides publish local multipliers. If you want local numbers, our city pages list what each city publishes, and most do not publish a price at all.

The rates the calculator uses. Flooring is scaled from Fixr's price per 200 sq ft to your square footage.

Water damage repair cost per square foot by category

Category describes how contaminated the water is, and it moves the price more than anything else. Clean water from a supply line is Category 1. Gray water from a washer or dishwasher is Category 2. Sewage and floodwater are Category 3. R&R Magazine's guide to the IICRC categories says clean water can turn into Category 2 or 3 if it sits, so a slow start can move you up a row in the table.

HomeGuide's per square foot figures run higher than HomeAdvisor's, $4 to $6 for clean water up to $9 to $12 for black water (February 2026). Treat those as the top of the market. The full water damage restoration cost guide compares all five national guides side by side, plus costs by damage class and by room.

What the calculator leaves out

• Equipment days. HomeAdvisor says extraction takes at least three days and a home can take about five days to dry. A slow-drying job adds days of rented equipment.
• Cabinets, trim, paint and contents. These are priced job by job.
• Fixing the leak itself. A burst pipe repair averages $500 per HomeAdvisor; see burst pipe repair and leak detection.
• Black water extras. Forbes Home says a Category 3 total cannot be estimated up front, because every material the water touched is replaced. Read sewage cleanup for that job.
• Your insurance. The total is before any claim and before your deductible.

Water damage repair cost examples

A 250 square foot laundry room flooded by a clean supply line, carpet left in place and dried: $750 to $1,000 at HomeAdvisor's clean water rate. Fixr's laundry room range for a full water damage job is $1,000 to $5,500, because many of those jobs include repairs.

A 500 square foot finished basement with gray water, carpet pulled and 200 square feet of drywall cut out: drying at $2,000 to $3,250, carpet at $1,125 to $5,000 and drywall at $300 to $600. That adds up to $3,425 to $8,850. Fixr puts drying a 500 square foot basement alone at $2,000 to $7,000. See basement flooding.

A stained bedroom ceiling under a leaking bathroom: HomeAdvisor's ceiling repair range of $450 to $1,600, plus the plumbing fix above it. Ceiling water damage repair covers who to call first.

Does insurance pay the estimate?

Often, if the water was sudden and accidental. The Texas Department of Insurance says most homeowner and renters policies cover sudden water damage such as a burst pipe, a toilet overflow or a broken washer hose, and most do not cover gradual leaks or the mold that comes with them. FEMA's FloodSmart says most homeowners policies do not cover flood damage at all.

Call your insurer early and photograph the damage before cleanup, room by room, as FEMA advises. Never sign over your claim to a restoration company; if one asks for an assignment of benefits, say no and call your insurer.

How the call works: how calls work. Ask the company for its license number where your state licenses the work, and for proof of insurance.

What to do while you wait for the estimate

1. Stop the water at the fixture valve or the main shutoff.
2. If water is near outlets or the panel, turn the power off only from a dry spot. Otherwise stay out and call.
3. Photograph every wet room and item before you move anything.
4. Call your insurer if you plan to claim it.
5. Open windows if the air outside is dry, and move rugs and furniture off wet floors.
6. Write down when the water started. The how fast mold grows uses that time.