When water damage happens, the pressure to hire someone immediately is real. Water is spreading. Insurance is calling. Neighbors have opinions. And contractors appear at your door within hours of the event. In that environment, it is easy to make a hiring decision that you will regret for months as the project drags, the cost balloons, or the mold comes back.
What follows is a framework for making that call without getting burned. Use it before you have a problem, or use it right now while someone is standing in your driveway with a clipboard.
What to Look for Before You Make Any Calls
Full-Service vs. Extraction-Only Companies
The first thing to establish is whether a company handles the complete project, from emergency extraction and drying through final rebuild, or whether it specializes only in the mitigation and remediation phases and expects you to hire a separate contractor for reconstruction.
Neither model is inherently wrong, but you need to know which one you are hiring. A company that handles only extraction and drying will leave you with a dried-out, demoished structure and no clear path to getting your home finished. A full-service company manages the project from first call through final walkthrough, coordinating all phases under one contract and one point of contact. For most Lehigh Valley homeowners dealing with a significant water event, full-service is the preferable model.
Ask directly: “Do you handle the complete restoration, rebuild included, or do you stop after drying and remediation?” If they hedge or are unclear, treat that as a signal.
Licensing and Insurance
Pennsylvania requires contractors performing work that involves plumbing, electrical, or structural repairs to hold the appropriate trade licenses. A restoration company performing a full rebuild must be licensed as a general contractor (Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor registration) and must either hold or subcontract to licensed plumbers, electricians, and HVAC technicians as needed.
Ask for proof of:
- Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor (HIC) registration, required for residential renovation work over $500
- General liability insurance, minimum $1 million per occurrence; request a certificate of insurance naming you as additional insured
- Workers compensation insurance, protects you from liability if a worker is injured on your property
don’t hire a company that can’t produce these documents before work begins. The consequences of working with an uninsured contractor, a worker injury on your property, a dispute over work quality with no professional liability coverage behind it, are yours to absorb.
Local Presence
Large national restoration chains operate in the Lehigh Valley, as do locally owned companies. Both can do excellent work. The practical difference is in accountability and consistency. A locally owned company with a fixed address in Allentown, Bethlehem, or the surrounding area has its reputation in the community at stake and will be easier to reach if problems arise after the project closes. National chains dispatch local franchisees whose quality and responsiveness vary significantly by market.
Ask where the company is based and who will be the primary project manager on your job. If you are talking to a dispatch center and will only meet the crew after hiring, that is a different relationship than talking directly to a company owner or project manager who will be on site.
Questions to Ask Before Hiring
Experience With Your Specific Event Type
Water damage restoration encompasses a wide range of events, a burst pipe in a finished basement is a very different project from a Category 3 sewage backup, which is different again from a fire suppression system discharge, which differs from storm flood damage. Ask the company about their specific experience with your type of event and ask for references from comparable projects.
Response Time
For emergency water damage, response time is a key performance metric. Ask: How quickly can you have a crew on site? Do you have 24/7 emergency dispatch? How many crews do you have available for emergency response at any given time?
In the Lehigh Valley, a reputable emergency restoration company should be able to dispatch a crew within 1–2 hours of your call, 24 hours a day. Companies that can’t guarantee this response time for emergency calls aren’t structured for emergency response, they are structured for scheduled work, which is a different business model.
Scope of Work Documentation
Ask how the scope of work is determined and documented. A professional company will:
- Conduct a formal moisture assessment on arrival using moisture meters and thermal imaging
- Document baseline moisture readings throughout the affected area
- Produce a written scope of work specifying every phase of the project, materials to be used, and expected outcomes
- Prepare estimates in a format consistent with what insurance adjusters use (Xactimate is the standard)
A company that can’t or won’t produce written documentation before starting work is operating in a way that makes disputes, scope changes, and overcharging much more likely.
Mold Testing and Clearance Protocols
If mold remediation is part of the project, ask:
- Do you conduct pre-remediation testing to establish the type and extent of mold contamination?
- Do you use a third-party laboratory for air and surface sample analysis?
- Do you provide post-remediation clearance testing before reconstruction begins?
- Is the clearance testing conducted by an independent third party, or by your own company?
The most important of these is independent clearance testing. A company that clears its own mold remediation work has an obvious financial incentive to declare it complete. Independent clearance by a third-party industrial hygienist or environmental testing company is the only way to verify remediation effectiveness with confidence.
Insurance Direct Billing
Ask whether the company works directly with insurance carriers and can prepare estimates in Xactimate format. Most professional restoration companies do this routinely, it is how the industry works. Companies that don’t work with insurance or can’t prepare Xactimate estimates are generally smaller operations that may not have the administrative infrastructure for complex insurance claims. This isn’t necessarily disqualifying, but it means more of the insurance coordination work falls on you.
Red Flags That Should Stop You From Signing
Assignment of Benefits (AOB) Demands
An Assignment of Benefits is a document that transfers your insurance claim rights to the contractor. Instead of the insurance company paying you, who then pays the contractor, an AOB allows the contractor to bill the insurance company directly and to pursue the claim, including litigation, without your involvement.
AOB arrangements have been heavily abused in the restoration industry and have led to inflated claims, extended litigation, and homeowners who lost control of their own insurance claims. Pennsylvania hasn’t enacted the blanket AOB restrictions that Florida has, but this doesn’t make AOB arrangements safe for homeowners. Don’t sign an AOB under pressure at an emergency scene. If a contractor requires an AOB before they will work on your home, that is a serious red flag. You can authorize a contractor to work with your insurer for billing purposes without signing an AOB, insist on a standard contract instead.
Unusually Low Initial Estimates
Some contractors quote very low prices for the initial extraction and drying phase, then expand the scope and price dramatically once work is underway and the homeowner is committed. This tactic, sometimes called “low-ball and expand”, is easier to execute in restoration than in almost any other trade because the full extent of damage is often genuinely unknown at the start. It is also a tactic that bad actors exploit deliberately.
Protect yourself by asking for a detailed written scope that addresses all phases, not just extraction, and including change order language that requires your written approval before any additional work is performed beyond the agreed scope.
No Physical Address or Portable Business
After major flooding events in the Lehigh Valley, out-of-area contractors appear who have no local presence, no local license registration, and no local accountability. They take a deposit and provide substandard work, or disappear. Verify that any contractor you hire has a verifiable local or regional business address, a real phone number that reaches a local office, and Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor registration that you can verify through the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s website.
Pressure to Sign Immediately
Any contractor who creates extreme urgency pressure, “you must sign right now or we can’t hold the crew,” “if you don’t commit today the price doubles”, is using a high-pressure sales tactic. Legitimate restoration companies understand that homeowners need to call their insurance company, review a contract, and make a considered decision. The urgency of the water damage situation is real; the urgency to sign with any specific contractor right now is manufactured.
How to Compare Bids
Apples-to-Apples Scope Comparison
When you receive multiple bids, compare them on the basis of scope, not only total price. A bid that is $3,000 lower than competitors may be lower because it omits the post-remediation clearance testing, uses inferior replacement materials, or doesn’t include restoration of one area the other bids do cover. Walk through each bid line by line and confirm that each covers the same scope before using price as a differentiator.
Xactimate vs. Non-Standard Estimates
Insurance adjusters use Xactimate pricing software as their standard for evaluating restoration costs. A company that provides an Xactimate estimate makes it easier for your adjuster to approve the scope without a lengthy review process. A handwritten estimate or a QuickBooks invoice that doesn’t break out tasks and materials in the way adjusters expect can cause delays and pushback from your carrier, even if the pricing is accurate.
Payment Terms
Standard industry practice is to collect a percentage at project milestones, a small deposit or nothing upfront, payment at remediation completion, payment at restoration completion. Any contractor requiring more than 25–30% of the total contract as an upfront payment before work begins is asking for more risk than you should accept. For insurance-direct-billed projects, many companies collect nothing until the insurance funds are released.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I wait for my insurance adjuster to inspect before hiring anyone?
For emergency extraction and mitigation, don’t wait. Your policy requires you to mitigate, to prevent further damage, and you can authorize emergency work to begin before the adjuster arrives. Document the damage thoroughly before work starts, keep all receipts, and notify your adjuster that work is proceeding. For the restoration (rebuild) phase, your adjuster should inspect and approve the scope before you commit to a contract.
Can I use any contractor, or does my insurance company require a specific company?
Pennsylvania law doesn’t require you to use your insurance company’s preferred or recommended contractor. You have the right to choose your own contractor. Insurance companies may have a network of “preferred” contractors who have agreed to their pricing schedules, using a network contractor may simplify the billing process, but you aren’t obligated to do so. If you have a preferred contractor or receive a referral you trust, you can use them regardless of insurer preference.
What if I am not happy with the work after the project is complete?
Before signing any contract, ask about the warranty on workmanship. A professional restoration company should warranty its work, typically 1 year on labor, with manufacturer warranties on materials. If problems arise during the warranty period, document them in writing and give the contractor a reasonable opportunity to remedy them. If they don’t respond, you may have recourse through the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s contractor fraud division or, for disputes within the adjuster’s original scope, through your insurance company’s claim process.
How do I find restoration companies in the Lehigh Valley?
Start with referrals from neighbors, your homeowner’s association, your real estate agent, or your insurance agent, people with local knowledge are more reliable than anonymous online reviews. Then verify independently: check the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s contractor registration database, request certificates of insurance directly, and ask for local references. The goal is to verify, not just accept, what a contractor tells you about themselves.
Is there a difference between a restoration company and a remediation company?
In practical terms, most residential water damage companies in the Lehigh Valley offer both. Remediation refers to the removal of the hazard, water, mold, contaminated materials. Restoration refers to returning the home to pre-loss condition through rebuilding. Some specialized companies focus only on remediation (hazardous material removal) and expect you to hire a separate contractor for the rebuild. For most homeowners, a full-service company that handles both is simpler and more efficient.