What Is Xactimate? And Why It Matters in Insurance Restoration

Most homeowners never hear the word "Xactimate"—but it plays a big role in how your insurance claim is handled.

If you’ve filed a water or fire damage claim, your adjuster probably used it.
And if your contractor isn't using it too, you might be leaving money on the table.

🧾 What Is Xactimate?

Xactimate is the software used by nearly every insurance company to create repair estimates after a covered loss.

It includes pre-set pricing by ZIP code, and is updated every month to reflect material and labor costs in your area.

📐 How We Use It at PL Builders

We use Xactimate to create detailed estimates that:

• ✅ Match the format your adjuster already expects

• ✅ Include line-by-line breakdowns of every room, trade, and task

• ✅ Justify each item with F9 Notes—which explain why it's needed

• ✅ Make it easy to compare your adjuster’s estimate to ours

• ✅ Highlight what they missed—so you can get paid what you're really owed

🛑 It’s Not Just About Higher Numbers

This isn’t about inflating prices—it’s about accuracy.

We often copy the adjuster's estimate line-by-line, and then add what was missed.

Why?
Because adjusters work fast and often use templates or overlook matching laws and full-scope rebuilds.

We don’t just guess—we document, justify, and align with industry-standard pricing.

👷‍♂️ Real-Life Example:

We had a client with a kitchen water loss.
The mitigation company removed the lower cabinets due to water damage.
But the adjuster’s estimate only covered replacing the lowers—nothing else.

We rebuilt the adjuster’s scope in Xactimate, line by line—
and added the matching upper cabinets that were part of the same set.

Under California law (and in other matching states), this matters.
You can’t reasonably match new lowers to old uppers—and that makes them owed.

Because we used the same software, the adjuster could clearly see the difference—
and the claim was approved for full cabinet replacement.

That simple correction added over $6,000 to the payout.

🧠 Why It Matters to You

When you hire a contractor who uses Xactimate:

• Your estimate gets taken seriously

• You avoid delays from formatting or scope confusion

• And you protect your payout by showing exactly what’s owed

At PL Builders, we don’t submit guesses—we submit scopes that get approved.

📞 Need a second opinion on your insurance estimate?
We’re here to help. Call (951) 692-7688 or contact us online