Water extraction: what the first hour costs and why it matters

Extraction is the first hour of a water damage job and the one that decides the rest. Water pulled out of the carpet, underlay and floor in that hour is water the dehumidifiers do not have to remove over the following days, and the drying equipment is billed by the day. Getting extraction done early is one of the cheapest lines in the whole job.

What extraction costs, on published rates

Two things stand out. Extraction is a small part of the total, and it is the part that changes the rest: every hour of extraction is a fixed $90, while every extra day of drying adds $69 per air mover and $149 per dehumidifier. A job that skips proper extraction to save an hour can run days longer.

Comparing emergency call-outs

The two published call-outs are not the same product, which is why the lower number is not automatically the cheaper visit. QLD Flood Restoration publishes a call-out from $149, with extraction charged on top from the first hour. Reztor Restoration publishes a $198 standard call-out that includes the first hour of work on site. For a visit that needs one hour of extraction, the first is $399 before GST on its published rates; the second is $198 with the first hour inside it, and its GST basis is not stated. Neither figure tells you how many hours the job needs, and that is the number to ask about.

Questions that make two emergency quotes comparable on the phone:

• Does the call-out include any time on site, and how much?
• What is the hourly rate for extraction after the first hour?
• Will you leave drying equipment the same day, and what is the minimum hire?
• Will you take moisture readings on the first visit and every day after?
• Are the rates including or excluding GST?

What extraction actually is

Extraction removes liquid water. Drying removes the moisture that is left in the materials after it. The two are billed separately because they are different jobs:

• Standing water is pumped or vacuumed off hard floors first.
• Carpet and underlay are extracted with a weighted head that presses water out of both at once. This is the step billed by the hour on the rate card.
• What extraction cannot reach — wall cavities, subfloors, underlay that has to come up — is what the drying equipment and moisture readings are for. Wet carpet covers whether carpet is dried in place or lifted.

Hard floors behave differently from carpet. Tiles over a slab shed standing water easily, but water that has run under them, or under vinyl and floating floors, is out of reach of any extraction head; what matters there is how quickly the floor is lifted or the subfloor is ventilated, and the moisture readings decide which. Solid timber can sometimes be dried and sanded rather than replaced, and repair costs shows why that difference is worth asking about.

Where the water is contaminated — sewage, floodwater, or water that has sat — extraction is the start of removal, not drying: porous materials it soaked are taken out. Category 3 water covers that.

Before the restorer arrives

1. Stop the water. The isolating tap on the appliance or fixture, or the main at the meter.
2. Power. Do not use electrical appliances standing in water. After a flood, the power stays off until an electrician has tested the wiring — flood restoration sets out the order.
3. Photograph where the water came from and how far it spread, before anything is moved.
4. Lift what you can off wet carpet: furniture legs, rugs, anything with dye that can bleed.

Extraction and the insurance claim

Stopping and limiting the damage belongs with the claim, not apart from it. The Insurance Council of Australia has said that you don’t need to wait for an assessor to visit your property before beginning clean-up (Insurance Council of Australia, Insurers encourage clean-up following widespread NSW flooding). Keep the extraction invoice, the photographs and the daily moisture readings that follow; they are the record of what was wet and what was done about it. Making the claim covers what to send.

The published rate card this site reproduces is not priced by city. What changes is who responds, whose pipes failed, and how long the drying runs in the local climate. The city pages cover each: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Gold Coast, Canberra, Newcastle, Geelong.

Common questions