A plain-English guide to
restoring a property after the storm.

The first two days after a hurricane shape the next eighteen months of your claim. Most of what goes wrong in insurance restoration happens because no one documented the property in those first 48 hours.

Three things matter, in this order: safety, mitigation, and documentation.

Safety first. Don’t enter a structure with standing water, leaning walls, or active electrical hazards. If the structural envelope is compromised, wait for an inspection — Florida AHJs and the Red Cross will both red-tag unsafe properties.

Mitigation second. Your policy almost certainly requires you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage. That usually means tarping the roof, boarding broken openings, and starting water extraction in flooded areas. If you can’t do this safely yourself, this is what a licensed restoration contractor does on the first site visit. We tarp, board, dry out, and document.

Documentation third — and continuously. Photograph everything before you move it. Photograph the damaged contents. Photograph the building envelope from every elevation. Save soaked materials in a designated area if your adjuster asks to see them. Write down the date and time of the loss. Save weather reports for the event.

If you sign anything in the first 48 hours that isn’t a contract for emergency mitigation, slow down. Storm-chasers and Assignment-of-Benefits paperwork show up early, and most of the trouble owners get into is paperwork they signed when they were exhausted.

For SWFL property owners, our hurricane damage repair and storm damage repair services start with this first-48 work.

An insurance claim moves through four phases. Knowing where you are at any given moment is how you stay sane during the process.

Phase 1 — Notice of loss and initial inspection. You report the claim to your carrier. The carrier assigns a claim number and a field adjuster. The adjuster comes out and walks the property, takes their own photos, and writes their estimate. This usually happens within the first week or two for a typical claim. After a major event like Ian or Helene, it can take longer — sometimes much longer.

Phase 2 — First settlement and mitigation reimbursement. The carrier issues an initial check based on the adjuster’s estimate. This is often a partial settlement — actual cash value of the damage minus your deductible, with depreciation held back. If you’ve already done emergency mitigation (tarping, dry-out, board-up), receipts for that work usually get reimbursed in this round.

Phase 3 — Estimate negotiation and supplements. This is where most of the real work happens, and it’s where most owners feel lost. The initial estimate almost always misses things: hidden damage exposed during demolition, code-required upgrades, scope items the adjuster didn’t see on the first walk. A restoration contractor with insurance estimating experience opens supplemental claims for these items and documents them in a format the carrier accepts.

Phase 4 — Construction and final payment. Permitted work proceeds. Draws are released against completed work. Depreciation is recovered as the work is documented complete (more on this in the ACV vs RCV section). Final inspection, certificate of occupancy where applicable, warranty paperwork.

Our insurance claim restoration page covers this end-to-end for residential and commercial properties.

Xactimate is the estimating software most US property insurance carriers use to price losses. If your contractor doesn’t write in Xactimate, your scope reaches the adjuster as a generic line-item estimate that the carrier has to manually translate. Things get lost in that translation. They almost always get lost in the carrier’s favor.

When we write your restoration scope in Xactimate, three things change:

1. Line-item pricing matches your zip code. Xactimate uses regional pricing databases updated continuously. The numbers we put on a line item are the numbers your adjuster sees in their software. 2. Codes and categorization match. Every line item carries a code that maps to the carrier’s internal categorization. No "what do you mean by ‘drywall labor (medium)’" back-and-forth. 3. Supplements can be filed cleanly. When we discover hidden damage during demolition, we open a supplement in the same Xactimate file — the adjuster doesn’t have to reconcile your contractor’s spreadsheet against their software.

This isn’t magic. It’s plumbing. But it’s the plumbing most contractors don’t have, which is why most insurance claims get under-paid the first time.

Our principal’s skill set explicitly includes claims management and resolution — that’s a documented capability going back to Hurricane Georges, not a recent line of business.

This is the topic that trips up first-time claimants more than any other, so we’ll spell it out plainly.

ACV (actual cash value) is the depreciated value of what was damaged. A ten-year-old roof has been worn down by ten years of sun, wind, and salt air — its ACV is less than the cost of a new roof. ACV = replacement cost minus depreciation.

RCV (replacement cost value) is what it actually costs to put the property back. New shingles, new sheathing, new flashing. No depreciation.

Most replacement-cost policies pay in two installments. First, the carrier releases ACV up front — that’s the check you usually get within a few weeks. The depreciation (the difference between ACV and RCV) is held back and released only after the work is completed and documented complete. This is called "recoverable depreciation."

What this means in practice:

- The first check is not what the rebuild costs. It’s the depreciated value. - You don’t lose the depreciation; you recover it as you complete and document the work. - If your policy is ACV-only (sometimes the case on older buildings or specific coverages), depreciation is not recoverable. Check your declarations page. - Code upgrades are usually covered under a separate Ordinance or Law endorsement — and they’re routinely missed on the first estimate.

This is education, not advice — every policy is different, and your carrier or your public adjuster is the right party to interpret your specific coverage. What we do is write a scope that captures the full RCV, so when you complete the work the depreciation actually becomes recoverable.

Almost every storm claim gets supplemented. It’s not unusual; it’s the rule.

Two reasons supplements happen:

Hidden damage. A roof might pass a visual inspection but reveal rotted decking under the shingles. Drywall that looks dry might be holding moisture behind it. Water that ran through a wall cavity might have damaged framing or insulation the field adjuster never saw. Demolition exposes the real scope.

Missed scope. The first walk is fast. Code-required upgrades (Ordinance or Law), Florida code-mandated wind mitigation, ADA upgrades on commercial properties, and proper material specifications often don’t make it into the initial estimate.

A supplement is the formal mechanism for adding scope to an existing claim. We document the new damage with photos, write the new line items in Xactimate, and submit the supplement to your adjuster. Most supplements get approved without dispute — the carrier’s job is to pay the actual loss, and the supplement is the evidence of the actual loss.

When a carrier does dispute, we provide the construction-side documentation: photos with dates, line-item scope, code citations where applicable, and the methodology behind our pricing. Whether the dispute resolves through the carrier’s internal process, a public adjuster, or eventually an attorney, the construction documentation is what holds.

This is the work our hurricane restoration contractor and commercial storm damage restoration services exist to do.

These are two different roles and they’re commonly confused.

A public adjuster (PA) represents you in the claim itself. They’re licensed in Florida, they negotiate the claim on your behalf, and they take a percentage of the settlement — typically 10-20% depending on the project and the firm. They do not do the construction. Many of them are excellent, especially on complex commercial claims or claims that have already been disputed.

A licensed restoration contractor (us) does the construction work — the assessment, the Xactimate scope, the supplements driven by demolition findings, the permitted rebuild. We don’t take a percentage of your settlement. Our pay comes out of the contracted construction cost the same way it would on any other job.

Some owners use both. A PA negotiates the settlement; a contractor builds the project. Other owners use only a contractor with strong claims-process experience and never need a PA. Some claims (denials, large complex losses, repeated under-payment) genuinely benefit from a PA. Many residential and mid-size commercial claims don’t.

We don’t sell PA services and we don’t take fees from PAs. If a PA is the right answer for your situation we’ll tell you so. If our building damage assessment and Xactimate scope is enough to get your claim paid fairly, that’s the path we’ll recommend.

Storm-chasers follow hurricane tracks. They show up days after landfall with a truck, a stack of business cards, and a clipboard. Some are legitimate out-of-state contractors. Many are not. Here is what to watch for, regardless.

Verify the Florida CBC license number before signing anything. Florida CILB maintains a public lookup at myfloridalicense.com. A general contractor doing restoration in Florida should have a CBC, CGC, or similar certified license. (Ours is CBC 1258403.) No license number, no work. If they hand you a card with no license number, that’s a no.

Refuse to sign an Assignment of Benefits unless your attorney has reviewed it. An AOB transfers your claim payment rights to the contractor. Florida has tightened AOB law specifically because of post-storm abuse. Some contractors require AOBs to work; we don’t.

Don’t pay full deposits upfront. Florida law caps roofing deposits at 10%. Other restoration work typically follows a progress-draw schedule tied to completed and inspected milestones. A contractor demanding 50% upfront in cash is signaling something.

Ask for a written scope before signing. Verbal "we’ll handle whatever the insurance covers" is not a scope. A real scope is line-item, in writing, with what’s included and what’s excluded. Xactimate output is one acceptable form; a thorough Word/PDF scope is another.

Ask for proof of insurance and bonding for larger projects. General liability, workers’ comp, and bonding for projects above certain thresholds. We carry general liability and workers’ comp through Morris & Reynolds Insurance and NFP Property and Casualty Services.

Ask for references on similar work. Storm restoration is its own discipline. A residential remodeler can do good kitchens but might never have written a supplement. Ask for two references on storm restoration projects of similar size to yours.

If you’re reading this because you have damage on a Southwest Florida property — Englewood, Venice, North Port, Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Sarasota, or anywhere in between — here is what working with us looks like.

We come to the property. Usually within 24-48 hours for SWFL, faster for emergencies. We tarp, board, and start dry-out if needed. We document everything in photographs and field notes.

We write a documented damage assessment with photos, line-item damages, and code-required upgrades. This is the document the rest of your claim will live or die by.

We write the restoration scope in Xactimate using current pricing for your zip code. We submit it to your carrier in the format their adjuster expects.

When the carrier’s first settlement misses items — and it almost always does — we open and document supplements. Hidden damage from demolition. Code upgrades. Scope corrections.

We pull the permits. We schedule the subs. We run the rebuild on a published weekly schedule with progress photos. You always know what’s being done this week and what’s blocking next week.

We close out — punch list, final inspection, warranty paperwork.

If your claim is already mid-flight, denied, or under-paid, we can pick up from where you are. A re-inspection and a fresh Xactimate scope can reopen a closed file.

Credentials we’ll surface for any insurance-related work: CBC 1258403 (Florida CILB Certified Building Contractor), Xactimate insurance estimating, 23 years in business as Cusimano Construction LLC, 42+ years principal experience including claims management and resolution going back to Hurricane Georges. Documented hurricane restoration portfolio over $15M: Crowne Plaza Houston ($4.3M), Casa Marina Wyndham Key West ($2.8M), Best Western Maingate ($2.4M), Quality Inn Key West ($2.5M), Tuscana Resort Davenport (9 buildings on 15 acres).

For hospitality property owners, our hotel hurricane restoration and disaster recovery construction services are specifically designed around occupied properties and operational continuity.

This page is education. The work is real, and so is the next storm. If your property has damage today, the next step is a phone call.