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The scope we write is the scope we bill. Anything new gets shown to you, in writing, before we touch it.
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AfterHow Much Does Reconstruction & Cleanup Cost in West Palm Beach?
Reconstruction and cleanup in West Palm Beach typically runs $2,800 to $38,000 depending on what was damaged and how far the water traveled. A contained Category 1 water cleanup with baseboard replacement and drywall patching usually lands between $2,800 and $6,500, while a full gut-and-rebuild after a storm or sewage loss runs $18,000 to $38,000 or more. Those are real 2026 West Palm Beach market numbers, not national averages, because South Florida humidity, 80-year-old concrete-block homes, and local permit requirements all shape what a job actually costs here.
This guide breaks down the line items, explains what moves the price, and gives you the numbers to have a straight conversation with any contractor. If you want a written price for your specific situation, call (728) 220-0713 and we’ll put one in your hands before any work starts.
Key Takeaways
- Standard water damage cleanup in West Palm Beach: $2,800 – $6,500
- Full room rebuild (drywall, flooring, paint, trim): $7,000 – $16,000 per room
- Whole-home reconstruction after severe water or fire damage: $18,000 – $38,000+
- Emergency water extraction alone: $900 – $2,800 depending on square footage
- Mold remediation add-on: $1,500 – $6,000 when it accompanies reconstruction
- Most insurers cover sudden and accidental water damage, but not all reconstruction line items
- Keegan Restoration West Palm Beach puts every price in writing before work begins – no door-moving, ever
Reconstruction & Cleanup Cost Breakdown (2026)
Here is what we charge in the West Palm Beach market as of 2026, line by line. These are the numbers we quote from, and the table is laid out the same way we’d lay out the written estimate you get before any work starts.
| Line Item | What It Covers | Typical Range (West Palm Beach, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency water extraction | Removing standing water with truck-mounted or portable extraction units, before drying starts | $900 – $2,800 |
| Structural drying | Dehumidification and air movement with Dri-Eaz, Phoenix, and B-Air equipment until moisture readings hit dry standard | $1,200 – $4,500 |
| Demolition and debris removal | Tearing out saturated drywall, insulation, carpet, and baseboards; pulling permits if needed; haul-off included | $1,500 – $6,000 |
| Drywall replacement | Hang, tape, mud, and texture new drywall to match existing finish | $1,800 – $5,500 per room |
| Flooring replacement | Remove and replace tile, vinyl plank, laminate, or carpet; includes subfloor repair where needed | $1,500 – $7,000 per room |
| Paint and trim | Priming and painting new drywall, replacing baseboards, door casings, and crown where required | $800 – $2,800 per room |
| Mold remediation | Containment, HEPA air scrubbing, antimicrobial application, and removal of mold-affected materials when water sat too long | $1,500 – $6,000 |
| Full room rebuild | Combined drywall, flooring, paint, trim, and finish work for one average room | $7,000 – $16,000 per room |
| Kitchen rebuild | Includes cabinet replacement, countertop, flooring, drywall, plumbing hookups, and painting | $18,000 – $42,000 |
| Bathroom rebuild | Gut and replace tub/shower, vanity, tile, drywall, flooring, and fixtures | $12,000 – $28,000 |
Those ranges are what we see on typical single-family homes in West Palm Beach neighborhoods like Flamingo Park, Southland Park, and the El Cid historic district. A 1950s CBS house on a slab in Southland Park prices differently than a 1990s wood-frame home in Riverwalk, and a third-floor condo on Flagler Drive has access issues a ground-level home doesn’t. We price every job from the actual conditions, not a generic square-footage multiplier.
What Affects Reconstruction & Cleanup Pricing in West Palm Beach
Several factors move a reconstruction quote up or down in this market, and most of them are specific to South Florida rather than generic restoration industry talk.
- Water category and how long it sat. Category 1 clean water from a supply line is the cheapest to handle. Category 2 gray water and Category 3 black water from sewage or canal flooding cost more because of the biohazard protocols, PPE, and disposal requirements. Time matters too – in West Palm Beach’s 80-degree average and 70%+ humidity, mold can establish in 24 to 48 hours, so water that sat over a weekend costs more to clean up than water found the same day.
- Concrete block vs. wood frame construction. Most older West Palm Beach homes are CBS – concrete block with stucco. Water wicks differently through block than through framed drywall. Block walls dry slower and often require injection drying through weep holes, which adds equipment days and labor. What looks like the same footprint can cost 20-30% more on a CBS home than on a wood-frame home.
- Distance from the coast and flood zone status. Homes in flood zones require FEMA-compliant materials and elevation considerations when you rebuild. If the property sits in an AE flood zone near the Intracoastal or along the Lake Worth Lagoon, you may need flood vents, elevated electrical, or specific insulation. Those are West Palm Beach building department requirements, not optional upgrades.
- Permit scope and historic district rules. Work in the El Cid, Prospect Park, or Flamingo Park historic districts triggers design review. You may need to match original materials, preserve specific millwork, or get sign-off from the historic preservation board. That adds time and cost, and it is unique to West Palm Beach’s older neighborhoods.
- Insurance claim scope vs. cash scope. When an insurer is paying, the scope of loss they approve defines the work. Sometimes that scope misses necessary repairs, and the homeowner covers the gap out of pocket. We document every job and format the paperwork to support your claim, which often means the difference between an insurer approving a line item and denying it. Reconstruction pricing on insurance jobs tends to follow the insurer’s unit pricing, while cash jobs are priced directly against our labor and materials. Both get the same written, upfront number from us.
- Access and equipment staging. Condos on Flagler Drive or in CityPlace with elevator scheduling, service corridors, and limited parking cost more to stage than a single-family home with a driveway. Dumpster placement, equipment movement, and labor time all rise when access tightens.
What a Written Estimate From Keegan Restoration West Palm Beach Looks Like
Every reconstruction and cleanup job we take in West Palm Beach starts the same way: a technician arrives, walks the property, measures, documents, and then writes a scope of loss with a dollar figure attached. That written price is the price. It does not move when the crew shows up, it does not change when the job gets hard, and it does not grow at the door.
That is The Garrison Standard, and it applies to every job Keegan Restoration West Palm Beach runs. The scope covers exactly what we will do, the materials we will use, the equipment we will deploy, and the line-item cost of each. If the job changes mid-project because we found something the insurer missed or the damage runs deeper than visible, we stop, document the change, and write a revised scope before any additional work starts. There is no verbal handshake pricing and no bill at the end that surprises you.
We also back every repair with the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If something fails within one year of our repair, we return and make it right at no charge. That second visit is included in writing. It is not a goodwill gesture. It is a warranty with a number on it: 365 days, free return, in writing.
For more on how we approach this line of work, see our Reconstruction & Cleanup in West Palm Beach page. And if you want to know whether reconstruction is even necessary, or whether cleanup alone will do, start with the assessment process described back on our home page and a review of what our technicians document in the first hour on site.
How the Documentation Helps Your Insurance Claim
Reconstruction in West Palm Beach after a water or fire event almost always involves an insurance claim. The difference between a smooth claim and a denied line item often comes down to documentation, and this is where most contractors in South Florida fall short. They tear out, they rebuild, they hand you a single-line invoice, and then the insurer says no.
We run it differently. Every job gets photographed before demolition begins. Moisture readings get logged with the date, time, equipment location, and reading. The drying plan follows psychrometrics – the science of how air temperature, humidity, and dew point affect moisture movement – and we track daily drying logs the insurer’s adjuster can review. When we pull materials out, the scope of loss explains why that material had to go. When we put materials back, the line items match what the insurer’s estimating software expects to see.
That claim-friendly formatting matters in West Palm Beach because local insurers deal with a high volume of water claims from aging supply lines, AC pan overflows, and hurricane-season roof leaks. Adjusters here see bad documentation every day. Show them a Keegan Restoration file and the conversation changes. It is one of the reasons we run every job to the standards set by IICRC, RIA, and IFA, and why we only use professional-grade drying and extraction equipment from Dri-Eaz, Phoenix, XPOWER, B-Air, and Injectidry. The adjuster knows those names. They know what that equipment means. It builds the file before you file the claim.
How to Save on Reconstruction & Cleanup
Saving money on reconstruction in West Palm Beach does not mean hiring the cheapest crew you can find. It means making decisions that prevent the damage from expanding before a professional arrives, and avoiding the cost traps that bad contractors build into their jobs.
- Stop the water at the source immediately. Shut the main valve if a pipe burst. Turn off the AC if the pan is overflowing. Kill the water heater breaker if it is the source. Every hour of active water flow adds cleanup cost that could have been prevented.
- Call a restoration company before you call a plumber for the rebuild. A plumber stops the water. A restoration company stops the water damage. If you wait for a plumber to schedule, then wait again for a restoration crew, you have given the water 48 or 72 hours to soak deeper into CBS walls and slab, which directly increases demolition cost.
- Do not run box fans and hope it dries. South Florida humidity makes natural drying nearly impossible without professional-grade dehumidification. Household fans move air around but they do not pull moisture out. The subfloor, stud cavities, and wall base stay wet, and then you pay for mold remediation on top of everything else.
- Document everything from minute one. Photograph the standing water, the damage, and the source before you touch anything. The insurer wants the pre-mitigation evidence, and if you do not have it, they can deny the claim. One minute of phone photos can save thousands of dollars in denied coverage.
- Get the written estimate before the first crew arrives. Any contractor in West Palm Beach who will not put a price in writing before work starts is telling you something about how they run the job. The written price protects you from the door-moving, change-order-heavy games that plague this market. We never start without it, and we never move it.
- Ask about the warranty before you sign. A repair with no written warranty is a bet against yourself. Our 365-Day Done Right Promise covers the repair for a full year, and if something fails, the return visit to fix it is free. That is the kind of backstop that turns a $2,800 cleanup into a $2,800 cleanup instead of a $5,600 two-visit mess.
If you want a written estimate for your specific situation, the call is free and a live person answers. Call (728) 220-0713 any time – nights, weekends, holidays included, because water does not check the clock before it ruins a home.
Cost-Saving Example: The AC Pan Overflow
We responded to a home in the Flamingo Park neighborhood where an AC pan had been overflowing into a hallway and two bedrooms for about a day and a half. The homeowner had noticed the water but waited, running a box fan and hoping the heat would dry it. By the time we arrived, the water had wicked up the drywall and into the carpet pad in both bedrooms.
The scope: extraction, 4 days of structural drying, carpet pad replacement in two bedrooms, baseboard removal and reinstallation, and antimicrobial treatment on the affected drywall. Total price: $4,100, in writing before any work started, and documented for the insurance claim.
If the homeowner had called the day the leak started, the job likely would have been $1,800 to $2,200. The extra $2,000 was the cost of 36 hours of standing water in a West Palm Beach summer. The time to call is the moment you see water, not the moment the smell starts.
Reconstruction vs. Cleanup: Which One Do You Actually Need?
Cleanup and reconstruction are really two ends of a single timeline. In the first few days after a water event, you are in the cleanup and mitigation phase: extraction, drying, antimicrobial treatment, and removal of saturated materials. That work typically runs $1,200 to $5,500 in West Palm Beach depending on how far the water spread. The goal is to stop the damage from expanding and get the structure to a dry standard.
Reconstruction is what follows after the drying is done. New drywall. New flooring. New paint and trim. New cabinets and countertops if a kitchen was involved. That phase might start a week after mitigation ends, or it might start a month later depending on insurance approval and material lead times.
Some homeowners try to split these phases between two different contractors to save money. In our experience it rarely works out that way, because the mitigation contractor’s documentation dictates what the reconstruction contractor has to rebuild. If the documentation is thin, the rebuild scope is thin, and the insurer pushes back on line items. Running both phases under one scope with one written price keeps the claim coherent and the project on schedule. We handle both phases, and the price for each appears in the same written estimate.
FAQs – Reconstruction & Cleanup Cost
How much does water damage cleanup cost in West Palm Beach?
Water damage cleanup runs $1,200 to $6,500 for a typical single-room event in West Palm Beach, with $2,800 as a realistic midpoint for a standard extraction and dry-out. Whole-home events run higher. The two big variables are how long the water sat and whether it was clean, gray, or black water. Call (728) 220-0713 and we will give you a written number for your specific home.
How much does it cost to rebuild a room after water damage?
A full room rebuild in West Palm Beach costs $7,000 to $16,000 when it includes drywall, flooring, paint, trim, and baseboard replacement. Kitchens run higher, $18,000 to $42,000, because of cabinetry and plumbing. Historic homes in districts like El Cid or Flamingo Park can add $2,000 to $6,000 for materials matching and preservation board sign-off.
Does insurance pay for reconstruction and cleanup?
Most homeowners policies in Florida cover sudden and accidental water damage, which includes extraction, drying, demolition, and the reconstruction required to restore the property. What they do not cover is gradual damage – a slow pipe leak that has been dripping for six months – or flood damage without a separate NFIP policy. Our documentation is formatted to support the claim so the adjuster sees the scope the way the insurer’s software wants to see it. Call (728) 220-0713 and we will help you understand what your policy likely covers.
How long does reconstruction take in West Palm Beach?
A single-room rebuild typically takes 1 to 2 weeks once materials are on site. Whole-home reconstruction runs 4 to 10 weeks depending on kitchen scope, flooring, and permit review. West Palm Beach’s historic district review can add 2 to 4 weeks on its own. The drying phase before reconstruction is separate and usually runs 3 to 5 days with professional equipment.
How much does mold remediation cost when it is part of cleanup?
Mold remediation as part of a cleanup runs $1,500 to $6,000 in West Palm Beach, and the cost rises if the mold got into wall cavities or behind built-in cabinetry. In South Florida humidity, mold can establish within 24 to 48 hours of water exposure, so the faster the drying begins the lower the remediation cost. Every job we run includes a moisture and mold assessment as part of the initial walk-through.
Can Keegan Restoration give me a free estimate?
Yes. We provide a free estimate on every reconstruction and cleanup job in West Palm Beach, and the price is delivered in writing before any work starts. Call (728) 220-0713 and a live person answers – 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
Ready for a Written Price?
If you are standing in water, shut off the source and call now. If you are planning for a reconstruction project, call for the free estimate and we will send a technician to walk the property, write the scope, and hand you a dollar figure before anything gets touched.
Keegan Restoration West Palm Beach is part of the Garrison Partners family, independently owned and operated, and has been run to The Garrison Standard since 2005: show up inside the window, price in writing, do it by the book, leave the site clean, and stand behind the work for a full year. That standard is not a marketing line. It is the operating agreement for every job, and the technicians who run it show up background-checked, in uniform, and ready to document everything for your claim.
Call (728) 220-0713 for a free estimate on reconstruction and cleanup in West Palm Beach. A live person answers, any time of day or night, and the written price you get is the price you pay.
Pricing reflects the West Palm Beach market as of 2026. Keegan Restoration West Palm Beach offers free estimates – call (728) 220-0713.
Written by Shane Pruitt, Owner at Keegan Restoration West Palm Beach, serving West Palm Beach and surrounding communities since 2005.
What Our Customers Say
"Quiet, focused crew. Everyone had a job and they did it."
- Alice M."Mold test after drying came back clean. They gave me the readout in writing so I could keep it with the insurance file."
- Gus P."Basement water from a bad sump pump. Extracted, dried, and treated for mold. The smell is gone."
- Perry J.