What Insurance Adjusters Don't Tell You About Repair Estimates
Adjusters are good at their job. Their job, however, is to settle claims efficiently — not to make sure your scope of work is complete.
When an insurance adjuster shows up after a fire, flood, or storm, they're doing what they were trained to do: walk the property, take measurements, and produce an estimate. The estimate becomes the scope of work, and the scope of work becomes your settlement check. The problem is that adjusters are typically working from a template, under time pressure, and against pricing data that's often six to twelve months out of date.
Common estimate shortcuts
These are the four most common gaps we see in adjuster estimates:
- Outdated pricing databases. Material costs and labor rates move faster than the insurance pricing software can keep up. An estimate generated against last year's pricing can be 10–25% short of what it actually takes to do the work today.
- Missing permit and trade costs. Most adjuster estimates account for the obvious trades (drywall, paint, flooring) and miss the supporting work — permits, dumpsters, electrical disconnects, plumber call-outs to safely remove a vanity.
- Minimal repairs instead of full restoration. An adjuster may scope a paint touch-up when the actual fix is full drywall replacement. They may scope a partial floor when the adjacent rooms also need re-staining to match.
- Referrals to preferred (low-cost) contractors. Many carriers maintain networks of contractors who agree to do the work for the scope the carrier writes. That works for the carrier. It often doesn't work for the homeowner.
How Peridot Assist fills the gaps
We review every adjuster estimate line-by-line against actual construction standards, local code, and current pricing databases like Xactimate (the same software most insurance carriers use internally, with up-to-date pricing). When we find missing items, we file a supplement with documentation — photos, code references, market pricing, and a written scope of work explaining why the line item belongs in the claim.
Most supplements get approved. Sometimes the carrier pushes back and we go through one or two more rounds. Either way, the homeowner ends up with a scope of work that actually reflects the work needed — and a settlement that funds the full rebuild rather than a patch job.
Send us your estimate
If you have an open claim and want a second set of eyes on your adjuster's estimate, send it to us. We'll review it for free — no pressure, no obligation, and you don't have to use us for the rebuild. Email it to build@peridotassist.com or call (770) 284-5353 and we'll walk you through it.