Filing a water damage claim in Texas is not complicated if you know the sequence. The problem is that most homeowners encounter a water event and immediately start doing things in the wrong order — cleaning up before documenting, calling the insurer before calling a restoration company, or waiting for the adjuster before beginning extraction when time is the most critical variable in the whole process. Those sequencing mistakes create claim problems that can reduce what you recover or create disputes that would not have existed otherwise.

Having worked restoration jobs in Arlington and across Tarrant County for nearly two decades, I have seen the full range of claim outcomes. The homeowners who recover the most fully are those who understand the process before they need it. This post covers the sequence, the common errors, and what your insurer actually needs from you and from us to pay the claim correctly.

Step 1: Stop the Source and Ensure Safety

Before anything else, shut off the water source if you can locate it. For an internal plumbing failure — burst pipe, appliance supply line, HVAC overflow — shut off the valve at the fixture or the main supply valve. For storm-related intrusion, the source is the weather and you cannot stop it, but you can close windows and move belongings away from active water entry. Shut off power to affected areas at the breaker before entering standing water.

Step 2: Document Before You Touch Anything

Photograph and video the entire affected area before moving anything. Open every cabinet, closet, and affected space. Record the standing water level, the source if visible, and all damaged materials and contents. This documentation is your claim. Adjusters work from what they can see and verify. If you have moved, dried, or discarded anything before documentation, that item is potentially outside your recoverable loss.

This documentation step should take 10 to 15 minutes at most. It is not a reason to delay extraction — do it while calling us, not instead of calling us.

Step 3: Call a Restoration Company Before Your Insurer

This is the sequencing point that most homeowners get wrong. The instinct is to call the insurance company first. The problem is that your policy requires you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage — this is the duty to mitigate provision in almost every Texas HO-3 policy. If you wait hours for an adjuster while water continues migrating through your walls and subfloor, your insurer may argue that the damage that occurred after you could have mitigated is not their responsibility.

Call us at (817) 231-8660 first. We begin extraction immediately and document everything as we go — moisture readings, photographs, scope of damage — in a format that your adjuster and Xactimate estimator can use directly. We notify your insurer on your behalf and get a claim number opened while we are working. The two calls happen in parallel; we just start extraction immediately instead of waiting.

Step 4: Notify Your Insurer and Get a Claim Number

Call your insurer’s claims line as soon as the situation is stabilized. Give them the date of loss, the cause (burst pipe, storm, appliance failure), and the areas affected. Get a claim number and the name of your assigned adjuster. Write it down. Every subsequent call, document submission, and authorization should reference this claim number.

Ask your insurer whether they want to schedule an adjuster inspection before restoration work begins. In most cases the answer will be no — they expect mitigation to begin immediately. If an insurer tells you to wait for the adjuster before beginning extraction, ask them to confirm that in writing and notify us. That position is inconsistent with most Texas policy language and is worth pushing back on.

Step 5: Do Not Discard Damaged Items Before the Adjuster Documents Them

Every item you throw away before documentation is a line item removed from your claim. Move damaged contents to a dry area — the garage, a covered porch — photograph them, and list them. Adjusters work from documentation, not from your memory of what was destroyed. If the adjuster schedules an inspection, make sure everything that was damaged is still present and documented before that visit.

Step 6: Understand Assignment of Benefits Before You Sign

Some restoration companies ask homeowners to sign an Assignment of Benefits (AOB) agreement that transfers the insurance claim rights to the contractor. This allows the contractor to negotiate and receive payment directly from the insurer. AOB arrangements are legal in Texas but carry risk — specifically, you lose some control over the claim negotiation process and may face complications if there are disputes between the contractor and the insurer. We do not require AOB agreements. We bill your insurer directly from our documentation and keep you informed throughout the process. Be cautious about any contractor who makes AOB a condition of beginning work.

For more on what our restoration process looks like from the moment we arrive, see our water damage restoration page. For emergency water events currently in progress, call us directly at (817) 231-8660.