Most people who file a property claim expect construction to be the slow part. It rarely is. On a typical water or fire loss in Metro Vancouver, the crew that rebuilds the walls is on site for a fraction of the total elapsed time. The rest goes to scope writing, adjuster review, approvals, permits and material lead times. As an insurance restoration contractor in BC, we spend more energy managing that gap than framing walls.
Knowing what happens in the gap, and in what order, is the difference between a claim that moves and one that sits in somebody's inbox for three weeks.
How long does insurance restoration take in BC?
For a mid-size water or fire claim on a house, expect six weeks to four months from the first call to the final walkthrough. Strata buildings and major fire losses often run six to twelve months. Emergency mitigation starts within hours, but reconstruction usually cannot begin until the insurer approves a written scope, and that approval typically lands two to six weeks after the walls are opened.
Two jobs, one claim
Every restoration claim splits into two separate pieces of work. Most of the confusion about timing comes from treating them as one.
The first is emergency mitigation: stopping the water, boarding openings, tarping a breached roof or wall, extracting water and setting up drying equipment. Almost every BC policy expects you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, and the cost of doing so is normally covered. Mitigation does not wait for the adjuster. It starts the same day.
The second is the repair. New framing, sheathing, insulation, drywall, cladding, finishes. This part does wait. Nobody should rebuild a wall assembly until the insurer has agreed what is being rebuilt and at what cost, because work done ahead of approval is work the owner may end up paying for.
Sometimes one company does both. Often it does not. An insurer's preferred mitigation vendor dries the building and leaves, and the owner then has to find a repair contractor from scratch. That handoff alone can add two to three weeks. Keeping one insurance restoration contractor from the first night to the final coat of paint closes that gap, which is how we run our fire and flood restoration work.
The insurance restoration timeline, stage by stage
These ranges come from residential and small multi-family claims we have worked across Greater Vancouver. Larger losses stretch every stage.
| Stage | Typical timing | What usually holds it up |
|---|---|---|
| First notice of loss, claim number | Day 0 | Nothing, if you call promptly |
| Emergency mitigation | Hours to day 2 | Access, power, getting equipment on site |
| Adjuster assigned, first site visit | Day 1 to 7 | Adjuster caseload, especially after regional storms |
| Drying and selective demolition | Week 1 to 3 | Saturated framing, weather, hidden damage |
| Repair scope written and submitted | Week 2 to 4 | Walls must be open before the scope is accurate |
| Insurer review and approval | Week 3 to 8 | Line-item disputes, supplements, desk review |
| Permits, engineering, material orders | Week 4 to 12 | Structural permits, windows, matched cladding |
| Reconstruction | 2 to 10 weeks | Scope size, trade sequencing, inspections |
| Final walkthrough, holdback release | 2 to 6 weeks after completion | Completion paperwork, proof of repair |
Two rows do most of the damage to a schedule: insurer review, and the permit and material stage. Both are predictable. That means both can be shortened.
Where the weeks actually go
The first site visit. In a normal week, a residential adjuster in the Lower Mainland is often on site within two or three days. After a regional event like the November 2021 atmospheric river, every adjuster in the province carries a full file load at once, and insurers bring in independent adjusting firms to cover the volume. A first visit can slip past a week.
Mitigation should not slip with it. Keep the drying going, keep the moisture logs, and photograph everything before it is removed.
The scope. An adjuster's first estimate is usually written from what is visible, before the walls are open. Treat it as a starting position. The real scope appears after demolition, when you can see how far water tracked through the subfloor or how far smoke travelled up a stud cavity.
Most insurers in Canada price claims line by line in estimating software such as Xactimate. A contractor scope written in the same structure, with photographs and moisture readings attached, gets reviewed faster than a one-page lump-sum quote. A lump sum invites a request for a breakdown, and that request costs a week.
Supplements. Hidden damage turns up on almost every claim. A rotted rim joist behind the wet drywall. Corroded flashing behind stucco that was failing before the loss. Each discovery needs a supplement, which is a formal request to add scope. Filed the day the condition is found, with photos, a supplement is routine. Filed at the end of the job as a bundle, it gets resisted, and the final payment waits while it is argued.
Permits and lead times. Like-for-like interior repairs often need no permit. Structural repairs, re-framing and larger envelope work usually do, and review times vary widely between Metro Vancouver municipalities. Materials are the quieter delay. Custom windows commonly take six to ten weeks. Matching an existing stucco texture, brick or stone veneer takes sampling and sometimes a special order.
A contractor who orders long-lead items the day the scope is approved, rather than the day the crew is ready for them, can take a month off the schedule.
A counterintuitive point about speed
The fastest claims we see are not the ones where the crew starts first. They are the ones where the scope is agreed first.
Homeowners under pressure sometimes push a contractor to start rebuilding while the adjuster is still reviewing. It feels like progress. In practice it causes the longest delays of all, because the insurer can no longer see the damage it is being asked to pay for, and every disputed line item becomes the owner's word against the file.
There is a building science cost too. Closing a wall before the framing has dried to a documented standard is how a water claim becomes a mould claim the following spring. A week spent getting a complete, documented scope approved usually saves a month at the end.
Strata claims run on a slower clock
On a strata building, the timeline gains layers. The strata corporation's master policy covers the building. Each owner's policy covers their improvements and contents. The two can be handled by different adjusters with different deadlines.
The strata manager reports the loss, council may need to approve the contractor, and under the Strata Property Act and most bylaws the deductible can be charged back to an owner found responsible for the damage. Every one of those steps adds days. Plan for two to four extra weeks compared with the same damage in a detached house. Our piece on strata water ingress and who pays covers the deductible side in more detail.
The last payment comes after the last nail
Many Canadian replacement-cost policies pay the actual cash value of the damage first, meaning its depreciated value, and hold back the difference until the repair is complete. The holdback is released when the insurer receives proof the work is done: final invoice, completion photos, sometimes a signed certificate of completion.
Many policies also set a time limit for finishing repairs if you want the full replacement cost, so check yours early. When the closing paperwork is sloppy, a holdback can sit for months after the crew has gone.
What a restoration contractor should be doing for you
A good insurance restoration contractor in BC shortens every stage on that table that is not under the insurer's direct control. In practice that means:
- Answering the emergency call the same day and stabilising the building before arguing about anything
- Moisture mapping and photo documentation from the first visit, shared directly with the adjuster
- A line-item scope the insurer can review without rewriting it
- Supplements filed at discovery, not at the end
- Long-lead materials ordered as soon as the scope is approved
- One point of contact for you, the adjuster and, on strata jobs, the property manager
That is how we work. MV Construction has handled restoration and exterior renovation projects across Greater Vancouver and Vancouver Island for more than 10 years. Our crews are fully licensed, WCB-insured and bonded, our workmanship is backed by a written warranty, and we take emergency calls 24/7 within Greater Vancouver. We deal with adjusters directly, so you are not the one translating between the insurer and the job site.
If your claim is stuck right now
You do not need to wait for the adjuster before calling a contractor, and under most policies you can choose your own instead of the insurer's preferred vendor. If your file has stalled somewhere between the adjuster's visit and the start of repairs, call us at (778) 375-5672 or request a written restoration scope. We will tell you which stage the claim is stuck in and what it needs to move.
