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I have a good example of what Tim is talking about, where you might need to make a change to a contractor estimate.

I have one with minor smoke damage throughout a house (something left on the stove. The Cubic Feet to be deodorized seemed HUGE. I looked at the formula, which is supposed to be Sf of floor x height, and it was entered by the contractor as WC x H (Sf of walls and ceiling x height) which was about 4 or 5x the right number. I had the actual (editible) file - so I was able to see how he did his math, what formula he used.  If it was simply printed to PDF I would have been guessing how he got the numbers.  They were way off. 

A more common error is painting an entire kitchen although only a narrow area of drywall exists between cabinets and behind fridge, etc. Not taking out a large shower surround as a missing wall area to be painted in a bathroom. (the error is treating the kitchen and bath as a basic box, with no adjustment for missing wall areas).

In my opinion, the last one who touched an estimate should change the estimator's name to their own ID, and if they don't it may be they are lazy and overlooked that step - or it could be more sinister of not wanting to be responsible for their actions.

Working Clean-up, you pretty much have to fix estimates, and the mistakes in a pile of 100 claims do exist and they are real. The person fixing them usually identifies themselves as the person currently responsible for the file, and signs the latest version of the estimate. Sometimes it's not your fault, the attempt to patch the hardwood floor didn't work out and they need to do the whole room to get a uniform appearance, etc.

This is a good place to bring up the cost of removing the smell of a fire in a structure. Using an electric fogging machine with the chemical is effective, but the high cost per cubic foot can not be justified .I would like some programer to explain the factors that compose the unit cost.

I work regular losses daily and when I moan to the carriers about the low fee bills, you know the answer "thats what we pay -no one forces you to work for us." Thats a fact. I just want to tell that to the water suckers... chirp up on this cost please.

Ray I am also back to doing Daily Claims between storms.

I know you have done this forever, but with non-Xactimate software (until recently).
In my zip code 93420 you can Ozone treat a smoke damaged room for 5 cents a cubic foot.

Some of the water suckers prefer Ozone as it is supposed to remove the offending odor particle, others say it is hard on electronic equip in the room (TV, stereo) and will cause metals to corrode if too much ozone, and will mess up rubber seals in appliances, etc.  (I just had 2 small smoke losses where the contents were not packed out).  This is Xactimate code CLN-DODROZ and for that 5 cents a CF you get the ozone machine running, close the doors, etc.

So... some opt for the foo-foo juice treatment, (electric fogging machine - deodorize) and that is Xactimate code CLN-DODR. If you look up that item, and click on the image (or hit F-8) you get the description and breakdown. In my area it is 6 cents a Sf, and 1 cent is materials and equip, 5 cents is the labor.

If you click on the "i" for "information" next to the price, you can drill down to the materials and they say a gallon of this foo-foo juice cost $39.95 and will do 64,000 Cubic Feet per gallon.

You can do this on any repair item for Xactimate, and see what materials are being used - like on a drywall Min-charge how many Sf are allowed for materials, they break down the mud and screws etc.

.04 or .05 per cubic foot to use any deoderant is what lawyers charge for their BS before a jury and this is what the water suckers expect on an xmate estimate. ? who agreed to this BS, but the bigger questions is its a myth and no one agreed.

Where is the 2009 stuff?

Posted By Lindy on 04 Sep 2010 12:42 PM 
I have switched over to 27.1 and I can't for the life of me figure out how to automatically figure waste factoring on sketch roofs.

Unfortunately the auto sketch feature requires a creative touch unless your images are purchased from Pictometry or other roof imaging software. Even when using this the features are difficult for non CAD people and manual adjustments tend to remove the previous "auto" calculations. Below is a great free step by step training manual for FREE imaging using google maps, MapsGL and  Google Earth. 

http://rightbrothersgc.com/Contract...bsp;