THE RESTORATIONHQ
Hot Trade press Claims & Coverage High claims suppression From the July 16, 2026 brief

The industry names its disease: normalized underpayment

Trade press put a name on the quiet rot: restoration contractors are increasingly treating the gap between what a job costs and what a carrier pays as normal, absorbing it rather than fighting it.

FORName your claim gap, measure it per job, and you turn a vague sense of being squeezed into a number you can actually fight.
AGAINSTEvery time you eat the difference to keep the relationship, you teach the carrier that your real price is lower, you're not being pragmatic, you're training them.
Consensus vs. contrarianConsensus: underpayment is a carrier problem. Contrarian and uncomfortable: it's now a contractor problem, because the trade taught carriers the gap is collectible. The fix starts with operators who refuse, not with regulators.

Sources C&R Magazine, www.candrmagazine.com/the-claim-gap-why-rest… ()

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