Our Experience

Three years ago we had a wall water pipe freeze and break (in NC, so it was a bit unexpected). It must have broken right after we left for work because when we returned 8 hours later there was at least 6" of water over the entire basement. The basement was a poured slab with a combination of finished and unfinished, carpet and linoleum, about 1200 sqft in total. ServPro came out the next day and removed the carpet, linoleum and 18" up from every drywall surface. They also left blowers in the house for about a week. ServPro seemed slightly overpriced to me, but not excessively so. Blowers were $25-$50 per day per blower, so we probably could have purchased our own for less. Overall they were very professional and did a very good job and we were pleased.

At the end of that week we had our homeowners insurance adjuster come out and walk around the house to determine the cost of replacement. They covered the cost of the pipe replacement and the ServPro remediation based on the receipts. To calculate the cost of replacement, they took measurements of the rooms to calculate sqft and then used a formula to determine the replacement value. $x per sqft of carpet, $y per linear foot of baseboard. The dollar amount was based on the existing material type. Solid pine stained baseboards were a higher value that white composite boards. Adder for baseboard topper and quarter-round. Quality of carpet, quality of underpad, etc. We had two layers of linoleum under the carpet. They covered the cost of replacing two layers of linoleum and the carpet (which I thought was strange, but I'll take more money.) One thing we argued over was cost of paint. They wanted to cover the cost to replace only the 18' of removed drywall. No one only paints 1/5th of a wall.
Overall we felt they came in slightly low, so we had two independent estimates done, which came in a few thousand higher. They wouldn't really budge and I think we ended up getting $500 more.

We opted for a check directly from the insurance company, instead of them paying the contractor directly. We wanted to finish the entire basement and I'm pretty handy so we felt we could more the money stretch further. The insurance cut a cheque for already out of pocket costs (the plumber, ServPro), repair of items (computer, furniture ... all with receipts). They then cut a cheque for %50 of the remainder and then needed receipts for the balance (to make sure we just didn't pocket the cash).

All in all it went pretty smoothly. I think it really depends upon the adjuster sent out. I also can't stress this enough ... DO THE WALK THROUGH WITH THEM AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE CORRECTLY ACCOUNTING FOR WHAT WAS THERE.

3 years later, I still haven't finished my own baseboards.