Restoration is one of the few trades where a published standard defines the job, and insurers, adjusters and Google all lean on it. The IICRC publishes three that matter here, and each one changes what your pages should say.
Water: S500. The ANSI/IICRC S500 is in its fifth edition, from 2021, and a new consensus body has begun revising it. Its scope says that finding and correcting the source of the water is the property owner’s responsibility, not the restorer’s. That one line explains much of a water company’s referral book: someone else fixes the pipe, then someone has to dry the house. It also means your water page should say plainly what you do (extract, dry, document) and that the source repair is a separate job.
Mold: S520. The fourth edition came out in 2024. Google’s water damage category mentions mold, then adds that some states require extra licenses for mold remediation or assessment. In Texas, a licensed remediation contractor works to a protocol written by a licensed Mold Assessment Consultant, and licensees must give each client and property owner the state’s Consumer Mold Information Sheet before any mold work begins. Visible mold under 25 contiguous square feet can be cleaned by people who are not licensed. A mold page should name the license you hold and the state that issued it, not only the standard you follow.
Fire and smoke: S700. The first edition was published in 2025. Its scope leaves out wildfires, chemical fires and industrial fires that pose environmental hazards, so a page that cites S700 should not be the same page selling wildfire cleanup.
Where this shows up in marketing. Because Google lists IICRC certification among the requirements for its water damage category, the certificate is no longer a footer logo; it decides whether the ad can run at all. Put certification details where a homeowner and an adjuster can both find them, name the standard on each loss page, and keep each page’s claims inside the scope of the standard it cites. An adjuster reading your site should find the same words they will see on your estimate, and a homeowner should come away knowing what happens in the first 48 hours, the window the EPA gives for drying to prevent mold growth.
Claim, storm and mold wording, state by state
The standards say what the work is. State law decides what an ad may promise about the claim, the price and the paperwork. Here is how we read the published rules in October 2026; it is not legal advice, so have counsel licensed in your state confirm any specific ad, contract or call script.
- Texas: no deductible offers, and mold work runs on two licenses. The Texas Department of Insurance says plainly that a contractor may not waive a deductible or rebate any part of it, and TDLR’s mold program bars one company from both assessing and remediating the same project.
- Florida: the contractor license does not cover claim talk. Under Florida Statutes 626.854, a licensed contractor may not advertise or offer public adjusting without that license as well, though it can still point the owner to the insurer on coverage and talk through its own estimate. Assignments of benefits on policies issued since 2023 are void under 627.7152. Our Florida restoration company marketing page covers what a water page should say now that the homeowner carries the claim.
- Ohio: the ad alone can make you an adjuster. Ohio Revised Code 3951.01 counts anyone who advertises as adjusting property claims for pay, and adjusting without a certificate costs $100 to $500 for each loss under 3951.99. “We handle your claim” comes off Ohio pages; “we document the damage for your adjuster” stays. The Ohio restoration marketing page covers the three-day cancel rule and burst-pipe budgets.
- Louisiana: a declared emergency changes the phones and the prices. While an emergency declaration is in force, Louisiana’s emergency calling law stops most telephone solicitation, with fines of up to $1,500 a call under its penalty section, and the price gouging law holds storm-area prices to what you charged before unless higher costs are documented. More on the Louisiana restoration company marketing page.
- Everywhere: Google watches storm names. Under its sensitive events policy, Google can stop ads that ride on a designated disaster through keywords naming it. Bid on the loss the homeowner types, such as “water in basement after storm”, rather than the hurricane’s name.
The pattern across all of them: describe the work you do and the records you keep, name the license and the state that issued it, and leave the claim, the coverage and the deductible to the homeowner, the insurer and any licensed public adjuster.
