How much do water damage leads cost in the UK?

Almost nobody publishes a price, because almost nobody sells them. PromoSEO, the only UK seller we found with a flood damage page, says its packages "start at roughly £500 per month" and gives no price per lead. Leads Do Work has no water damage row on its price list. Bark charges credits per lead without saying how many for this category. A click on your own water damage ad costs £4.43 to £25.50, which works out at roughly £60 to £348 a lead.

Are flood restoration leads exclusive?

PromoSEO says it gives each area to "one restoration contractor". Bark lets a customer compare "up to 5 quotes", and TrustATrader sends a request to "multiple trusted traders". Checkatrade doesn't say how many firms see a job.

How do I get on an insurer panel for water damage work?

Through the loss adjusters and claims firms that run the supply chains. Sedgwick asks contractors to apply and agree to its code of conduct, Claims Consortium Group runs a financial check and a contract, and Crawford says it has handpicked 100+ contractors. None of them publishes its rates or response times. The BDMA says its accreditation "is increasingly sought by insurers and loss adjusters appointing contractors".

Do I need BDMA accreditation for flood restoration?

The BDMA itself calls its accreditation "increasingly sought" by insurers and loss adjusters, not required. The entry level, BDMA Tech, asks for 12 months' experience of fire, flood and water damage work and 10 CPD points, with training at £325 plus VAT and a fee of £168 plus VAT a year.

Can a homeowner use their own contractor on a water damage claim?

They can ask. One Financial Ombudsman decision says the policy let the insurer repair through its own contractors or pay cash instead, and that it didn't have to pay more than its own contractors would have cost. Another notes the insurer "will have access to lower contractor rates". Ask a direct customer early whether they have claimed.

Can water damage firms use Google Local Services Ads in the UK?

Yes. "Water damage services" is on Google's UK category list. Google also places no extra restriction on water damage ads in the UK; its verification rules for local services apply to locksmiths and some other trades abroad.

Can a customer cancel an emergency drying job?

Not the urgent visit they asked you out for. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 take that out of the 14-day cancellation right. Anything extra agreed on the same visit, like a new ceiling or a redecoration, keeps the right, so give the cancellation information with that quote.

When do people search for water damage restoration?

In bursts. UK searches for "water damage restoration" peaked in October 2025 at 5,400 and were lowest in May 2026 at 210, then jumped to 2,900 in June 2026. Searches for "water damage insurance claim" were highest from September to November 2025 and fell to 20 a month by August 2026.

Last updated 15 October 2026

One UK seller has a flood leads page. The big jobs go through the insurer.

We checked 10 UK lead sellers for water damage and flood restoration leads. Only PromoSEO has a page for them, with packages from roughly £500 a month and no price per lead. Bark, Checkatrade and TrustATrader list restoration firms. Buy the click yourself and a water damage ad costs £4.43 to £25.50.

The reason the market is so thin is in the ABI's own guide to a flood claim: a loss adjuster organises the clean-up, and "A specialist company will disinfect and dry the property." The average flood payout to a homeowner in 2025 was £30,000. That job comes through the insurer, not through a lead seller.

Sold as a damp lead

"Standing water in cellar, needs water removing and needs a water pump installing"

A customer in Bradford posted that on 27 September, and it sits on Leads Do Work's damp proofing feed, because Leads Do Work has no water damage category at all. Two days earlier a Cumnock lead on the same feed said an "Insurance Surveyor has taken damp measurements". The insurer was already in the room.

Where we stand

We don't sell water damage leads. We help you get your own.

This guide is the honest version of what buying water damage leads costs, and who else gets them. What we do instead is build flood and water damage restoration firms a website that turns visits into calls, and run Google Ads in an account in your own name, so every lead that comes in is a customer who found you, and nobody else was sold it.

What the work is worth

A lead off the main search costs more than the ceiling patch it brings in.

With no per-lead price on sale, the fairest yardstick is your own ads. "water damage restoration" costs £14.07 a click, about £192 a lead. "water damage repair" costs £4.43, about £60 a lead. Here is what each does to a job if you win one quote in 3.

Job	Typical UK price	"water damage restoration", £192 a lead	"water damage repair", £60 a lead
Patch repair to a water-damaged ceiling	£150 to £200	£576 a win, 329% of the job	£181 a win, 103% of the job
Water extraction	£200 to £1,000	£576 a win, 96% of the job	£181 a win, 30% of the job
Full ceiling water damage repair	£1,400 to £1,700	£576 a win, 37% of the job	£181 a win, 12% of the job
Water damage restoration project	£700 to £4,500	£576 a win, 22% of the job	£181 a win, 7% of the job
Water damage restoration	£500 to £5,000	£576 a win, 21% of the job	£181 a win, 7% of the job
Flooded basement clean-up, from	£5,000	£576 a win, 12% of the job	£181 a win, 4% of the job

Ceiling prices from Checkatrade's ceiling water damage guide (table dated May 2024), extraction, restoration and basement prices from its water removal guide (August 2026), where the basement figure is "£5,000+", and the project row from MyBuilder (August 2026). Checkatrade's prices are plus VAT. Ranges are worked at their middle. Lead costs divide each click by 7.33%, WordStream's conversion rate for home improvement search ads. One win in 3 is MyJobQuote's figure for its trades.

A won customer should cost about 10 to 15 percent of the job. Only the flooded basement gets near that on the main search, at 12%. A full restoration at Checkatrade's middle figure sits at 21%, an extraction at 96% and a ceiling patch at 329%, which means paying three times the job to win it. The cheaper repair search changes the picture: 7% of a restoration and 12% of a full ceiling repair.

If the call is a stain on the ceiling

The leak above it is a plumber's job, and our plumbing leads guide covers that market. The patch and the redecoration are yours. At £175 the job can't carry a lead off the main search, so it pays best as a referral from the plumber who fixed the pipe.

If it's damp, not a flood

Rising damp, penetrating damp and condensation are a different trade with different sellers. They are in our damp proofing leads guide. This page is about water that arrived all at once: a burst pipe, a leak from upstairs, a flood.

Your numbers

How much can a water damage lead cost before the job stops paying you?

Nobody sells a UK water damage lead at a fixed price, so put in the per-lead figure from the table above for the search you would bid on. The calculator starts on Checkatrade's restoration; the ceiling patch and the flooded basement sit at either end.

WHAT CAN YOU PAY FOR A WATER DAMAGE LEAD?

Pick a job, or type in what yours are worth

Type of job

What one job is worth to you

Quotes it takes you to win one

Starts on one in three, the figure MyJobQuote tells its own trades to expect. Put in yours.

What a lead costs you

You can pay up to about

£138

a lead, winning one in 3

Healthy range, per won job: £275 to £413
Which per lead is: £92 to £138

Put a seller's price in the last box and this will tell you what each won job would cost you.

That 10 to 15 percent band is a rule of thumb we use across every trade. Nobody has measured it.

Who sells them

10 lead sellers checked. One has a flood page. Three directories list you instead.

Seller pages and prices are quoted from each firm's own website, and "Not stated" means the firm doesn't say. The first page of Google for "water damage leads" is all American sellers, pricing in dollars.

Seller	Price	Who else gets the lead	In their words
PromoSEO	From roughly £500 a month	Nobody in your area	"one restoration contractor per area"
Leads Do Work	No water damage row; damp is £25 + VAT	Not stated for this trade	"Lead returns are possible"
Bark	Credits at £1.80, number per lead not stated	Up to 5 quotes	"comparing up to 5 quotes"
Checkatrade	£30 a month, lead plans from £59	Not stated	"Fire and flood renovation"
TrustATrader	Not stated	Several firms	"multiple trusted traders"
Zapo, Lead Pronto, Leads Everyday	No water damage page	n/a	n/a

PromoSEO sells a month, not a lead

Its flood damage page covers "emergency response, water extraction, drying, dehumidification, property restoration and insurance claim support". It charges on "cost per lead and pay per conversion", says packages "start at roughly £500 per month", gives each area to "one restoration contractor", and says leads "typically start within 24 to 48 hours". Bad leads go through a "make good process". It doesn't say whether the price includes VAT, and we found no terms page. That £500 is 18% of one restoration at Checkatrade's middle figure, so one won restoration a month leaves it just above our 10 to 15 percent band, and two bring it under. Ask how many leads the £500 bought last winter in your postcode.

The pay-per-lead sellers have no water damage row

Leads Do Work's Connect price list runs to about 180 rows. Damp proofing is £25 a lead plus VAT and an £11 weekly fee; water damage, flood, drying and restoration aren't on it, and its water damage and flood addresses send you back to the category list. Zapo, Lead Pronto, Leads Everyday and five smaller agencies had no water damage page either. Zapo's addresses for one return a 404. So a flood lead from these firms arrives filed under damp or plumbing, at that trade's price.

Bark, Checkatrade and TrustATrader list you and share the customer

Bark has a Water Damage Cleanup and Restoration category, where the customer compares "up to 5 quotes". Its £250 figure is the average a customer pays per visit, not a lead price, and its credits cost £1.80 each and last 3 months. A Checkatrade search for water damage lands on Fire and Flood Renovation, with 18 firms listed across the UK, often beside other trades such as general building. TrustATrader sends a request to "multiple trusted traders". MyBuilder, Rated People and MyJobQuote have no flood or water damage category. What sharing a customer does to your quote is in the shared-lead trap, and Bark's credit system in is Bark worth it.

Everything here about PromoSEO's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 1 October 2026. PromoSEO publishes no separate terms page that we could find, so its terms here are the ones on its flood damage page. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.

Rather have water damage leads that are yours alone?

That's what we do. We don't sell leads. We build the website and run the Google Ads that bring customers straight to you, in an ad account in your name that stays yours if you ever leave.

See pricing

Want to know how many people near you search Google for what you do each month? Message us your town and we'll send you the real numbers.

Check my area

Where the big jobs go

The £30,000 flood job is handed out by a loss adjuster.

The ABI's floods guide walks a homeowner through a claim: "A loss adjuster will organise professional cleaning and strip-out." Then "A specialist company will disinfect and dry the property." Then "Your insurer will appoint a builder or offer a cash settlement for repairs." Its flooding page names "specialist cleaning and drying companies" among the firms an insurer is likely to use. The work on a flood claim is allocated inside the claim.

£30,000

Average flood payout to a homeowner, 2025. ABI

Over £17,000

Average burst pipe claim in 2023, across about 12,000 claims. ABI

£8,548

Average flood, storm and burst pipe claim, April to June 2026. ABI

Domestic flood claims cost insurers £312 million in 2025. Set those averages against the £500 to £5,000 Checkatrade gives for a restoration bought by a homeowner, and the biggest jobs tend to come with an insurer behind them.

The badge the adjusters look for

The BDMA was launched on 1 December 1999 with the ABI's support, and says its accreditation "is increasingly sought by insurers and loss adjusters appointing contractors for claims related restoration". The entry level, BDMA Tech, asks for 12 months of fire, flood and water damage work and 10 CPD points. Training is £325 plus VAT and the fee £168 plus VAT a year. A firm gets corporate accreditation once 25% of its qualifying staff hold it, audited every two years. The standard behind it is BS 12999.

The supply chains that take applications

Sedgwick invites contractors to "Join our Contractor Network" and agree to its code of conduct. Claims Consortium Group runs a confidentiality and competitor clause, a financial check, a contract, then training. Crawford says it has handpicked 100+ contractors for its network. None of these pages publishes a rate, a response time or the insurance cover it wants. You find those out once you apply.

The homeowner who rings you direct may still be the insurer's

A Financial Ombudsman decision sets out the usual position: the policy lets the insurer "carry out the repairs through their own contractors or they can cash settle the claim", and if the policyholder "insists on using a more expensive option" the insurer doesn't have to cover the difference. Another notes the insurer "will have access to lower contractor rates". These are single decisions, not binding rules, but they tell you how your quote will be read.

Ask on the first call whether they have claimed
Price to the job, then expect the insurer's rate to be lower
Photograph everything before you strip anything out
Agree in writing who pays if the insurer won't

The FCA's ICOBS 8.1.1 says an insurer must "handle claims promptly and fairly", which is the line to quote if a cash settlement stalls while your dehumidifiers run.

Buying the click yourself

The biggest water damage search is somebody hiring a dehumidifier themselves.

"dehumidifier hire" gets 3,600 searches a month at £2.40 a click, more than any search in the table below. Those people plan to dry out without you. "water damage leads", what a restorer types to find a seller, gets about 10 searches a month with no bids at all, and "flood restoration leads" 0. The homeowner searches are where the money goes. The per-lead column divides each click by 7.33%, WordStream's conversion rate for home improvement search ads, which is US data, so treat it as a rough guide.

Search	Searches a month	Per click	Per lead
flood damage clean up	90	£25.50	£348
water damage restoration near me	880	£14.36	£196
water damage restoration	1,600	£14.07	£192
fire and flood restoration	90	£13.56	£185
flood damage restoration	390	£10.58	£144
water damaged ceiling	480	£9.53	£130
flood damage repair	140	£8.95	£122
ceiling leak repair	170	£8.22	£112
flood restoration	170	£8.02	£109
water damage restoration company	320	£7.48	£102
water damage repair	1,000	£4.43	£60

Google Ads data for the UK, pulled 1 October 2026. Click prices are bid-based estimates, so what you actually pay will land near them rather than on them.

"flood damage clean up" is the dearest at £25.50, about £348 a lead, on 90 searches a month. "water damage restoration" is the biggest hiring search at 1,600 a month and £192 a lead. "water damage repair" is nearly as big at 1,000 and the cheapest at £60. "water damaged ceiling", at £130 a lead, is mostly the £150 to £200 patch and the £1,400 to £1,700 ceiling. What your own ads give you that a seller can't:

Bids on the repair searches the big jobs can carry
Your firm's name on the ad, not a seller's form
Drying kit hire rates on your website before they ring
A customer who found you, not one a loss adjuster sent
Clicks paid to Google, with nothing added
An ad account that leaves with you

Google's local services ads policy puts no extra check on water damage ads in the UK. The rest of what you are signing up to is in the Google Ads guide for tradesmen, and setting a monthly figure in how much to spend on Google Ads.

Google Local Services Ads

"Water damage services" is on Google's UK category list, so a restoration firm can apply for Local Services Ads. How it charges is in our Local Services Ads guide.

Before you start drying

River water and sewage are a different job from a burst pipe, priced differently.

The IICRC's S500 standard sorts water by contamination. Its 2026 position statement says "Category 3 water is grossly contaminated" and lists sewage, "all forms of flooding from seawater" and "rising water from rivers or streams". With that water, "remediation should occur prior to restorative drying and restorers shall use contamination controls and appropriate worker protection". Rain coming in from above is "not automatically considered Category 3". A lead that just says "flood" doesn't tell you which you are walking into.

Your own crew

HSE says Weil's disease comes from rat urine through cuts or "contaminated water", and is rare in the UK. Its biological hazards guidance adds that sewage "could also be contaminated with Hepatitis A" and that "a risk assessment will be needed".

The power and the gas

gov.uk tells homeowners not to turn on water, gas or electricity until it is checked. Electrical Safety First says to call a registered electrician if there is water in the consumer unit and to "Ask the electrician for an Electrical Installation Condition Report".

The insurer's photos

The same gov.uk page tells people to "take photos of any damage and the flood water line" and to "speak to your insurance company about what you can move and throw away". Photograph before you strip anything out.

Drying kit alone runs at £50 to £100 a day on MyBuilder's figures. A contaminated job adds the clean-up and the protection before that meter starts, so ask what the water was before you quote.

The emergency call-out

The emergency drying can't be cancelled. The new ceiling you quote on the same visit can be.

Extracting the water they rang about sits outside the 14-day cancellation right. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 carve out a visit made "for the purpose of carrying out urgent repairs or maintenance", and water coming through a ceiling is a fair case for urgent, though that's our reading rather than a ruling. Anything beyond the emergency, such as replastering the ceiling later, still carries the right, as "services in addition to the urgent repairs or maintenance requested".

Extracting the water they rang about: no 14 days
A new ceiling you suggest while you are there: 14 days
Redecorating the room afterwards: 14 days
Starting that early: get their request in writing

That's where a small water damage lead can pay after all. The extraction is the foot in the door; the reinstatement is the job. Quote it properly, hand over the cancellation information with the quote, and keep it separate from the emergency.

Through the year

Restoration searches arrive in bursts you can't put in a diary.

UK searches for "water damage restoration" peaked at 5,400 in October 2025, fell to 210 in May 2026, about 26 times lower, and jumped back to 2,900 in June 2026. The repair search spiked in the same two months. Nothing we read explains either jump, so treat them as surprises rather than a pattern.

UK searches for "water damage restoration", by month

September 2025 to August 2026. Google Ads keyword data, rounded bands.

Sep: 2,900

Oct: 5,4005.4k

Nov: 1,300

Dec: 880

Jan: 1,300

Feb: 880

Mar: 720

Apr: 720

May: 2100.2k

Jun: 2,900

Jul: 1,600

Aug: 1,000

SepOctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAug

The claims follow the winter

"water damage insurance claim" ran at 590 a month in September 2025, October 2025 and November 2025 and fell to 20 by August 2026. That's the half of the year when the insurer is likely to be in the conversation before you are.

Set a cap, not a forecast

With searches moving 26-fold in a year, a fixed monthly lead package buys the same in May as in October. Your own ads spend more when the searches come and less when they don't, inside a daily budget you set.

Where the lead came from

Find out where a water damage lead was collected before you ring the customer.

The ICO puts the checking on you as the buyer. It wants checks in proportion to the risk, and a seller telling you the data is clean doesn't count as one. We searched the ICO's enforcement list and the ASA's rulings and found no action against a flood or water damage firm; the home improvement cases are in our roofing leads guide.

Before you pay for water damage leads, ask:

Which website or ad did the customer fill in?
Does the consent name my business?
How many other restoration firms get it?
Has the customer already made an insurance claim?
Can I return a damp or plumbing job that isn't water damage?

The insurance question decides the rest. If a claim is already open, the loss adjuster may send their own contractor, and the lead you paid for ends at the first call.

Which way to go

Get accredited for the insurer work. Run your own ads for the homeowners who pay you direct.

Chase panels if

You can turn out day or night
You hold or can get BDMA Tech
You can carry the kit for weeks
You can live with the insurer's rate

Think twice if

A package costs £500 in May too
The lead is filed under damp
Up to 5 firms can quote
Nobody says which site it came from

Run your own if

You want the reinstatement too
You bid on repair, not restoration
You want the call to yourself
The ad account is yours to take

There is very little water damage lead market to buy into in the UK, and the biggest jobs are allocated by loss adjusters. That leaves two routes: the supply chains, which want accreditation and take their rates, and the homeowner who searches before calling the insurer, or who has no insurer. How leads are sold in every other trade is in our guide to trade leads. Weighing a directory listing instead? Read is Checkatrade worth it first.

Our sources

Where every water damage figure here came from.

We build websites and run Google Ads for trades, so we have a side in this. The ceiling patch row, where a lead off our kind of ad costs three times the job, stays in for that reason.

Seller pages and terms were read on their own sites on 1 October 2026, along with the directories' flood and restoration categories. Search volumes and click prices are Google Ads data for the UK, pulled the same day. Job prices are from Checkatrade's water removal and ceiling guides and MyBuilder's restoration guide. Claim figures are the ABI's, from its 2025 payouts, second quarter 2026 and cold weather releases. Accreditation is from the BDMA, own contractors from the Financial Ombudsman, water categories from the IICRC, safety from HSE and gov.uk, Google's positions from its Local Services Ads help, cancellation from the Consumer Contracts Regulations, and lead consent from the ICO.

Questions restoration firms ask

Water damage leads, answered.

How much do water damage leads cost in the UK?: Almost nobody publishes a price, because almost nobody sells them. PromoSEO, the only UK seller we found with a flood damage page, says its packages "start at roughly £500 per month" and gives no price per lead. Leads Do Work has no water damage row on its price list. Bark charges credits per lead without saying how many for this category. A click on your own water damage ad costs £4.43 to £25.50, which works out at roughly £60 to £348 a lead.
Are flood restoration leads exclusive?: PromoSEO says it gives each area to "one restoration contractor". Bark lets a customer compare "up to 5 quotes", and TrustATrader sends a request to "multiple trusted traders". Checkatrade doesn't say how many firms see a job.
How do I get on an insurer panel for water damage work?: Through the loss adjusters and claims firms that run the supply chains. Sedgwick asks contractors to apply and agree to its code of conduct, Claims Consortium Group runs a financial check and a contract, and Crawford says it has handpicked 100+ contractors. None of them publishes its rates or response times. The BDMA says its accreditation "is increasingly sought by insurers and loss adjusters appointing contractors".
Do I need BDMA accreditation for flood restoration?: The BDMA itself calls its accreditation "increasingly sought" by insurers and loss adjusters, not required. The entry level, BDMA Tech, asks for 12 months' experience of fire, flood and water damage work and 10 CPD points, with training at £325 plus VAT and a fee of £168 plus VAT a year.
Can a homeowner use their own contractor on a water damage claim?: They can ask. One Financial Ombudsman decision says the policy let the insurer repair through its own contractors or pay cash instead, and that it didn't have to pay more than its own contractors would have cost. Another notes the insurer "will have access to lower contractor rates". Ask a direct customer early whether they have claimed.
Can water damage firms use Google Local Services Ads in the UK?: Yes. "Water damage services" is on Google's UK category list. Google also places no extra restriction on water damage ads in the UK; its verification rules for local services apply to locksmiths and some other trades abroad.
Can a customer cancel an emergency drying job?: Not the urgent visit they asked you out for. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 take that out of the 14-day cancellation right. Anything extra agreed on the same visit, like a new ceiling or a redecoration, keeps the right, so give the cancellation information with that quote.
When do people search for water damage restoration?: In bursts. UK searches for "water damage restoration" peaked in October 2025 at 5,400 and were lowest in May 2026 at 210, then jumped to 2,900 in June 2026. Searches for "water damage insurance claim" were highest from September to November 2025 and fell to 20 a month by August 2026.

Keep reading

Restoration jobs in the diary from homeowners who searched for you.

We build your website and run Google Ads from an account in your own name, bidding on the water damage searches your jobs can afford rather than every stained ceiling in the county. See what it costs, then tell us about your business and we'll keep the bids on the repair searches a reinstatement can pay for.

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