Terms of Use & Disclaimer

Last updated: July 4, 2026

By using Restoration Answers you agree to these terms. Please read the safety section carefully — it matters most in exactly the moment you're likely here. Restoration Answers is operated by Sam Arora (legal name Saksham Arora), sole proprietor, publishing under the Lumen & Ink studio name.

Information, not professional advice

Everything on this site is general educational information, not professional advice. It is not a substitute for a licensed restoration contractor, a qualified electrician or plumber, a structural engineer, a licensed insurance professional, or your own insurer. Cost figures are national planning ranges, not quotes; insurance guidance is general and cannot account for your specific policy wording. Always obtain on-site professional assessments and confirm coverage with your insurer before acting.

Emergency guidance & assumption of risk

Water emergencies can involve electrocution, gas, structural collapse, contaminated water and mold — serious physical hazards. Our guidance is deliberately referral-first: where a step carries real risk, we tell you to stop and call a professional or utility rather than attempt it. You act on any information here at your own risk. When in doubt, or if anyone's safety is uncertain, leave the area and call 911, your utility, or a licensed professional. In a life-threatening emergency, call 911 first — always.

No warranty; limitation of liability

This site is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Restoration Answers, Sam Arora and Lumen & Ink are not liable for any loss, injury or damage arising from use of, or reliance on, this site or any professional you choose to contact through it. Restoration professionals reached via referral numbers are independent businesses; we do not perform, supervise, warrant or guarantee their work.

How we are paid

We are not paid per call, per lead or per job, and you never pay us anything. Where a page lists a restoration company's phone number, that one company pays a flat monthly sponsorship for that page's call slot. The number rings that company directly — we do not route, record or count those calls, and nothing you do on this site costs you money or is sold on. Some pages also carry Amazon affiliate links to equipment, marked as such, from which we may earn a commission on a purchase you choose to make. You are always free to call any company directly instead. See our Privacy Policy for the full disclosure.

Sponsorship terms (restoration companies)

These terms apply if you claim a city through /water-damage/claim. They are the whole agreement; nothing is signed and nothing is charged automatically.

• Rates. $99 per month for a single city page (ZIP tier); $299 per month for a metro where we publish both the water-damage page and a separate mold page. Which tier your city qualifies for is stated to you before you are ever invoiced — ask, and we will tell you which pages exist for it.
• Free for the first 60 days. $0 down, no activation fee. Billing starts only after that period and only if you decide the calls were worth paying for. If you say no, you owe nothing and the number comes down.
• No lock-in. Cancel any time, for any reason, with no notice period and no termination fee. We take the number down at the next deploy.
• Exclusivity. One restoration company's number is published per city page at a time. Other companies may ask about the same city and we may talk to them, but only one number is ever printed. Exclusivity attaches to the page whose number is published — it does not extend to our national tool pages (the cost calculator, the insurance estimator and the first-60-minutes checklist), which carry no sponsored number at all.
• Licence required. We publish your state contractor licence number beside your phone number, and we will not publish a number without one — in any state, no exceptions. Several states require it in advertising (California B&P §7030.5, Nevada NRS 624.720, Arizona A.R.S. §32-1124, Oregon ORS 701/CCB, Washington RCW 18.27.100, Utah §58-55-308, Idaho §54-5210, New Mexico §60-13-12, Tennessee §62-6-126), and mold remediation is separately licensed in Texas (16 TAC Ch. 78) and Louisiana.
• The published number is yours. We ask you to create a free forwarding line (Google Voice or similar) and give us that number. It lives in your account — you create it, you own it, you keep it if you leave, and its call log is the only call record either of us has. We have no call tracking of any kind and cannot show you a log.
• Who is billed. The first invoice is written by hand and goes to the person who submitted the claim form, at the callback number or email on that form. If the person paying is not the licence holder, say so when we call — we will not send a bill to a business owner who has not agreed to it.
• What sponsorship does not buy. It changes exactly one thing: whose number is printed. Editorial content does not change — every sponsored page still tells the homeowner to call their own insurer's claims line first, still links the free IICRC locator, and still carries the vetting questions. We do not sell reviews, rankings, or editorial mentions.
• No traffic or call guarantee. We do not promise a number of visitors, calls or jobs, and we will not quote you one. That is the reason the first 60 days are free.

Contact & governing terms

Questions: use the form at /water-damage/claim — it is the only channel that currently reaches us. Our inbound mailbox (hello@restorationanswers.com) is rejecting mail at the server, so anything emailed there bounces and is never received. (Lumen & Ink is the publishing studio behind Restoration Answers). These terms are governed by the laws of India; nothing here limits rights you hold as a US consumer. We may update these terms; the “last updated” date reflects the current version. Learn more about who we are.