Contents Pack-Out Cost Calculator
Estimate the cost to pack out, clean and store your belongings while the home is restored — from the per-room rate and monthly storage cost on your quote.
Calculator
Packing out and cleaning the contents of 4 rooms at $500.00/room plus 2 months of storage is about $2,530.00. A pack-out moves salvageable belongings off-site for cleaning while the structure is restored. Enter your quoted rates; a planning estimate, not a bid.
When a fire, flood or heavy smoke job makes a home unsafe to restore with belongings in place, the restorer performs a pack-out: they inventory, pack, transport and clean your contents off-site, store them while the structure is repaired, then move everything back. It protects your belongings from further damage and gives the crews room to work — but it is a real line item, especially the storage, which accrues every month the restoration runs long.
This calculator estimates the pack-out from a per-room rate plus monthly storage, both entered from your own quote.
Formula
The estimate is a two-part identity plus a buffer:
total = (rooms × $/room + storage_months × $/month) × (1 + contingency%)
- rooms × $/room — inventory, packing, transport and cleaning of contents, priced per room.
- storage_months × $/month — climate-controlled storage while the home is restored.
- × (1 + contingency%) — a buffer for extra cleaning or a restoration that runs longer than planned.
Both rates are prices you enter — the tool never assumes one.
Worked example
Say 4 rooms are packed out at $500/room, and belongings sit in storage for 2 months at $150/month, with a 10% contingency:
(4 × $500 + 2 × $150) × 1.10 = ($2,000 + $300) × 1.10 = $2,530
The storage line is the one that surprises people: if the rebuild slips from two months to five, that $300 becomes $750 before any extra cleaning. Ask your restorer for the expected timeline and confirm who pays for overruns.
Inventory, insurance and non-restorable items
A pack-out is usually documented with a detailed inventory — often photographed — which serves two purposes: it protects you (proof of what left the home and its condition) and it feeds the insurance contents claim. Keep a copy; the inventory is your record if anything is lost or a value is disputed. Coverage for contents and additional living expenses is a policy question — use the insurance out-of-pocket estimator for the deductible math and confirm with your adjuster.
Not everything survives. Items with heavy soot, water or heat damage may be classed as non-restorable and disposed of rather than cleaned and stored — which lowers the pack-out but raises the contents claim. Textiles, electronics and documents each have specialist cleaning that may appear as separate line items on your quote.
Remember the estimate covers a round trip. The per-room rate typically bundles the pack-out and cleaning, but the pack-back — returning and re-placing everything once the home is finished — and any final delivery fee may be quoted separately, so ask what is included. A partial pack-out is common when only part of the home is affected: you move out just the rooms in the work zone, which lowers both the room count and the storage footprint. Whichever way you go, tie the storage duration to the contractor’s expected completion date, because storage is the line most likely to outgrow the original estimate.
This is a planning estimate, not a bid. Get an itemized pack-out and storage quote in writing from a licensed, insured, IICRC-certified restoration contractor, and clarify the storage rate and expected duration up front.