---
title: "Written RV Repair Estimate: $150, Credited in Full"
description: "A line by line repair scope with labor hours, parts, materials and sequence. $150 at the Yorba Linda shop, credited in full against an authorized repair."
focus_keyword: "written repair estimate cost rancho santa margarita"
canonical: https://ocrv.me/services/inspection-and-estimating/written-repair-estimate/
kind: subService
updated: 2026-07-29
source: OCRV Center
---

# The Written Repair Estimate: What Is On It, What It Costs

> A written repair estimate is **$150** and it credits in full against an authorized repair. It is a line by line scope, produced **in shop only**, never from a photograph.

## What is a written repair estimate and what does it cost?

A written repair estimate from OCRV Center is a line by line repair scope listing labor hours at the department rate, parts, materials and work sequence. It costs $150 and credits in full against an authorized repair. It is produced in shop in Yorba Linda for Rancho Santa Margarita owners.

- The fee is $150 and it comes off an authorized repair invoice in full
- We do not write scopes from photographs or from a phone description
- Labor appears as hours at a department rate, never as a lump sum
- You keep the document whether or not you proceed with the work

### Key facts

| Item | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Estimate fee | $150 (Credited in full against an authorized repair at this facility) |
| Where it is written | 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda (The unit is present, on a lift where the scope needs one) |
| Body and paint rate | $210 per hour (Plus paint supplies at $55 per paint hour) |
| Mechanical and electrical rate | $260 per hour (Used for systems, plumbing, chassis and appliance lines) |
| Typical turnaround | Same day on most units (Longer where a supplier has to confirm availability) |

The unit has to be here. We do not offer mobile estimating, and there is no roadside version of this document, because a scope written without the vehicle in front of somebody is a guess dressed up in line items. Half of what belongs on an RV estimate is under the coach, behind a panel or only visible with a meter attached, and none of that reaches a phone camera.

What you are buying for $150 is the arithmetic. Which operations are needed, in what order, at how many hours, on which department's rate, with which parts and what those parts are actually doing at a supplier this week. Owners use it to authorize work, to answer a carrier, to negotiate with a seller, or to decide that a twenty year old coach has reached the end of sensible investment. All four are legitimate and none of them require you to spend another dollar here.

## Why a scope cannot be written without the vehicle

We do not offer mobile estimating, and there is no roadside option: the unit comes to the Yorba Linda facility where the lift capacity, the paint booth and the measuring system are. That is a capability statement rather than a preference. A collision scope needs the coach on a lift to establish whether a frame member moved. A water scope needs a pin meter run along a floor line. A slide scope needs the room cycled. None of those is a photograph.

The practical cost of a scope written remotely is not a slightly wrong number, it is a supplement fight two weeks in. A carrier who has approved a figure and then receives a much larger one asks, reasonably, what changed. If the answer is that nobody looked properly the first time, the second conversation is difficult. If the answer is that the teardown line everybody authorized found what it was authorized to look for, the second conversation is administrative.

> **note:** Insurance walk ins are accepted during posted hours. Bring the unit, your claim number and anything already written by anybody else, including a carrier estimate you disagree with.

## Where the hours on an RV estimate come from

Automotive collision work runs on published labor times. A quarter panel on a common sedan has a number, and both sides of a claim work from the same book. Recreational vehicle work mostly does not have that. Volumes are small, construction varies between two units built in the same month, and there is no comprehensive published time for replacing a laminated sidewall section on a nine year old fifth wheel.

So hours have to be derived and then justified. We derive them from three things: measurement of the actual damaged area, the construction the unit uses, and comparable jobs completed here on the same build type. Then the basis goes on the line, in writing. An adjuster reviewing forty hours with a measurement sheet and a comparable behind it has something to verify. An adjuster reviewing forty hours with nothing behind it has a number to reduce, and reducing it is the rational thing to do from where they sit.

- Measured area and construction type drive the hour count
- Comparable completed jobs on the same build provide the sanity check
- The basis for the hours is written on the line, not held in someone's head
- Department rate is stated per line so a mixed scope stays legible
- Refinish hours are separated from body hours because materials attach to them

## What the document actually contains

An estimate that is useful to somebody who was not present has a fixed anatomy. Vehicle identification, including the plate or serial and the hour meters where they exist. A damage description written as observation rather than conclusion. Then the operations, one per line, each with a department, an hour figure, a basis and the sequence position it occupies. Then parts, with supplier, price, markup and lead time. Then materials, calculated from the hours they attach to. Then sublet, shown as itself.

The last section is the one owners skip and adjusters read first: what is provisional. Any line that cannot be settled until something comes apart is identified there, along with the specific question teardown will answer. Sales tax of 7.75 percent applies to parts and materials, labor is not taxed, and where a total crosses $2,000 a deposit is taken at authorization. All of that appears on the face of the document rather than in a conversation afterwards.

**The sections of a written repair estimate and what each one is for**

| Section | What it contains | Who relies on it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Identification | Serial or plate, hour meters, date, mileage | Anybody reading the file months later |
| Observation | Damage described as seen, with photograph references | The adjuster deciding cause of loss |
| Operations | One line each: department, hours, basis, sequence | You, when comparing two estimates |
| Parts | Supplier, price, markup, lead time, long lead flags | The scheduler, and your own calendar |
| Materials | Paint and body supplies calculated from their hours | Whoever checks that the total adds up |
| Provisional | Teardown dependent lines and the questions behind them | The supplement reviewer |

## Using the estimate somewhere other than here

A large share of the estimates we write are never followed by a repair in this building, and that is fine. Owners take them to a carrier to challenge a low figure. Buyers take them to a private seller with a specific number attached to a specific defect, which converts a vague haggle into a short conversation. Sellers order one so they can answer a buyer's questions before they get asked. People deciding whether to keep an older coach use it to turn a feeling into arithmetic.

None of that changes the price and none of it changes how the document is written. The fee is charged when the work is done and the paper is yours. If you never come back, you paid $150 for an independent scope written by people who put the unit on a lift. If you authorize repairs here, that same $150 comes off the invoice as a line item and you have effectively paid for it once.

## When an estimate is the wrong purchase

An estimate prices a known repair. If nobody yet knows why something is failing, pricing it is guesswork with a decimal point. A slide that stalls could be a rail, a gear pack, a controller or a supply voltage problem, and those four repairs are thousands of dollars apart. Writing an estimate for one of them before establishing which is true is how owners end up authorizing the wrong work and paying twice for the privilege.

In that situation the sequence is diagnosis first, then a scope written against the finding. Diagnostic and scan time bills at $285 per hour with a one hour minimum, and it credits in full against an authorized repair exactly as the estimate fee does. We will say plainly at the counter which of the two your question needs, and being told costs nothing.

## How to compare this against somebody else's number

Totals are the least informative part of an estimate and comparing them is how owners get misled. Two documents for the same damage can differ by half without either being dishonest, because they assumed different things. One replaced a panel and one repaired it. One included teardown and one did not. One priced OEM parts and one priced aftermarket. One folded materials into labor so the line looks cheaper than it is.

So read the operations instead. Count the hours per operation and ask what the basis was. Check whether refinish sits separately from body. Look for a teardown allowance anywhere bonded structure is involved, and treat its absence as a warning rather than a saving. Where a competing document is shorter than ours, we will go through the difference operation by operation and tell you honestly which of the two assumptions we think is right.

1. Line up the operations, ignoring both totals to start with
2. Compare hours per operation and ask for the basis on each
3. Check whether materials appear separately or inside the labor rate
4. Look for a teardown allowance anywhere bonded construction is involved
5. Confirm whether parts are OEM, aftermarket or unspecified
6. Only then compare the two totals, with the differences named

## Which vehicles we write these for

Gas coaches and travel trailers make up most of the volume, usually behind an insurance claim. Fifth wheels arrive with pin box and frame questions where the hour count depends entirely on measurement. Vintage units need an estimate that separates what is still supported from what has to be fabricated, because that distinction decides whether a restoration is sensible at all. Sprinter based builds and box trucks come in on the commercial side, where the operator wants downtime days on the document alongside the money.

## Cost

$150 to $150, based on 1 to 2 labor hours at $285 per hour.

Written repair estimate is $150, credited in full against an authorized repair. All work is performed in shop.

## Questions and answers

### How are labor hours worked out when there is no published time for the operation?

From measurement of the damaged area, the construction the unit uses, and comparable jobs finished here on the same build type. The basis is then written on the line itself. Hours with a stated method behind them survive carrier review. Hours that arrive with no explanation are the first thing an adjuster reduces.

### Will you write a scope for repairs I intend to have done somewhere else?

Yes, and a good number of ours are used that way. The fee is $150, the document is yours, and how you use it is your business. Owners take them to carriers, to private sellers and to attorneys. If you do later authorize the repair here, that fee credits in full against the invoice.

### What does a line marked teardown dependent mean on my scope?

It means the operation cannot be priced firmly until something comes apart, and it names the question teardown will answer. Bonded RV walls and wet floors hide their extent by design. Declaring the unknown up front is what turns a later supplement into paperwork rather than a dispute about what changed.

### Why are paint and body materials listed apart from labor?

Because they are calculated from the hours they attach to, at $55 per paint hour and $5 per body hour, and because hiding them inside a labor rate makes two estimates impossible to compare. Sales tax applies to parts and materials at 7.75 percent while labor is not taxed, which is another reason to keep them apart.

### How long does a written repair estimate stay usable?

The labor structure holds. Parts prices and lead times are the part that moves, sometimes sharply, so anything more than about sixty days old gets its parts lines refreshed before authorization. We do that without charging the fee again, because the inspection and the operations are already documented.

### Can the scope go straight to my adjuster with the photographs attached?

Yes, and that is the usual route. It goes out with the photographic sequence, any moisture readings by location, and the measurement printout where structure is involved. Adjusters approve what they can verify, so sending the evidence with the original scope rather than holding it back shortens review noticeably.

---

Source: [OCRV Center](https://ocrv.me/services/inspection-and-estimating/written-repair-estimate/). Last verified 2026-07-29.