Combine itemised Korean detection, source repair, drying, finish, and lower-unit restoration quotes, then apply confirmed VAT terms, contingency, and recoveries.
This tool invents neither hidden unit prices nor cause multipliers. It itemises written site quotes into detection, source repair, and restoration, then applies only confirmed VAT and recoveries.
Property and suspected cause change the questions, never the quoted amounts.
Enter the quoted visit, precision detection, repeat visit, and emergency surcharge separately.
Quoted call-out, visual, meter, or basic pressure checks
Confirm included pressure, acoustic, gas, thermal, camera, or flood tests
Intermittent reproduction, another circuit, or revisit conditions
Written night, weekend, high-rise, equipment, or parking surcharge
These are the access, pipe or waterproofing repair, and retest costs required to stop the source.
Floor, wall, ceiling, tile, or flooring access work
Confirmed pipe, joint, fixture, waterproofing, or sealing repair
Pressure, flow, flood, spray, or dry-down verification
Separate drying, mould treatment, your finishes, waste, and confirmed lower-unit restoration.
Plaster, waterproof base, tile, or flooring substrate reinstatement
Equipment hire, repeat visits, and moisture checks
Professional treatment quote for the confirmed affected area
Ceiling, wall, floor, or fitted-furniture finish work
Debris removal, protection removal, and final cleaning
Confirmed wall, paint, ceiling, furniture, or other third-party work
Temporary accommodation and extra water cost sit outside the service quote. Contingency applies only to the service quote.
For mixed quote bases, obtain one consistent basis before relying on the total.
Enter 0% to 30%.
The calculator does not infer coverage or liability. Enter only a confirmed payment or reliable payment advice.
Use only an amount confirmed in writing by a manager, landlord, or other party.
A water leak budget rarely ends with one detection charge.
The project may include locating the source, opening a floor, wall, or ceiling, repairing a pipe or waterproofing layer, testing the repair, drying the structure, treating mould, restoring tile and decorative finishes, and repairing confirmed damage in a lower unit.
This calculator separates written, site-specific quotes into detection, source repair, and restoration, then adds cash costs outside those quotes, a planning contingency, the confirmed VAT basis, and only confirmed insurance or third-party contributions.
It reports both the total project cost and the remaining cash burden after confirmed recoveries.
The tool does not invent a nationwide price per square metre or a hidden multiplier for a suspected cause.
Two apartments with similar ceiling stains may require very different work if one has a supply-pipe leak and the other has failed bathroom waterproofing, rain ingress, a drain connection defect, or more than one source.
A cause multiplier could look precise while having no verifiable relationship to the work actually quoted.
For that reason, every money input starts at zero and must be replaced with a written quote or a confirmed cash amount.
The currency, VAT treatment, public price reference, and legal references on this page are for South Korea.
The result is a planning estimate, not a finding about the source of a leak, reasonable workmanship, insurance coverage, tenancy obligations, common-area responsibility, or legal liability.
Obtain professional site findings and advice appropriate to the property and dispute before making irreversible decisions.
The visible stain and the physical source are not necessarily in the same place.
Water can travel along a slab, pipe chase, insulation, framing, or the back of a ceiling before it becomes visible.
Record when the symptom appears, which fixture or system was used, whether rain or heating operation was involved, and how the moisture pattern changes.
A useful written quote states the circuit and test scope, the condition that counts as successful detection, and the fee if the source cannot be confirmed or a revisit is required.
Keep the discovery date, time-stamped photographs, odour and mould locations, rain conditions, water-meter movement, heating operation, and recent bathroom or appliance use.
Record notices to the building manager, landlord, tenant, upper unit, or lower unit with dates and responses.
Identify whether cold water, hot water, heating, drainage, bathroom waterproofing, facade, or window ingress will be tested.
Confirm the included pressure, acoustic, tracer-gas, thermal, camera, flow, flood, or spray tests and whether a written cause report is included.
Ask for the opening area, demolition depth, replacement length and material, waterproofing boundary, curing period, and the pressure, flow, flood, or spray test that will verify the repair.
The quote should also identify warranty or defect-correction terms.
Confirm moisture readings, drying-equipment days, repeat visits, mould-treatment area, plaster, tile, paper, paint, flooring, fitted furniture, debris, cleaning, and any lower-unit restoration.
State the material grade and how discontinued finishes or colour mismatch will be handled.
The Seoul Arisu guidance, published on January 5, 2023, describes a basic check in which all taps are closed and the water-meter indicator is observed.
Continued movement can indicate an indoor leak, and closing a toilet supply valve may help narrow one possible source.
This is only a screening step and does not locate every intermittent, drain, waterproofing, heating, or rain-related leak.
If there is water near electricity, a sagging ceiling, hot heating water, structural concern, or a substantial active leak, prioritise safe isolation and professional assistance rather than opening the building fabric yourself.
Separating the stages exposes gaps that a one-line total can hide.
A detection payment may not include any repair, a pipe repair may stop before tile reinstatement, and a decorative repair may begin before the wet substrate is ready.
The calculator adds the numbers you enter but never decides that a particular item is necessary.
Leave a non-applicable item at zero, and do not enter an item twice when it is already bundled into another written quote.
| Group | Calculator inputs | Boundary to confirm in writing |
|---|---|---|
| Detection | Visit and basic checks, precision detection, repeat detection, emergency or access surcharge | Circuits, test methods, success condition, report, failed search, and revisit charge |
| Source repair | Opening and demolition, confirmed repair, and post-repair test | Replacement length, material, waterproofing extent, curing, verification, and warranty |
| Restoration | Base and tile, drying, mould, finishes, waste, and third-party restoration | Moisture target, equipment duration, area and grade, debris, and third-party evidence |
The Korean Value-Added Tax Act Article 30 states a 10% rate.
The current source was checked on August 3, 2026 under law ID 001571 and master serial 276117, with the cited version effective from January 2, 2026.
When the service quotes are VAT excluded, the calculator adds 10% to the combined supply value of the service quote subtotal and its raw contingency.
When the quotes are VAT included, no extra VAT is added to cash cost; the tool displays embedded VAT information as quote subtotal × 10 ÷ 110.
When quote bases are mixed or unknown, the calculator does not guess 10% and displays a verification warning.
Contingency is a planning allowance between 0% and 30%, applied only to the service quote subtotal.
Temporary accommodation, extra water charges, and other cash costs outside the service quote do not receive another contingency in this model.
The allowance is not a contract sum and does not authorise extra work.
It provides cash headroom for uncertainty such as an opening that reveals a longer damaged pipe, a larger wet substrate, or more drying time than the initial visible area suggested.
The sensitivity table compares five percentage points below and above the entered rate, clamped to the 0% and 30% boundaries.
The entered quote is already a cash total, so VAT is not added again.
Embedded tax is shown only as information.
The tool adds 10% to the quote subtotal and raw contingency.
Confirm that the supplied services are quoted on this basis.
The tool does not estimate tax.
Ask each contractor for supply value, VAT, and the actual payable total on one consistent basis.
The checked Soomgo price guide for leak detection and related work presents an average of KRW 300,000, a low of KRW 150,000, and a high of KRW 800,000.
It also explains that the price varies with the building, cause, and symptoms.
The calculator compares only the visit and basic checks, precision detection, and additional or repeat detection against that range.
It excludes emergency, night, weekend, high-rise, equipment-access, and parking surcharges so that a special access cost does not distort the base detection comparison.
Being inside the public range is not an approval of the quote, and being outside it is not a finding of overcharging or underpricing.
A public guide may not use the same test methods, success standard, location, difficulty, report, revisit policy, or repair boundary as your project.
Use the status as a prompt for questions, then compare written scope and evidence.
| Reference point | Amount | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Published low | KRW 150,000 | Below this point, confirm included tests and revisit conditions |
| Published average | KRW 300,000 | Used for the percentage difference, not as a standard quote |
| Published high | KRW 800,000 | Above this point, request the difficulty and surcharge breakdown |
This example demonstrates arithmetic only and is not a Korean market average, a recommended quote, or an insurance outcome.
Assume KRW 300,000 for detection, KRW 800,000 for opening, source repair, and retesting, and KRW 1,850,000 for drying, finishes, waste, and lower-unit restoration.
The service quote subtotal is KRW 2,950,000.
Also assume KRW 150,000 of temporary accommodation and other cash cost, VAT excluded, a 10% contingency, and a confirmed insurance payment of KRW 1,000,000.
| Calculation item | Amount | Arithmetic |
|---|---|---|
| Service quote subtotal | KRW 2,950,000 | 300,000 + 800,000 + 1,850,000 |
| Raw contingency | KRW 295,000 | 2,950,000 × 10% |
| VAT added | KRW 324,500 | 10% of quote subtotal plus raw contingency |
| Total project cost | KRW 3,719,500 | Quote + contingency + VAT + other cash |
| Net cash burden | KRW 2,719,500 | 3,719,500 − 1,000,000 confirmed insurance |
| Contingency | Total project cost | Net cash burden |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | KRW 3,557,250 | KRW 2,557,250 |
| 10% | KRW 3,719,500 | KRW 2,719,500 |
| 15% | KRW 3,881,750 | KRW 2,881,750 |
This sensitivity is not a confidence interval and does not predict the probability of extra work.
It changes only the contingency rate while holding every quote and recovery constant.
Once opening or testing reveals a different physical scope, replace the original inputs with revised written quotes rather than treating the contingency as an automatic contractor allowance.
A Korea Insurance Research Institute study published on October 21, 2024 discusses disputes and uncertainty concerning loss-prevention expenses in leak-related claims.
Korean Commercial Act Article 680 addresses the duty to prevent or mitigate loss and necessary or useful expenses, but that provision does not make every detection, repair, drying, or reinstatement invoice automatically payable under every policy.
The applicable coverage, exclusions, event facts, causation, necessity, evidence, limits, deductibles, depreciation, and claim process still matter.
The Commercial Act source was checked on August 3, 2026 under law ID 001702 and master serial 272919, with the cited version effective from July 23, 2026.
The calculator therefore does not turn policy ownership, a claim number, or a policy limit into an estimated payment.
Enter a payment only when a decision, loss-adjustment advice, or another reliable insurer communication provides a supportable amount.
If payment is still uncertain, leaving the field at zero gives a conservative cash-reserve view.
Confirmed insurance is applied first, up to total project cost.
A confirmed other contribution is then applied only to the remaining amount.
If the two entered recoveries exceed total project cost, applied recovery is capped so net cash burden cannot become negative, and the calculator displays a warning.
This arithmetic cap is not a statement about subrogation, double recovery, contribution rights, or the legal recipient of funds.
Korean Civil Act Article 750 concerns liability for damage caused intentionally or negligently, while Article 758 addresses damage caused by defects in the construction or maintenance of a structure and the roles of possessor and owner.
The Civil Act source was checked on August 3, 2026 under law ID 001706 and master serial 284415, using the version effective March 17, 2026.
Those provisions do not allow a web form to allocate responsibility from a stain location or a suspected cause alone.
The responsible party may depend on the actual source, private-unit and common-area boundaries, possession and ownership, lease terms, management duties, construction defects, negligence, notice, response, evidence, and the relationship between claimed damage and the leak.
The property-type and suspected-cause selections in the calculator only produce a quote checklist.
They do not assign a percentage to an upper unit, lower unit, landlord, tenant, management body, contractor, owner, or insurer.
For a disputed or high-value loss, preserve evidence and obtain advice from the relevant building professional, insurer, loss adjuster, management body, or Korean legal professional.
A contractor may identify only a suspected zone or may commit to a precise opening point.
Compare what happens when no source is found, whether a revisit is charged, and whether a written report and images are included.
A pipe-repair price may include opening and rough plaster but exclude matching tile, wallpaper, floor finish, or fitted furniture.
State how discontinued material and colour variation affect the restoration area.
A surface can look dry while retained moisture remains behind it.
Record equipment days, repeat readings, areas checked, and the condition required before decorative work begins.
Filing a claim is not the same as receiving a payment decision.
Check deductible, limit, depreciation, exclusion, recipient, and timing, and keep an uncertain amount at zero.
If a precision-detection quote already includes the initial visit, do not enter the same visit again.
If source repair includes post-repair testing or base reinstatement, place the bundled total once and note the included scope outside the calculator.
A planning reserve does not replace a variation quote, explanation, or approval.
When scope changes, ask for the changed quantity, unit, evidence, VAT basis, schedule, and effect on warranty before committing funds.
Yes, but the result is not a complete project budget.
The calculator will flag missing source repair and restoration so you can update the estimate after the source and opening scope are known.
No, unless that is also your actual written quote.
The public average is a comparison point, not a site estimate.
Enter a quote that identifies the circuits, methods, access, report, revisit, and success conditions for your property.
Select mixed or not confirmed.
The calculator will not invent VAT.
Ask each contractor to state supply value, VAT, and actual payable total, then update all service quotes to one consistent basis.
Use an amount supported by a payment decision, loss-adjustment advice, or other reliable insurer communication.
Do not use the policy limit, desired claim, or an informal assumption.
Keep an unconfirmed payment at zero for a conservative cash plan.
The calculator does not decide responsibility.
It can include a confirmed restoration quote in the project budget while the physical source, private or common boundary, possession, ownership, negligence, management duty, lease, and insurance issues are examined separately.
Put a night, weekend, difficult-access, or special-equipment premium in the emergency or access surcharge.
Put actual temporary pipe work in source repair without duplicating a later bundled repair.
Put accommodation, travel, and extra water charges outside the service quote.
It changes only the checklist question shown beside the input.
The calculation uses the itemised money values and never multiplies them by a cause-specific coefficient.
Legal and public price sources were checked on August 3, 2026.
The VAT reference is Value-Added Tax Act Article 30, law ID 001571, master serial 276117.
The insurance boundary references Commercial Act Article 680, law ID 001702, master serial 272919.
The liability boundary references Civil Act Articles 750 and 758, law ID 001706, master serial 284415.
Future maintainers should recheck the cited versions, effective dates, public guide, insurance research, and product wording whenever a law, policy practice, or source value changes.
Use the hypothetical case to understand the arithmetic, then replace every amount with a quote that states detection success, source repair, retesting, drying, and final reinstatement.
Update the budget when evidence or physical scope changes, and keep the supporting documents with each revision.