Xactimate Shrink Wrap Codes: A Professional Billing Guide

Why Shrink Wrap Billing Confuses Adjusters and Contractors

A staff adjuster opens an estimate, sees “shrink wrap” billed as a single lump-sum line, and flags it. No code, no breakdown, no way to verify the price against a regional database. This is the moment shrink-wrap claims stall, and it happens constantly on commercial and institutional losses where the roof area, framing, and ballast requirements are far more complex than a residential tarp job.

Search adjuster forums and you’ll find genuine skepticism: some practitioners insist “there’s no real code for shrink wrap” and default to pricing it as an oversized tarp. That skepticism isn’t malicious, it’s a training gap. Xactimate does carry dedicated shrink-wrap codes, but contractors who bill it as one flat number instead of itemizing material, labor, framing, and ballast make the code look optional rather than standard. The fix starts with knowing exactly which codes exist and using all of them.

The Core Xactimate Codes for Shrink-Wrap Systems

Xactimate’s roofing category (RFG) contains specific selectors for heat-applied shrink-wrap systems, distinct from tarping and from generic polyethylene sheeting. Two codes carry most professionally written shrink-wrap estimates, and a third covers the flame-retardant application variant.

RFG SHRINK is the baseline code for heat-applied shrink-wrap roofing systems, the kind used to seal storm-damaged commercial roofs, church steeples, and multi-family structures against wind and water intrusion for weeks or months. RFG POLYE prices the polyethylene protective covering material along with installation labor, calculated per square foot, which makes it useful for large flat-roof coverage where material and labor scale together (Storm Wrappers, “Xactimate Shrink Wrap Codes: RFG SHRINK, RFG POLYE, Billing Guide,” 2026). RFG SWRAPP, described in price-list documentation as “shrink wrap, flame retardant, polyethylene,” is the code that most closely matches professional-grade, code-compliant material used on commercial and institutional enclosures (Storm Wrappers, “Xactimate Billing Guide: Professional Line Items for Shrink Wrap,” 2026).

Naming can shift slightly between price-list versions and regional databases, so confirm the exact selector text in your active price list before finalizing a scope. That five-minute check prevents a rejected line item later.

Shrink Wrap vs. Blue Tarp: Why RFG TARP Isn’t the Right Code

RFG TARP prices a temporary plastic sheet held down by weight or basic fasteners. It assumes short-duration, low-complexity coverage. Shrink wrap is heat-sealed to the structure, wind-rated for sustained exposure, and typically supported by a built framework, none of which RFG TARP accounts for in material grade, labor skill, or equipment need.

Billing a shrink-wrap job under RFG TARP undervalues the material and strips out labor and equipment that the work actually requires. It also gives an adjuster reviewing the estimate a legitimate reason to push back, because the code doesn’t match the described scope of work.

The comparison above is why carriers increasingly expect to see RFG SWRAPP or RFG SHRINK on commercial and institutional losses instead of RFG TARP. Contractors who default to the tarp code because “it’s close enough” are leaving accurate scope, and often accurate payment, on the table (Storm Wrappers, “Xactimate Codes for Emergency Shrink Wrap: A Billing Guide,” 2026).

Beyond the Wrap: Framing, Ballast, and Debris Line Items

The wrap itself is only one part of a defensible estimate. Shrink-wrap systems on sloped roofs, parapets, or large flat commercial roofs almost always require a supporting structure, and that structure has its own codes.

RFG TMPBRD covers temporary structural support or batten framing, priced by linear foot, and is used when the wrap needs a wood or metal skeleton to maintain shape and shed water correctly. RFG BOARD prices the decking boards that make up that protective framework. On roofs where penetrating fasteners aren’t allowed or advisable, RFG SDBAG prices sandbag ballast, which anchors the wrap without puncturing the membrane below (Storm Wrappers, “Xactimate Shrink Wrap Codes,” 2026). FRM ROOF can also apply where the framing scope crosses into structural roof framing categories rather than pure temporary support.

Before any of that goes up, CONT DEBR prices the debris removal that has to happen first, clearing loose material, damaged decking fragments, or old tarping so the shrink-wrap system can seat properly. Skipping this line item doesn’t make the labor disappear, it just makes it uncompensated.

Each of these is a separate line because each is a separate cost center with its own material, labor, and quantity. Bundling them into “shrink wrap install” the way a single tarp line might get written erases the audit trail an adjuster needs to approve the claim quickly.

Labor Classification: Why “General Skilled Labor” Matters

Labor classification is where a lot of otherwise well-coded estimates lose credibility. WTR LABOR, the standard water-mitigation labor code, assumes tasks like extraction, drying setup, and basic tarping, not heat-sealing polyethylene to a structure in wind-exposed conditions.

Shrink-wrap installation is a trade skill: technicians control heat guns to shrink and seal film tight against framing without scorching or over-stressing the material, on ladders, lifts, or roof edges. That’s why Storm Wrappers’ billing framework classifies this labor as General Skilled Labor rather than WTR LABOR, a distinction that reflects both the training involved and the liability of working at height with open-flame tools (Storm Wrappers, “Xactimate Billing Guide: Professional Line Items for Shrink Wrap,” 2026).

On straightforward residential jobs, RFG SWRAPP’s base price often already folds in installation labor, so a separate labor line isn’t always necessary. On large commercial or high-rise losses, where crews need lift equipment, extended shifts, or multiple technicians working simultaneous sections, separate labor and equipment lines are standard practice, because the base material price was never built to absorb that scale of work.

What a Line Item Actually Is (and Why Every Dollar Needs One)

A line item is a single entry in an estimate representing one specific material, labor task, or service, identified by a selector code, a description, a quantity, a unit of measure, and a price pulled from Verisk’s regional pricing database (CapOut, “Line Items, Insurance & Xactimate Glossary,” 2026). It’s the atomic unit that Xactimate, and the carriers reviewing Xactimate output, are built around.

This is the standard every trade in a roofing estimate already follows. Underlayment gets its own SQ-based line, starter strip gets its own LF-based line, and drip edge gets its own line, rather than all three getting folded into “roofing materials” (CapOut, “Xactimate Line Item Cheat Sheet: Most Common Codes,” 2026). Shrink wrap deserves the identical treatment: film, labor, framing, ballast, and debris removal each stand on their own so every dollar in the estimate traces back to a defined entry an adjuster can verify against the same database.

When the Price List Doesn’t Have Your Code: Using the Price List Editor

Sometimes a regional price list is missing the exact shrink-wrap selector you need, or the pricing on file doesn’t reflect current material and labor costs in your market. Xactware’s own documentation addresses this directly: users can add an item not included in the price list rather than forcing an ill-fitting code onto the scope (Xactware/Verisk Help Documentation, “Xactimate Desktop,” 2026).

The Price List Editor, accessible through Tools in Xactimate’s main menu, lets an estimator create or adjust a custom line item with its own description, unit of measure, and price, then apply it to the estimate with full documentation of how the number was derived (Xactware/Verisk Help Documentation, “Where Is the Price List Editor?,” various; “Codes” search documentation). This matters because an adjuster reviewing a claim will always ask how a number was calculated. “I built this custom item and here’s the basis” holds up. “I estimated it” does not.

Formulas within the editor can calculate line item prices based on material cost, labor hours, and markup, which keeps a custom shrink-wrap entry consistent with how every other line in the estimate was priced, rather than looking like an outlier a reviewer has to chase down separately.

Building a Defensible, Fully Itemized Shrink-Wrap Estimate

A shrink-wrap estimate that holds up under adjuster review has a predictable shape: a material and heat-application line (RFG SHRINK, RFG SWRAPP, or RFG POLYE depending on scope), a labor line classified as General Skilled Labor where separate from the base price, framing and decking lines (RFG TMPBRD, RFG BOARD, FRM ROOF as applicable), ballast where sandbags are used (RFG SDBAG), and debris removal (CONT DEBR) accounting for prep work before install.

That structure isn’t extra paperwork, it’s the same discipline carriers already expect on any roofing supplement: itemized, traceable, priced against the regional database, and ready for review without a phone call to clarify what “shrink wrap install” was supposed to cover.

Storm Wrappers builds estimates this way on every commercial, institutional, and residential enclosure job nationwide, because a correctly coded estimate is what gets a claim approved on the first pass instead of the third. When a warehouse roof, hospital wing, or storm-damaged sanctuary needs enclosure fast, the paperwork shouldn’t be the thing slowing down approval.