Meet the Team - DryMark Restoration Astoria

Meet the Astoria Team Behind DryMark Restoration Astoria

We’re the crew that shows up when water’s still moving through your walls or mold’s turned a closet into a hazard zone. Every person on this page has been background-checked, licensed, and verified before they set foot in an Astoria home. What ties us together isn’t a handbook - it’s The Haven Standard, and the fact that Alicia Brennan still reviews every written scope before a crew starts work. We’ve restored homes from Ditmars Boulevard to the waterfront, and we document every visit like the claim depends on it. Because it usually does.

Our People

Alicia Brennan - Owner

I started DryMark Restoration in 2011 after six years as a claims adjuster, watching homeowners lose tens of thousands because restoration crews didn’t document what they found. The gap between what happened and what could be proven was costing people their coverage. So I built this company around the opposite problem: every job gets a written price before work starts, a photo record on every visit, and a drying log that an adjuster can read without calling me. I still review every scope personally. I’ve seen too many Astoria basements flood in March when the snowpack melts fast and the sewers back up on 31st Street. The crews know I’ll ask for the vapor pressure differential on a psychrometric chart, and they know I’ll ask why the dehumidifier placement changed between visits. I live in Queens. These are my neighbors’ homes.

Marcus T. - Lead Water & Mold Technician

Marcus has been running mitigation crews for nine years, and he’s certified in Applied Structural Drying through IICRC with additional mold remediation accreditation. He specializes in tertiary drying, the final phase where most crews declare victory too early and leave trapped moisture inside wall cavities. Marcus checks with a thermal imaging camera and documents the vapor pressure differential, the actual force that moves moisture from wet materials into dry air, until the numbers match the dry standard for each material class. He grew up in a rent-controlled building near Astoria Park where the superintendent did everything himself, badly, and Marcus will tell you that’s where he learned what not to do. He keeps a photo of his daughter’s first birthday on his truck dashboard. She’s six now.

Elena R. - Senior Restoration Installer

Elena handles the rebuild side after mitigation finishes: drywall, flooring, trim, the work that makes a house livable again. She’s been in construction for twelve years, with RIA certification in fire and smoke restoration that covers the chemistry of soot residue and which cleaning agents won’t set smoke odors permanently into porous materials. In Astoria’s pre-war buildings, she knows which walls are plaster over lath versus drywall, and she knows the Department of Buildings permit triggers for structural repairs in Queens. Her grandfather was a carpenter in Woodside. She still uses his chalk line, though she’s replaced the string twice. She’ll notice if your baseboard doesn’t match the original profile, and she’ll source the right one.

David K. - Service Coordinator

David answers the phones and dispatches crews, which means he’s the voice you hear at 2 a.m. when a pipe bursts in your Astoria Heights brownstone. He’s been with us four years, and he’s trained to gather the information an adjuster will need before the crew even loads the truck: water source category, affected square footage, flooring material classifications, and whether electrical systems are involved. He grew up in Sunnyside and still lives there, so he knows which Astoria blocks flood first in a hard rain and which buildings have the old combined sewer lines. He keeps a running list of every job where the homeowner’s insurance required a specific documentation format, and he briefs the crew before they arrive. He’s also the one who calls you back with the crew’s ETA, not a tracking app.

Jasmine O. - Apprentice Technician

Jasmine joined us last year after completing her IICRC Water Damage Restoration Technician certification, and she’s training under Marcus on full mitigation jobs. She’s already run her own sewage backups in Astoria’s garden apartments and documented the Category 3 water classification, the most hazardous category that requires full PPE and antimicrobial treatment of all affected surfaces. She asks more questions than anyone on the crew, which is exactly what we want when she’s checking moisture readings behind a cabinet. She lives in Long Island City and takes the Q69 bus past jobs she’s worked, pointing them out to friends. Her first solo drying log was approved by an adjuster without a single revision, which Marcus mentions more often than she does.

One Standard, Every Job

The Haven Standard applies to every person on this page, and it’s enforced the same way whether we’re drying out a studio near 30th Avenue or rebuilding a commercial kitchen in Long Island City. Clause 1 means Marcus, Elena, David, and Jasmine all work from a written scope and price before any equipment runs or any wall gets opened. The photo record on every visit isn’t optional, and it’s not billed separately. The 365-Day Done Right Promise is a signed warranty, not a verbal assurance, and Alicia’s name is on it.

We use the same Dri-Eaz, Phoenix, and Injectidry systems across the network because consistent equipment produces consistent documentation, and consistent documentation gets claims paid. But the crew that arrives at your Astoria door is local. They know the building stock here, the permit requirements, the adjuster preferences, and the specific ways water moves through a 1920s brick rowhouse versus a 1960s slab-on-grade. That’s not in any handbook. That’s why we hire locally and train to The Haven Standard, not the other way around.

If you’ve got a competitor’s written estimate and you’re not sure what’s included, bring it to us. We’ll review it against Haven Standard, Clause 1, and tell you exactly where the gaps are. No charge.

Written by Alicia Brennan, Owner at DryMark Restoration Astoria, serving Astoria since 2011.