How DryMark Restoration Kent Was Born in Kent
We remember the exact afternoon in late 2011 when we knew Kent needed something different. A homeowner in the East Hill neighborhood called us after a water heater had flooded their finished basement. Three other companies had already been through. The first quoted a number that made no sense and couldn’t explain what it covered. The second tore out drywall that later turned out to be dry. The third simply never sent the estimate they’d promised. The homeowner was out thousands of dollars and still had wet carpet.
We were working with the original DryMark team then, and we walked that basement with a moisture meter, a camera, and a notepad. The readings told one story. The invoices on the counter told another. That night we sat in our truck outside the Kent Library and wrote out what would become our operating principle: no homeowner should have to guess what they’re paying for, and no insurance adjuster should have to guess whether the work was done right. We opened this branch to bring that standard to Kent, Des Moines, SeaTac, and the rest of south King County. The Haven Standard already existed. What we built here was the local team that lives up to it.
Alicia Brennan’s Personal Connection to the Damage Restoration Trade
We didn’t stumble into this work. We were pulled into it by the smell of wet lumber and the particular silence of a house after the fans have stopped running.
Before DryMark, we spent years in property claims, sitting across from homeowners who couldn’t prove their damage was real and adjusters who couldn’t approve what they couldn’t document. The frustration cut both ways. We remember one case in particular, a family in Renton with a sewage backup, where the restoration company had taken photos of the damage but never recorded a single moisture reading. The insurer denied half the claim. The family paid out of pocket for work that should have been covered. We sat in their living room and watched them open a drawer to find the cash. That was the moment. We wanted to be the person who shows up with the right tool, the right number, and the right record so that doesn’t happen.
The trade itself hooked us slowly. There’s a feeling when you lift a waterlogged baseboard and find mold running behind it that no one expected, not even the homeowner. The drywall is soft. The framing behind it might be solid or might be punky. You don’t know until you probe, measure, and look with a light. We’ve spent over a decade now learning to read what water does to a house: how it travels along the bottom plate in a Kent ranch built in the 1960s, how the clay soils in parts of Auburn slow drainage and keep slab moisture high for weeks, how the older windows in Des Moines leak during southeasterly storms that blow straight off the lake.
If we weren’t doing this, we’d probably be restoring old houses anyway, just slower and for ourselves. We like the before-and-after of it. We like handing someone a folder of readings and photos and watching them realize they have proof of what happened to their home. That’s what gets us out of bed. Not the emergency itself, but the part where we make the emergency legible.
Meet Alicia Brennan - The Person Behind Every Job
Alicia Brennan is the Owner and Founder of DryMark Restoration Kent. She holds IICRC certification in water damage restoration and has trained extensively in the documentation protocols that make insurance claims straightforward rather than adversarial. What separates Alicia from a corporate franchise technician is simple: she’s the one who answers when the local coordinator patches through a worried homeowner at 11 PM, and she’s the one who reviews every written scope before it goes out.
Outside of work, Alicia restores vintage furniture, a hobby that started with a water-damaged mid-century dresser from a job site and turned into an obsession with joinery and finish repair. That same patience, the willingness to strip something to its frame and rebuild it properly, is what she brings to every flooded basement and fire-damaged kitchen in Kent. Her direct commitment to every customer: you will know the price before we start, you will see what we found, and you will have the paperwork to prove it.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Kent Homeowners
Our values aren’t posters on a wall. They’re policies we enforce.
Honest pricing. We quote in writing before we start, every time. No exceptions. The Haven Standard, Clause 1: Have it in writing. We’ve turned down jobs where a homeowner wanted us to “just get started” and talk money later. That conversation never goes well for the homeowner.
Quality equipment and methods. We use Injectidry systems for hardwood floor drying because we’ve seen what happens when floors are declared totaled that could have been saved. The right tool changes the scope, and the scope changes the price.
Standing behind the work. Every job leaves a documented record: photos, moisture readings, equipment logs. If an adjuster questions it, we have the evidence. If a homeowner has a concern, we have the proof. That’s Clause 4 of The Haven Standard: Evidence on every job.
Our Credentials
- State-licensed - Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license their state requires, and we verify it before they step into your home.
- Insured and bonded - Protection for you if something goes wrong on your property, and protection for us so we can stand behind our work without cutting corners.
- Years of local experience - We’ve worked in Kent, Des Moines, SeaTac, Auburn, Renton, Tukwila, Federal Way, Maple Valley, Milton, Sumner, Issaquah, and Tacoma long enough to know which neighborhoods have post-war slab foundations that wick moisture, which areas see seasonal flooding from the Green River, and which building eras used materials that complicate drying.
- Strong local reputation - We are independently owned and operated, and our business depends on neighbors talking to neighbors.
- IICRC-certified - The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification sets the industry standard for water damage restoration; our training follows their protocols exactly.
- RIA member - The Restoration Industry Association connects us to ongoing education and peer accountability.
These credentials matter because water damage is invasive work. Technicians move through your bedrooms, handle your belongings, and make decisions about what can be saved. You need to know that the person in your home is verified, that the company they represent is accountable, and that there’s a structure behind them that enforces standards rather than leaving it to chance.
Rooted in Kent
We’re based in Kent, and our trucks roll through the same streets our kids’ school buses take. We know the difference between the valley floor near the Green River, where flooding risk is real and seasonal, and the East Hill ridges where older homes with original windows take the wind straight off the lake. We’ve dried out kitchens in the Benson neighborhood, restored basements near Lake Meridian, and worked commercial losses along the Kent Valley industrial corridor. We don’t sponsor little leagues or pretend to be something we’re not. We’re a local branch of DryMark Restoration, independently owned and operated, serving the community where we live and work.
Written by Alicia Brennan, Owner at DryMark Restoration Kent, serving Kent and south King County since 2011.