Meet the Team - DryMark Restoration Newark

Meet the Newark Team Behind DryMark Restoration Newark

We’re the crew that shows up when your basement’s under three inches of Branch Brook runoff or when a kitchen fire in the Ironbound has left your cabinets smelling like a campfire nobody asked for. Every person on this page is based out of our Newark office, background-checked, and trained to the same standard we established in 2011. What unites us isn’t corporate cheerleading. It’s the habit of writing down the price before we pick up a tool, and the documented photo record we leave behind when we’re done.

Our People

Alicia Brennan, Owner

I started Back to Dry in 2011 after six years as a claims adjuster, and I built the company around the single thing that drove me nuts in that job: homeowners losing valid claims because the restoration company couldn’t produce documentation. The Haven Standard came from that frustration. I still review every written scope that leaves this office, and I still answer the phone at 2 a.m. when the on-call rotation gets thin. Outside of work, I restore vintage motorcycles, which is where I learned that torque specs exist for a reason, and that “close enough” usually isn’t.

Marcus T., Lead Mitigation Technician

Marcus has been with us since 2017, and he’s the person we send when a water loss has hit multiple floors or when a commercial property in Downtown Newark needs to stay operational during drying. He’s IICRC-certified in Water Damage Restoration (WRT) and Applied Structural Drying (ASD), which means he can read a psychrometric chart, the humidity-and-temperature map that tells us whether your walls are actually dry or just feel dry. Marcus keeps a laminated photo in his truck of a 2019 job on Clinton Avenue where the previous contractor had declared the structure dry; our moisture meters found 28% wood moisture content in the studs, well above the 16% threshold where mold becomes a real possibility. He shows it to property managers who ask why we need three days of drying instead of one.

Elena R., Senior Installer / Reconstruction Lead

Elena runs our rebuild division, which means she takes over after mitigation finishes and your living room is down to studs and concrete. She’s certified through the RIA for structural repair and has a particular specialty in matching historic trim, a skill we use constantly in Newark’s Forest Hill and Clinton Hill neighborhoods where a 1920s door casing isn’t something you order from a big-box store. Before she joined us in 2019, Elena spent eight years in high-end residential carpentry in Hudson County, and she still carries a block plane in her kit because power tools don’t always get the fit right on century-old lumber. Her written scopes include material grades and finish specifications, not just “replace drywall,” because Haven Standard, Clause 1 applies to reconstruction too.

Darnell K., Service Coordinator

Darnell answers the phones you’re calling at midnight when your water heater’s failed, and he’s the person who tells you whether we’re dispatching now or whether the situation can wait for morning without getting worse. He’s been with us since 2020, and he’s trained to IICRC standards even though he doesn’t wear boots to work, because he needs to understand what you’re describing when you say “the floor feels squishy” or “there’s a smell in the HVAC.” Darnell grew up in the South Ward and knows which Newark neighborhoods flood first during a nor’easter, which means he can prep the crew before they roll out. He also keeps a whiteboard behind his desk tracking every job’s documentation status, because a photo record that isn’t uploaded by end of day is a photo record that doesn’t exist.

Jin S., Apprentice Technician

Jin joined us in 2024 after completing the construction trades program at Essex County College, and he’s working toward his IICRC Water Damage Restoration Technician certification while rotating through every phase of our work. Right now he’s primarily in mitigation, learning to set containment, read moisture meters, and document vapor pressure differential, the measurable force that drives moisture out of wet materials into the drier air we’re creating with our Phoenix and Dri-Eaz dehumidifiers. Jin asks more questions than anyone on the crew, which is exactly what we want from someone who’s going to be writing drying logs that insurance adjusters scrutinize. He also speaks Mandarin, which has been genuinely useful on jobs in Newark’s growing immigrant-owned business community where the property owner needs to understand exactly what we’re doing before we start.

One Standard, Every Job

We’re independently owned and operated, not a franchise, and The Haven Standard applies to every technician on this page regardless of whether they’re on their first job or their thousandth. That means Haven Standard, Clause 1: a written price before any work starts, with no exceptions. It means the documented photo record on every visit, the daily moisture logs that turn restoration invoices into payable insurance claims, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise signed on every job. Our equipment comes from Dri-Eaz, Phoenix, XPOWER, B-Air, and Injectidry, and every deployment is documented to IICRC, RIA, and IFA standards. If you’ve got a competitor’s written estimate, we’ll review it for free under our Second Opinion policy. Live phone coverage runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, because water doesn’t wait for business hours and neither do we.

Written by Alicia Brennan, Owner at DryMark Restoration Newark, serving Newark and northern New Jersey since 2011.