How DryMark Restoration Bothell Was Born in Bothell
We opened this branch in 2011 because we had watched too many Bothell homeowners lose their grip on a bad situation. The call that stuck with us came from a couple in Canyon Park. Their laundry room had flooded on a Sunday night. By Wednesday they had three different companies in their house, each pointing at the other, and a bill that had somehow climbed past what their adjuster would recognize. The carpet was still wet. They were sleeping in the guest room and fighting about whether to call a lawyer.
We drove out that evening with a moisture meter and a notepad. What we found was straightforward: a supply line failure, water under the LVP, a wall that was reading 18% moisture content at 24 inches high. Nothing exotic. What was broken was the process. No one had written anything down. No one had photographed the meter. No one had given them a price that would hold.
That night we decided Bothell needed a different kind of restoration company. One that treated the documentation as seriously as the drying. We brought DryMark to this market because the Haven Standard - flat price, written scope, signed readings, every day - was built for exactly this kind of homeowner. The kind who bought their house at the top of the market and cannot afford to have the claim denied because the paperwork was sloppy.
Alicia Brennan’s Personal Connection to the Damage Restoration Trade
Alicia Brennan got into this work sideways. Back in the early 2000s she was working property claims for an insurer, sitting in a cubicle in Bellevue, denying invoices because the drying logs were incomplete. Not because the work was bad. Because the proof was missing. She remembers the smell of those files - toner and damp paper, the box of a homeowner’s life reduced to a manila folder with no photographs, no meter readings, no chain of evidence. She would call the contractor and ask for documentation, and the phone would ring to voicemail. The homeowner would call her crying. She was the one saying no, and she hated it.
She left that job and spent two years in the field, learning the trade from the tradesmen who actually did the work. The first time she pulled wet carpet pad and felt the heat coming off a dehumidifier bank, she understood what the numbers meant. The way 30% relative humidity feels different from 50% in your lungs. The way a properly dried stud sounds when you knock it, hollow and sharp, not dull. She learned to read a thermal camera, to spot the cold line where water had wicked up behind paint. She learned that the smell of a Category 3 loss - sewage backup, black water - gets into your clothes and stays there until you learn to bag them at the truck.
If she were not doing this, she would probably be in some other trade where precision matters. Carpentry, maybe. Something where you measure twice and the evidence of your care is visible for decades. What gets her out of bed is the call at 6 a.m. from someone who does not know if their house is ruined, and the ability to tell them, with numbers, exactly what we found and exactly what it will take to fix it. Not optimism. Evidence.
She has been at this for over 15 years now. The meters have gotten smaller and the software has gotten better, but the core has not changed: show up, document everything, dry to a number, prove it.
Meet Alicia Brennan - The Person Behind Every Job
Alicia Brennan is the Owner and Founder of DryMark Restoration Bothell. She holds IICRC certification in water damage restoration and has trained extensively in the documentation protocols that define the Haven Standard. She is not a corporate franchise technician rotated through from another market. She lives here, hires here, and answers for every job that leaves her office.
What distinguishes her is the adjuster’s eye she still brings to every loss. She knows what an insurance desk reviewer needs to see to approve a line item, and she builds that documentation from day one, not as an afterthought. She also knows what it feels like to have a stranger in your house during a crisis, and she trains her crews to the same standard she would expect for her own home in Bothell.
Outside of work she is an avid hiker on the Sammamish River Trail, the kind of person who notices when a bridge plank is new and when it has been there for twenty years. That attention to incremental change - what shifted, when, and by how much - is the same habit she brings to moisture mapping.
Her commitment to you is direct: every job she touches gets a written scope and a flat price before anyone starts, and she will show you the readings that prove the job is done.
Before
AfterOur Promise to Bothell Homeowners
Our values are not decorations. They are policies with consequences.
Honest pricing: We name the price range on the page, in dollars, because Clause 1 of the Haven Standard requires it. Every restoration job is quoted in writing before it starts. We do not arrive with a low number and discover expensive problems later. In 2011, when we opened this branch, we watched a competitor quote a Canyon Park homeowner $1,200 for water extraction and bill $4,100 for “unforeseen” microbial treatment that was visible on day one. We do not do that. The price you approve is the price you pay.
Quality equipment and methods: We use Injectidry systems for hardwood floor drying because they force airflow through the flutes instead of tearing out the boards. We photograph the setup, we photograph the daily readings, and we leave you a PDF that shows the drying curve. The standard is not “feels dry.” The standard is a specific moisture content, documented.
Standing behind every job: Our warranty is in writing, with terms, not a handshake. If we miss something, we return. If the meter says we are done and you have evidence otherwise, we reopen the job. The Haven Standard governs what we owe you, and we keep a copy on file.
Our Credentials
Every pro working under our name is required to hold the license and insurance their state requires. Here is what that means in practice:
- State-licensed - We meet Washington’s requirements for restoration contractors, and we maintain that status without lapse. For you, this means a regulatory body has verified our qualifications and holds us accountable to continuing education and complaint resolution.
- Insured & bonded - Our coverage protects your property while we work and covers our operations. We carry the limits that allow us to work with major insurers and mortgage servicers, which means your claim is less likely to stall for contractor eligibility.
- Years of local experience - Alicia Brennan has been in this trade for over 15 years, and this branch has served Bothell since 2011. We know the building stock here: the 1970s ranches in Kingsgate with the original galvanized supply lines, the new construction in North Creek with PEX and its own failure modes, the older homes in Downtown Bothell with plaster and lath that dry differently than drywall.
- Strong local reputation - We are not a truck that rolls through from out of market. Our crews live here. Our reputation is built on the jobs we did three streets over, and on the documentation we provided that got those claims paid.
Why this matters: restoration work happens in your home, often while you are displaced, always while you are stressed. Licensing means someone has checked our qualifications. Insurance means you are protected if something goes wrong. Local tenure means we will still be here to answer if you have a question next month. The credential is not the point. The accountability behind it is.
Rooted in Bothell
We are based in Bothell and we work here. Our trucks start their days near the Sammamish River, and our crews know the difference between a job in Finn Hill and a job in North Creek - different eras of construction, different water tables, different adjuster territories. We have dried homes after the February storms that back up the North Creek drainage, and we have traced Category 3 losses to the aging sewer mains in the older neighborhoods near Main Street.
We do not sponsor the little league or pretend to be something we are not. What we contribute is local knowledge, local accountability, and a standard of documentation that protects the homeowners who live here. Alicia Brennan walks the river trail on weekends. She shops at the same grocery stores as our customers. When she says she will answer for a job, she means it literally.
Written by Alicia Brennan, Owner at DryMark Restoration Bothell, serving Bothell, Kenmore, Woodinville, Brier, Kingsgate, Lynnwood, Kirkland, Shoreline, Redmond, Mukilteo, Monroe, and Bellevue since 2011.