Meet the Team - Tidemark Water Damage Hempstead

Meet the Hempstead Team Behind Tidemark Water Damage Hempstead

We’re a local crew, not a rotating cast of subcontractors. The people who show up at your door in Hempstead are the same ones who know the difference between a tide mark at 14 inches and one hiding at 23. Most of us live within 20 minutes of the shop. We work together every week, we know each other’s habits, and we know which houses on Front Street have basements that flood in a nor’easter. That familiarity changes how a job runs. Water damage is personal. So are we.

Our People

Mike D. – Lead Technician, Water Damage Restoration

Mike has been pulling wet drywall in Nassau County basements for over 19 years, the last 7 of them with our Hempstead crew. He holds IICRC certification in Water Damage Restoration and Applied Structural Drying, and he runs the Dri-Eaz and Phoenix equipment on every large loss we handle. Mike is the one who maps the tide mark before a single cut is made, and he’ll explain the drying plan in plain English while he works. He keeps a folding rule in his back pocket that his father used as a union carpenter in Queens. Ask him about any basement on Hilton Avenue and he probably remembers what the water line looked like.

Ana R. – Mold Remediation Specialist

Ana joined us 6 years ago after working in commercial building maintenance, where she got tired of watching mold get painted over instead of removed. She holds RIA and IFA credentials, and she’s the first to tell a homeowner when a spot is cosmetic staining rather than an active colony, because she’d rather give you an honest answer than sell you a remediation you don’t need. Ana runs our containments with a level of detail that borders on fussy, which is exactly what you want around a negative air machine. She’s also the one who will walk your crawlspace with a moisture meter and narrate exactly what the numbers mean.

Jen T. – Service Coordinator, Hempstead Office

Jen is the voice on the phone when you call at 2 a.m. with a burst supply line, and she’s been answering that phone for us since 2017. She grew up in Hempstead and knows the difference between a Garden City school schedule and a Uniondale one, which matters when someone calls mid-morning with a flooded kitchen and three kids in the next room. Before Tidemark, Jen ran scheduling for a dental practice. She’s calm, she writes everything down, and she will tell you honestly whether a crew can be there in 40 minutes or 2 hours. When she says a written price will be in your hand before work starts, she means the exact number, not a range.

Carlos V. – Apprentice Technician

Carlos is two years into his apprenticeship and already carries a healthy respect for what an Injectidry mat can do to a hardwood floor in three days. He rides with Mike on most calls, runs the XPOWER air movers, and logs his drying charts with the kind of consistency that makes insurance adjusters happy. Before this, Carlos worked freight at JFK, which is where he learned that showing up on time is a skill, not a personality trait. He wears shoe covers without being reminded and he’ll ask before moving a single picture frame off a wall. That last part matters more than most people realize.

One Standard, Every Job

Tidemark Water Damage Hempstead is independently owned and operated, working to the Cedarwell Care Promise. That means Rick Sumner, Owner, sets the bar for this location, but the standard doesn’t bend when a job gets complicated or a week gets long. Every technician, from Mike on down to Carlos, follows the same C.A.R.E. habits: clean up like it’s our own home, ask before we move or touch anything, respect your time and quiet hours, and explain the price before the work. Shoe covers go on at the door. Drop cloths cover the floor before the first piece of equipment comes in. A photo of the clean-up is taken and shared before the crew leaves, so you see exactly what was done and how it was left. The 365-Day Done Right Promise isn’t a marketing line around here. It’s a name on a truck and a person who answers when you call back.

Written by Rick Sumner, Owner at Tidemark Water Damage Hempstead, serving Hempstead since 2006.