Free visual inspection and a written scope of work before any mitigation begins - photos, moisture readings, and drying logs go in your claim file
The scope we write is the scope we bill. Anything new gets shown to you, in writing, before we touch it.
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AfterFast, Reliable Storm & Disaster Restoration Across Charleston
Storm damage in Charleston moves fast, and so do we. Whether a named hurricane pushed the Ashley over its banks or a summer squall tore shingles off a West Ashley roof, our crews are on the road to your address within hours, not days. DryMark Restoration handles everything from emergency board-up and roof tarping to full structural drying, with a written scope and price delivered before any work begins. Call (629) 213-4606 any hour, day or night. A live person answers, takes your address, and dispatches a crew that knows Charleston’s flood zones, its historic materials, and its building rules.
Why DryMark Restoration Is Charleston’s Preferred Storm & Disaster Restoration Company
DryMark Restoration earned its reputation in Charleston the slow way: by documenting what we found, what we did, and what it cost, on every job. Homeowners here don’t call the first name in a search result and hope for the best. They read reviews, ask for license numbers, and want to see a moisture map before signing anything. That’s exactly how we work.
Alicia Brennan founded DryMark in 2011 after years as a claims adjuster. She built the company around the documentation gap that costs homeowners their claims: the missing drying log, the photos that don’t show the right wall, the invoice that doesn’t match the scope. Every job we run in Charleston gets a written price before work starts, a photo record on every visit, and daily moisture readings that adjusters can actually use. That’s The Haven Standard, and it’s stamped on every signed contract.
Our technicians arrive in uniform, background-checked, with IICRC and RIA documentation behind their training. They know the difference between a 1960s brick ranch in James Island and an 1840s single house on Tradd Street, and they treat each one accordingly. Fast response matters here. The subtropical humidity means mold can take hold in 48 hours. We aim to be on site and setting equipment within four.
Our Storm & Disaster Restoration Services in Charleston
Storm Damage Cleanup
After high winds or a falling limb, storm cleanup in Charleston often means more than hauling debris. We secure the structure first, then remove water-logged drywall, insulation, and flooring before mold has a chance to gain ground. In historic homes, that means careful extraction of wood lath and plaster, not just a demolition crew swinging hammers. We document the affected square footage room by room, so your claim file matches what was actually torn out.
Flood Damage Restoration
Charleston floods in patterns that newcomers don’t expect. A heavy summer downpour can back storm drains up into ground-floor units along King Street. A king tide can push brackish water under a South of Broad foundation without a drop of rain falling. Our flood restoration process starts with water classification and psychrometric data, terms we’ll explain in plain language: we test what’s in the water, measure the moisture load in the air and structure, and map where the water has traveled. Saltwater intrusion is a different animal than a burst pipe. We treat it that way.
Emergency Board-Up
A broken window or blown-out door leaves your home open to weather, pests, and the kind of opportunistic theft that follows storm damage. Our emergency board-up crews secure openings quickly, but in Charleston’s historic district, quick doesn’t mean careless. We use fasteners and mounting methods that won’t further damage original wood trim, because the Board of Architectural Review will ask about every new screw hole. Documentation of the board-up is included in your photo record.
Roof Tarping
Roof tarping after wind damage buys you time to file a claim and schedule permanent repairs. The key in Charleston is doing it right the first time. A tarp that lifts in the next thunderstorm lets water into a structure that’s already drying. We use the right tarping method for the slope and material of your roof, whether that’s asphalt shingle in Mount Pleasant or standing seam metal over a porch on Colonial Lake. The tarp gets documented, dated, and photographed for your claim.
Wind Damage Repair
Coastal wind events in Charleston tear at the envelope of a house in specific ways: lifted flashing, loosened ridge vents, broken window seals. Our wind damage repair work starts with an assessment of what the wind actually moved, not just what’s visible from the ground. We inspect soffits, fascia, window frames, and door thresholds for subtle displacement. Then we write the scope, with a price, before repairs start.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
BeforeAfterTrusted Brands We Service in Charleston
DryMark runs professional-grade drying systems from Dri-Eaz, Phoenix, XPOWER, B-Air, and Injectidry, and every piece of equipment is documented to IICRC and RIA standards. If you’ve had a previous restoration company work on your Charleston home, we can service and recalibrate most major brands of drying and humidity control equipment. For homeowners in the historic district who already own one or two dehumidifiers for the humid months, we can explain what your equipment will and won’t do after a flood. A residential dehumidifier isn’t built for structural drying. We’ll tell you that plainly, with numbers to back it up.
Common Storm & Disaster Restoration Problems We See in Charleston Homes
- Saltwater-saturated sill plates on raised foundations. Even a modest tidal surge pushes brackish water beneath homes in South of Broad and along the Battery. Heart pine sills soak up that salt water and can hold above 20% moisture for days, reading normal from above while the wood below begins to rot. Adjusters pricing a “standard water damage” claim from photos routinely underestimate this scope until a technician probes every sill plate.
- Stop-work orders from the Board of Architectural Review. A storm repair that passes code in Mount Pleasant may be illegal on the peninsula. Replacing a damaged wood window with vinyl, or swapping clapboard for a modern panel, can trigger a violation and halt the whole job. We handle BAR-compliant repairs from the start.
- Hidden delamination in old-growth wood. Post-Hugo rebuilds in West Ashley and James Island are now aging into first-generation roof and envelope failures. Water that finds its way behind siding in the humid Lowcountry air can delaminate the plywood sheathing layer by layer. You won’t see it from the street until the paint fails or the wall feels soft.
- Noise complaints during nighttime drying. The historic district is dense. Running commercial air movers at 2 a.m. on a Tradd Street side yard will draw a call from a neighbor, a visit from code enforcement, and a delay in your mitigation. We schedule drying runs within reasonable hours and document the schedule so your claim reflects the actual running time.
Pricing for Storm & Disaster Restoration in Charleston, SC
Here are current ranges for the Charleston market, based on what our crews have invoiced in the past twelve months. Emergency board-up typically runs $450 to $900 depending on the number of openings and whether historic trim requires the non-marring fastener method. Roof tarping on a standard Charleston single-family home runs $500 to $1,100. Flood damage restoration, from water extraction through structural drying, typically runs $1,800 to $5,500 for a Category 1 or 2 event affecting one or two rooms. Saltwater Category 3 mitigation under a historic raised structure starts around $4,000 and runs higher based on sill plate replacement and BAR-approved material matching. Wind damage repair ranges $1,200 to $7,000, depending on whether we’re addressing flashing, siding, window frames, or full roof deck replacement. Every job gets a written price before work starts. That’s Haven Standard, Clause 1. Not an estimate that expands after the crew is inside your house. A written price.
To see how Charleston’s BAR rules affect storm and flood repair scope, this page gives you the compliance playbook: what materials are legal, what triggers a stop-work order, and how to restore to pre-loss condition without one.
We Also Serve Cities Near Charleston
Our crews cover the greater Charleston metro, including North Charleston, Mount Pleasant, Goose Creek, and Summerville. Whether your home is in the historic grid or a 1990s subdivision off Dorchester Road, the same documentation-first standard applies. This is our Storm & Disaster Restoration service area, and we know it block by block. For more on how we work across the Lowcountry, see Charleston.
Serving Charleston, SC - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Charleston area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs - Storm & Disaster Restoration in Charleston
Yes. The Board of Architectural Review governs repairs in the Old and Historic District, and its authority extends beyond exterior elevations. Interior features that are visible from the street, original window and door openings, and certain exterior materials fall under its review. That means a flooded home on Church Street cannot simply have its rotted wood windows replaced with vinyl units. The repair must use wood or another BAR-approved period material. Even emergency work like board-up is expected to use methods that do not permanently damage original fabric. We know the current BAR staff, we’ve worked through their review process, and we document every material decision so your claim reflects compliance, not a costly revision. Call (629) 213-4606 and we can tell you whether your specific repair requires review, before you buy materials you can’t use.
We don’t guess. We use moisture mapping with penetrating and non-penetrating meters, take psychrometric readings of the air and surface temperatures, and compare the readings across the affected area over multiple days. A sill plate that reads 22% moisture content on day one and 21.5% on day five is not drying, it’s holding water. That’s vapor pressure differential at work, meaning the air around the wood is too humid for the wood to release moisture. In plain language: the wood is wet and staying wet. For saltwater intrusion specifically, residual salt holds moisture in the wood fibers even after the visible water is gone, so we test for chloride content when we suspect a tidal event. The daily drying log is yours to keep, and it goes to your adjuster. Call (629) 213-4606 for a documented drying assessment.
Category 3 water is grossly contaminated: it carries sewage, storm drain overflow, brackish river water, and whatever the tide picked up along the way. A pipe break inside a home is usually Category 1, clean water. Under a raised historic house, Category 3 water saturates the soil beneath the foundation, wicks up into heart pine sill plates and joists, and leaves behind salt, bacteria, and silt that keep the wood wet and actively corrode old fasteners. The restoration protocol is different from a standard dryout: we don’t just dry, we remove and replace. Salt-saturated wood cannot be dried to a safe condition. We remove the affected sections, apply antimicrobial treatment, and replace with matching materials that meet BAR requirements. Call (629) 213-4606 if tidal water has touched your foundation timbers.
We schedule loud work within the city’s daytime hours and avoid running commercial air movers at night in dense residential areas like South of Broad or Ansonborough. Our drying plans account for the fact that a row of single houses is not a suburban cul-de-sac. We run equipment on duty cycles that allow the structure to dry without torturing the neighbors, and we document those cycles in the drying log. If your claim requires us to show that equipment ran continuously, we can provide that. If it doesn’t, we’ll be a good neighbor and still meet the drying target. Call (629) 213-4606 for a drying schedule that respects your street.
Board-up is a temporary measure. It keeps out weather and people until a permanent repair can be made. If your damage is limited to one broken window or a single damaged exterior door, board-up may buy you the time you need. If water has entered the structure, if the roof is compromised, or if wind has displaced building envelope components, board-up alone leaves the vulnerable areas hidden and worsening. The deciding factor is moisture. We assess the damage, document what we find, and tell you honestly whether board-up is sufficient or whether the scope needs to expand to full restoration. The written scope is yours before anything is signed. Call (629) 213-4606 for a straight answer.
Written by Alicia Brennan, Owner at DryMark Restoration, serving Charleston and the Lowcountry with documentation-first storm and disaster restoration since 2011.
If your Charleston home has storm or flood damage, don’t wait for the next rain to make it worse. Call (629) 213-4606 now. A live person answers, every hour of every day. We’ll set a dispatch time, put a written price in front of you before work starts, and document every step so your claim gets paid without a fight.