Meet the Team - DryMark Restoration Vista

Meet the Vista Team Behind DryMark Restoration Vista

We’re the crew that shows up when your kitchen’s under three inches of water or a mold patch behind the drywall has turned into something worth measuring in square feet. Every person on this page works out of our Vista base, lives in North County, and answers to Alicia Brennan. What ties us together isn’t a handbook - it’s that none of us will start a job without a written scope in your hand and a photo record when we leave. That’s Haven Standard, Clause 1, and it’s non-negotiable whether we’re drying out a condo near Shadowridge or remediating mold in a Rancho Buena Vista ranch house.

Our People

Alicia Brennan, Owner

I started Back to Dry in 2011 after six years as a claims adjuster, watching homeowners lose tens of thousands because the restoration company forgot to photograph the subfloor or wrote a scope the carrier couldn’t parse. So I built the business around the documentation gap - not marketing, not speed theater, just readings on the meter and a paper trail that turns invoices into paid claims. I still sign every Haven Standard warranty myself. When I’m not on a job site, I’m usually arguing with someone about vapor pressure differential at the wrong moment in a dinner conversation. I keep a moisture meter in my truck and I’m not sorry about it.

Marcus T., Lead Water Technician

Marcus has been running extraction and drying jobs for nine years, the last four with us in Vista. He’s IICRC-certified in Water Damage Restoration (WRT) and Applied Structural Drying (ASD), which means he can read a psychrometric chart the way most people read a weather app - and then explain why your living room won’t dry with a box fan and optimism. Marcus specializes in hardwood floor rescue using Injectidry mat systems; he’s saved original oak in three 1970s Shadowridge homes that other crews wanted to tear out. Off the clock, he restores vintage motorcycles and applies the same patience to both. Homeowners regularly request him by name after their first job.

Dana K., Senior Mold Remediation Installer

Dana came to us from commercial abatement, where she spent five years containment-building in hospitals and schools before switching to residential work. She’s our go-to for Category 3 mold - the stuff that requires full containment, negative air, and a protocol written to the square foot. Dana holds RIA-CREO certification and keeps current on California Department of Public Health guidance, which matters more than people think when you’re documenting for an adjuster who knows the difference between removal and “spray and pray.” She’s the one who noticed the hidden Aspergillus colony behind a Rancho Buena Vista water heater in March 2024, traced it to a failed T&P valve, and saved the homeowner from a second round of remediation. Dana grows tomatoes in competition and will tell you exactly what the soil pH should be.

James R., Service Coordinator

James answers the phones that ring at 2 a.m. when a supply line lets go in a Bressi Ranch townhome. He’s the live voice on our emergency line - no voicemail tree, no “press one for water,” just James or one of three trained colleagues who actually dispatch crews instead of taking messages. Before joining us, he spent four years as an insurance claims intake specialist, so when he says “I’ll have Marcus there in 45 minutes and he’ll photo-document before he touches anything,” he knows what your adjuster needs to hear. James coordinates directly with carriers, uploads documentation to portals, and flags coverage questions before they become coverage problems. He has a whiteboard in his garage tracking every major storm system in the Pacific and will explain the Santa Ana wind pattern’s effect on drying times if you let him.

Elena V., Restoration Apprentice

Elena joined us in 2023 after completing Palomar College’s Building Construction Technology program. She’s apprenticing across all divisions - water, fire, mold, reconstruction - because we train people to understand the full job, not just their corner of it. Currently she’s certified in OSHA 30 and Fire & Smoke Restoration (FSRT), working toward her WRT under Marcus’s supervision. Elena already runs solo on small water losses and has become our documentation obsessive: her photo records are the cleanest in the company, organized by room, timestamped, and cross-referenced to the moisture log. She grew up in Vista, knows which tract homes built in the 1980s have polybutylene plumbing, and will mention it unprompted when relevant. She’s also the reason our crew truck is stocked with decent coffee.

One Standard, Every Job

DryMark Restoration Vista operates independently under The Haven Standard, the same framework Alicia Brennan established in 2011 and applies across our network. What that means on the ground: every technician on this page arrives in a marked vehicle, uniformed, background-checked, and licensed - with documentation available on request. Every job starts with a written price before work begins, Clause 1, with no exceptions for “emergency rates” or after-hours surcharges. Every visit produces a photo record, uploaded to your file, not held hostage for payment. Every finished job carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise, signed and stamped, not mentioned verbally and forgotten.

We don’t subcontract your emergency to strangers. The person who scopes your loss is employed by us, trained to our documentation standard, and accountable to Alicia directly. When we deploy Dri-Eaz, Phoenix, or Injectidry equipment on a Vista job, we log psychrometric data daily - temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure differential - because your carrier’s desk adjuster understands numbers, not assurances. If you’ve got a competitor’s estimate, bring it. We’ll review it free under our Second Opinion policy and tell you exactly what’s missing.

We’ve restored homes from the coast to the inland valleys, but this crew works North County. We know the difference between a slab-on-grade in Bressi Ranch and a raised foundation in Shadowridge, between Santa Ana-driven attic mold and the slow leaks that follow our rare heavy rains. That local knowledge shows up in our scopes, our drying plans, and the documentation that gets your claim paid.

Written by Alicia Brennan, Owner at DryMark Restoration Vista, serving Vista and North County since 2011.