Meet the Team - Tidemark Water Damage Queens

Meet the Queens Team Behind Tidemark Water Damage Queens

We’re a local crew, most of us from Queens or the boroughs bordering it. We’ve worked basements in Flushing, attic fires in Jackson Heights, and moisture problems in co-ops where the plumbing predates the Kennedy years. What unites us isn’t a uniform, though we wear those. It’s a shared habit of writing down the scope before we touch anything and leaving a home cleaner than it was when we walked in. Rick Sumner owns this location, but the people below are the ones who actually knock on your door, pull on the shoe covers, and find the tide mark.

Our People

Marcus T. – Lead Water Damage Technician

Marcus has been running water loss jobs in Queens since 2011, and he’s IICRC-certified in Water Damage Restoration and Applied Structural Drying. Before restoration, he did rough-in plumbing for new construction, which is why he can usually tell you what failed before the drying equipment even leaves the truck. He’s the one who spots the tide mark first and maps the drying chambers. Marcus lives in Woodside and, on weekends, coaches his daughter’s soccer team at Flushing Meadows. If he says a floor needs to come up, the floor needs to come up.

Elena R. – Mold Remediation Supervisor

Elena has worked in environmental remediation for fourteen years and holds both IICRC and Indoor Air Quality Association credentials. She runs our containment setups, negative air pressure, and post-remediation verification for every mold job in Queens. Elena grew up in Astoria and knows what a poorly vented bathroom in a prewar apartment can turn into by August. She keeps a small notebook in her back pocket and writes down every reading she takes, twice. Her co-workers call it the Elena double-check, and we haven’t argued with it once.

David N. – Fire Damage and Content Restoration Lead

David came to Tidemark after eight years as a finish carpenter, so he understands what smoke does to wood grain, paint layers, and cabinet joints, because he’s the one rebuilding all of it after the cleaning stage. He’s RIA-certified in Fire and Smoke Restoration. David handles the heavy jobs: char removal, soot sealing, odor neutralization, and the final rebuild walkthrough. He lives in Middle Village, restores old furniture in his garage, and can tell you which wood species will survive a cleaning and which one won’t. The answer on particle board is never good news, but he delivers it kindly.

Priya S. – Service Coordinator

Priya is the voice on the phone and the reason our dispatch doesn’t unravel at 2 a.m. She’s been with the Queens team since 2016 and previously worked for a property management office in Elmhurst, so she speaks landlord, insurance adjuster, and panicked homeowner fluently. Priya coordinates equipment staging, schedules the crew, and makes sure the written price reaches you before anyone touches a valve or unrolls a hose. She keeps a laminated map of Queens service zones taped next to her desk. If you call on a Sunday night with water coming through a kitchen ceiling, Priya answers.

One Standard, Every Job

The Queens crew follows the same playbook every Tidemark location does. Written price before work starts. Shoe covers go on at the door and drop cloths cover the floor before the first piece of equipment comes in. We ask before we move furniture or touch personal items, because the C.A.R.E. habits are not suggestions to us: Clean up like it is our own home, Ask before touching, Respect your time and quiet hours, Explain the price before the work. On every job, our IICRC-, RIA-, and IFA-credentialed technicians run Dri-Eaz, Phoenix, XPOWER, B-Air, and Injectidry equipment, which is the same professional-grade gear you’d see on any large commercial loss in the city. Before the crew leaves, a photo of the cleanup is taken and shared with you. That is not a bonus feature. It’s how Rick has run this shop since day one, and how every person on this page was trained to run it after him.

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