The next hour
is the job.
Water, fire and mold damage restoration on Chicago's Northwest Side, Jefferson Park to Park Ridge.
Call and Dana or one of our technicians picks up, not a call center. Three questions about the water, then a crew is moving, usually within 60 minutes inside the I-294 loop. Farther out we tell you the real time when you call.
IICRC Certified Firm #000000 (demo number). WRT and FSRT certified technicians, AMRT for mold. Insured: general liability and workers' comp, certificate emailed before the first air mover is set.
Illinois Roofing Contractor License 104.000000 (demo number), for storm tarping only.
Select your situation.
Pick the line that sounds like your house. Each one goes to the part of this page that answers it, so you are not reading about fire while your basement fills.
- Water is on the floor right nowShut the main if you can reach it, then call. A crew moves tonight.
- There was a fire, or the house smells of smokeDo not run the furnace or wipe the walls. Soot smears.
- A drain backed up or sewage came inStay out of it. Category 3 water needs gear you do not have.
- A storm opened the roof or a windowBoard-up, tarp and a dry-out the same night.
- It flooded days ago and now it smellsSend a video first. It may not need a truck at midnight.
- Not sure it needs a crewAsk for a callback. Dana tells you honestly, no charge.
Not moving water? Ask for a callback.
Five fields. Dana or Luis calls back within the hour between 6am and 10pm; an overnight request gets the 6am call.
If water is moving right now, call instead.
(773) 555-014224 hours a day. Dana or a technician from this shop answers, not a call center.
North Branch Restoration
Milwaukee Avenue, Jefferson Park, Chicago, IL 60630
Trucks leave the shop for Jefferson Park, Portage Park, Norwood Park, Edison Park, Harwood Heights, Niles and Park Ridge. Usually within 60 minutes inside the I-294 loop; farther out we tell you the real time when you call.
See the room before a truck rolls.
Send a two-minute video walk of the room from your phone. Dana watches it, asks for a close-up of the baseboard and the ceiling corner, and tells you one of three things: a crew tonight, a visit tomorrow, or a fan and an open window you already own.
Days-old water, a musty smell, a stain that is slowly growing: these usually do not need a truck at midnight, and we would rather say so than roll one. The video look costs nothing. If it does need a crew, the video means we arrive with the right equipment on the first trip instead of the second.
Six steps, one crew, the same number the whole way.
- DispatchYou call (773) 555-0142 and a person from the shop answers. Where is the water, is it still coming, and how old is it. A crew is moving before the call ends, usually within 60 minutes inside the I-294 loop; farther out we tell you the real time when you call.
- AssessMoisture meter on every wall and floor the water could have reached, a thermal camera where the meter cannot go, and a map of the wet area drawn before anything is cut. You see the map that night.
- MitigateMitigation stops the damage getting worse tonight: water extracted, wet pad and soaked drywall out, air movers and dehumidifiers set, and the room sealed if there is soot or mold. Remediation, the removal of a hazard like mold or sewage, happens here too.
- Dry and verifyA technician reads the meters every day, moves the equipment as the readings change, and pulls it the day the material reaches its dry standard, not a day before. Six days is typical for a finished basement in a Jefferson Park bungalow.
- DocumentEvery photo, reading, drying log and the itemized estimate goes into one record. You get a copy of all of it at the end, whoever else needs to see it.
- RebuildRestoration is putting the room back the way it was before the loss. If the structure needs it, the same crew stays through drywall, trim, paint and flooring instead of passing you to someone else.
Who answers.
Dana started North Branch Restoration in 2014 after nine years running water crews for a franchise office in Elk Grove Village. The shop is on Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park, the crew is six technicians on three trucks, all employees, and the overnight phone sits on her nightstand three nights a week.
She still reads every moisture map before a dehumidifier leaves the shop. If the map says fans and a day, you get fans and a day.
Dana, owner and dispatcher, North Branch RestorationWhat we take on, grouped the way the damage arrives.
Seven lines of work. Every one starts with the same call and the same moisture map.
- Water damage Extraction, carpet pad out, air movers and dehumidifiers set on the first visit, readings every day until the meter says dry. Burst supply lines in Jefferson Park bungalows and walk-out basements in Niles are most of our winter.
- Fire and smoke Soot wipe-down with the right sponge for the surface, HEPA air scrubbers, thermal fogging for the smell, and the burned room sealed off so the rest of the house stays livable while the work runs.
- Mold Containment under negative air, removal of the material it grew on, a HEPA clean of the room, and the leak that fed it fixed first. IICRC AMRT certified technicians, working to the IICRC S520 standard.
- Storm Board-up, roof tarp and a dry-out the same night, then the water work above. Illinois Roofing Contractor License 104.000000 (demo number) covers the tarping; the roof repair itself goes to a roofer you choose.
- Sewage Category 3 water. Everything porous it touched comes out, hard surfaces are cleaned and disinfected twice, and the air is scrubbed before anyone moves back in. Backed-up floor drains after an August storm are most of these calls.
- Contents Pack-out of what can be saved, cleaned and stored at the Milwaukee Avenue shop until the room is back. An itemized inventory with photos of what cannot be saved, written before anything goes to the curb.
- Rebuild Drywall, trim, paint and flooring put back by the same crew that took it out. One estimate, one project lead, one number to call.
Straight answers.
- How fast can you actually be here?
- Usually within 60 minutes inside the I-294 loop. Farther out we tell you the real time when you call, because a crew in Park Ridge at 2am is not the same as one in Niles at 2pm. We do not promise a number we cannot keep.
- What should I do before the crew arrives?
- Water: shut the main if you can reach it safely and move what you can lift off the floor. Fire: do not run the furnace or air conditioning and do not wipe the walls; soot smears into the paint. Sewage: stay out of the room. Mold: leave it alone and close the door.
- Do you document the loss for my insurer?
- We photograph and document the damage, take moisture readings and map them, write an itemized Xactimate estimate, and give your insurer the records it asks for. We can meet your adjuster on site to walk the damage and explain our scope. Coverage decisions and the claim settlement stay between you and your insurer. We are not public adjusters. Your deductible is your responsibility and cannot be waived.
- Who certifies your mold work?
- Not the state. Illinois has no mold licence in effect, so nobody can truthfully print one. Our technicians hold the IICRC AMRT certification and the work follows the IICRC S520 standard: containment, negative air, removal of the material the mold grew on, and a HEPA clean of the room afterward.
- What do the certificate numbers on this page mean?
- IICRC is the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification, the body that sets the S500 water and S520 mold standards. A Certified Firm number can be checked on the IICRC locator. WRT is Water Damage Restoration Technician, FSRT is Fire and Smoke Restoration Technician, AMRT is Applied Microbial Remediation Technician. The numbers on this sample site are demo numbers.
Three losses, three homeowners, what each one wrote.
The pipe let go at 11 at night and Dana answered on the second ring. Two technicians were pulling water by half past midnight and the dehumidifiers ran six days. She texted me the moisture readings every morning so I never had to ask.
Marta K., Jefferson ParkBurst supply line, finished basement. February 2026, on Google
They sealed the kitchen and had air scrubbers running upstairs on the first day. The smell was gone before the rebuild started, and the estimate they wrote was the estimate we paid.
Greg and Sandy T., Park RidgeKitchen fire, smoke through the second floor. June 2026, on Google
Not the job anyone wants. The crew wore the right gear, took out everything the water touched, and showed me the dry readings before they packed up. The basement smells like a basement again.
Tomasz O., Norwood ParkSewer backup after the August storm. September 2026, on Google