Fast, Reliable Reconstruction & Cleanup Across Druid Hills
If a water line let go in your 1920s Tudor on Lullwater Road or a storm dropped a limb through your slate roof on Oakdale, you need someone who knows Druid Hills the way you do. Reconstruction and cleanup here is different from anywhere else in metro Atlanta. The houses are older, the tree canopy is heavier, and the county historic review process can stop a job cold if the wrong person swings a hammer. Wade Ferris started Wade’s Restoration in 2007, and his crews have rebuilt, dried, and restored homes throughout the 30307 zip code ever since. When you call (888) 690-3757, you get Wade or someone on his team, not a national call center. We’ll have eyes on your damage fast, we’ll write down exactly what you need done, and we won’t start a single repair until you approve the scope in writing.
Why Wade’s Restoration of Atlanta Is Druid Hills’s Preferred Reconstruction & Cleanup Company
We’re not the biggest restoration company around, and we don’t want to be. We’re the one where the owner’s name is on the truck and he answers his own phone. Wade Ferris has been walking through Druid Hills basements and attics for years. He’s seen the damage that a cast-iron pipe failure does to a heart pine floor. He’s stood in a parlor on Ponce de Leon Avenue after a plaster ceiling caved in from an ice storm. The people on your street don’t need a national chain; they need a crew that knows the difference between a wall that can be drywalled and a wall that DeKalb County’s preservation office will flag before the mud’s even dry.
Our Reconstruction & Cleanup team works inside the rules that shape this neighborhood: the tight alley-load setbacks, the Olmsted parkway tree protections, the historic plaster mandates that make a “simple patch” anything but. Wade personally walks every Druid Hills reconstruction job before work starts, and he stays reachable through the end. That’s not corporate language. It’s how a locally owned business works when the owner’s going to see you again at the Emory Village farmers market.
We keep it straight. Background-checked, uniformed crews. Professional-grade equipment from Dri-Eaz and Phoenix. Daily moisture logs you can read yourself, handed to you at job’s end. And the 90-Day Done Right Promise: if it’s not done right, we make it right, in writing, on every restoration contract. Wade’s cell number is on the estimate. Call it. He picks up.
Our Reconstruction & Cleanup Services in Druid Hills
Full-Service Reconstruction
Most Druid Hills homes were built between 1910 and 1945, and they don’t respond to water or our Fire & Smoke Damage Restoration in Druid Hills the way a 2005 drywall-and-carpet house does. When we rebuild a wall, a ceiling, or a room in Druid Hills, we start by looking at what’s actually in the structure. Plaster on wood lath. Heart pine subfloor. Slate or clay tile. Cast-iron stacks. Wade’s crew matches the original, and when DeKalb County says a contributing structure needs lime plaster instead of drywall, we do it that way, even if it takes longer. We also coordinate with the county so the work doesn’t stall on a permit issue that should’ve been caught on day one.
Drywall & Flooring Repair
There are plenty of times where drywall is the right material, even in Druid Hills. If a closet wall behind a kitchen sink got wet and it’s not part of a contributing elevation, we’ll cut out the damage, dry the cavity, and patch it with proper moisture-resistant board. Flooring is a different conversation. Original heart pine cupping after a water event is common, and the worst thing you can do is rip it out before it’s had a chance to dry. Wade uses Phoenix and Dri-Eaz drying equipment, takes moisture readings every single day, and documents both the before and after so you have a record for your insurance carrier.
Contents Restoration & Pack-Out
When a fire, flood, or sewage backup hits a Druid Hills home, the stuff inside matters as much as the structure. We offer full pack-out and contents cleaning: furniture, rugs, books, art, clothing, the whole household. Wade’s crew inventories everything, boxes it properly, and stores it while the rebuild happens. For tight alley-load lots off Ponce de Leon Avenue, we stage the pack-out with smaller vehicles and a plan for temporary container placement that respects setbacks and doesn’t block your neighbors. We photograph every item before it leaves the house. Your adjuster gets the full file. You get your things back cleaned and documented.
Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning
After a water loss, carpets and upholstery can hold moisture long after the floor looks dry. That’s why we offer Mold Remediation in Druid Hills before it spreads. We steam-clean and sanitize carpets, area rugs, sofas, and chairs using professional extraction equipment from XPOWER and B-Air. If a rug is saturated and can’t be saved, we’ll tell you straight. If it can, we clean it and dry it thoroughly before it goes back into the room. For Druid Hills homes with original rugs over heart pine floors, we never put damp textiles back down on top of wood; every piece gets a dry test before it touches the original floor.
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.
Common Reconstruction & Cleanup Problems We See in Druid Hills Homes
- Plaster over drywall patches: A contractor adds drywall to a water-damaged plaster wall in a contributing structure, and DeKalb County’s preservation office issues a stop-work. The fix is a lime-based plaster patch matched to the original profile. We do it the right way from the start, not after the citation.
- Fallen limbs on Olmsted parkway trees: The tree canopy over Lullwater Road, Ponce de Leon Avenue, and Oakdale Road drops heavy limbs onto rooflines during ice storms. Removing a limb often requires a DeKalb County arborist permit, and the curb and gutter under the tree are part of the historic landscape. We file the paperwork and protect the streetscape while we work.
- Cast-iron and galvanized pipe failures: Original supply plumbing in Druid Hills homes is 80 to 100 years old. When a pipe bursts, the water often travels through plaster walls and under heart pine floors before you see it. Our moisture logs document the full extent so the reconstruction covers what’s actually wet, not just what’s visibly stained.
- Tight alley-load access: Many homes off Ponce de Leon Avenue load from the rear alley, not the street. A full-size roll-off doesn’t fit, and a dumpster dropped in the wrong spot blocks a neighbor’s driveway and violates setback rules. We plan the access before we bring in equipment, and we talk to your neighbors if a shared alley is involved.
Pricing for Reconstruction & Cleanup in Druid Hills, GA
Reconstruction in Druid Hills runs higher than in the suburbs, and the reason is simple: the houses are historically built, the materials cost more, and the county review process adds coordination time. A basic drywall patch after a small water leak typically runs $600 to $1,200. Rebuilding a plaster ceiling in a contributing structure, including lime-based matching and finish work, usually lands between $2,500 and $5,500 depending on the room and the damage. Full room reconstruction that includes framing, plaster matching, and heart pine floor repair commonly falls between $8,000 and $22,000. Contents pack-out and cleaning for a two-bedroom area tends to run $1,800 to $4,500. Carpet and upholstery cleaning after a water event typically costs $350 to $800. Every job in Druid Hills starts with a written scope and a free estimate, and we never charge a trip fee inside our own county. Call (888) 690-3757 and Wade will price it honestly, without a phone-number bait-and-switch.
Trusted Brands We Service in Druid Hills
We run Dri-Eaz and Phoenix drying equipment on most of our Druid Hills water-loss jobs, and we use XPOWER air movers and B-Air extraction tools for carpet and upholstery work. These aren’t rental-store machines. They’re commercial-grade equipment that moves enough air and pulls enough moisture to actually dry a century-old plaster wall without forcing us to tear it out. That matters in Druid Hills, where preserving original fabric is the whole game. We keep replacement parts and filters stocked so we’re not running back and forth to a supplier when we’re scheduled on Oakdale Road or Emory Road. If the machine breaks, we swap it. The job doesn’t stall.
We Also Serve Cities Near Druid Hills
Wade’s Restoration works throughout this corner of DeKalb County and the surrounding area, including Reconstruction & Cleanup in Druid Hills and nearby communities like North Decatur, Gresham Park, North Druid Hills, and parts of Atlanta. If you’re just outside 30307 and wondering whether we’ll come out, call (888) 690-3757. If we can’t get there for a good reason, we’ll help you find someone who can.
Serving Druid Hills, GA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Druid Hills 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 - Reconstruction & Cleanup in Druid Hills
Usually not, and the decision often isn’t up to you or your contractor. DeKalb County’s preservation office and the Druid Hills Civic Association guidelines generally require matching lime plaster on contributing structures in the historic district. If the wall is in a non-contributing area, drywall patch is often fine. Wade’s crew always checks the status of the structure and the elevation before we open a wall. If the county requires plaster, we match the original profile and texture so the repair doesn’t read as a patch job. If drywall is allowed, we’ll use it and save you money. Call (888) 690-3757 and we’ll tell you which path your house is on.
We file for the DeKalb County arborist permit before we touch a limb that’s come down on a parkway tree overhanging a street like Ponce de Leon Avenue or Lullwater Road. The curb, gutter, and tree are part of the Olmsted landscape design, and the county takes damage to them seriously. We use smaller equipment that can maneuver without crushing the granite curbing, and we stage debris in the street only with proper traffic protection and county approval. The limb comes off the roofline carefully, with ropes and controlled cuts, not just a chainsaw dropping it through the roof. Then we tarp and stabilize the structure until our Storm & Disaster Restoration - Druid Hills crew can start full reconstruction.
Not automatically. When we open a wall for reconstruction after a pipe burst, we replace the failed section and inspect the visible run. If the rest of the plumbing is sound and not leaking, we don’t force an upgrade. But if we see heavy corrosion or multiple past repairs, we’ll tell you honestly and document what we found with photos for your insurance claim. In a Druid Hills house with original plumbing, a full repipe is sometimes the only sensible fix, but that’s your call with a written quote in hand. Nothing gets done without your sign-off.
Waiting for DeKalb County historic review. When a contractor opens a wall in a contributing structure without confirming the required materials or permits, the county can issue a stop-work, and suddenly a three-week job becomes a three-month fight. Wade’s team submits the documentation early, knows which elevations and rooms are subject to review, and builds the lime-based plaster matching time into the schedule from day one. That’s why we don’t promise a rush job in Druid Hills. We promise a job that doesn’t get halted mid-stream.
We document the condition of every floor board with photos and moisture readings before we move a single piece of furniture. Then we use padded runners, not plastic sheeting, to protect the finish while we carry contents out. On tight alley-load lots, we stage the pack-out from the rear with smaller vehicles and containers, and we never drag furniture across the floor. During water extraction and drying, our Dri-Eaz and Phoenix equipment runs on monitors that keep the drying process slow enough to preserve the wood’s dimensional stability. If a floor was already cupped before the loss, your photos show it, which makes the insurance conversation a lot simpler.
Written by Wade Ferris, Owner at Wade’s Restoration of Atlanta, serving Druid Hills and surrounding DeKalb County communities.
Call Wade’s Restoration for Reconstruction & Cleanup in Druid Hills
If you’ve got water running through a 1920s plaster wall, a limb on your roof, or a basement that’s been wet too long, don’t wait. Every day of delay makes the damage worse and makes the restoration more expensive. Call (888) 690-3757. Wade answers. He’ll talk you through what’s happening, tell you what he’d do first, and get a crew headed your way if you want him there. Estimates are free. The second opinion on any written estimate is free too. And no trip charge inside the county. One call, one name, one guy who’s going to see you at the Emory Village coffee shop next week. That’s how we work in Druid Hills.