Fast, Reliable Storm & Disaster Restoration Across Druid Hills
Storm damage in Druid Hills moves fast, and so do we. When an ice storm or summer thunderstorm drops an old-growth oak onto your slate roof or sends runoff into a 1920s basement, you need someone who knows this neighborhood’s houses, trees, and codes. Wade’s Restoration has worked storm-damaged homes across Druid Hills for years, from Lullwater Road to Oakdale Road. We handle emergency board-up, roof tarping, debris removal, and flood extraction with crews that can be at your door in under 90 minutes. Call (888) 690-3757 and Wade answers his own phone, day or night.
Why Wade’s Restoration of Atlanta Is Druid Hills’s Preferred Storm & Disaster Restoration Company
Wade Ferris founded this business in 2007 and still runs every job like it’s happening to his own house. Druid Hills homeowners call us because we understand that a 1920s Tudor Revival with plaster-on-lath walls and a slate roof is not a drywall-and-shingles swap. We match what was there, not just what’s cheapest. Our team is IICRC-certified, background-checked, and uniformed, and we hand you the moisture log from every single day of drying. No other restoration crew in this neighborhood does that.
Our Storm & Disaster Restoration team has rebuilt ceilings in Craftsman homes on East Lake Road, tarped ridges on Oakdale after July convective storms, and pulled waterlogged heart pine flooring from basements near Ponce de Leon Avenue. Ask anyone on your street about the crew that showed up before the rain stopped. That was probably us.
What really sets us apart in Druid Hills is the 90-Day Done Right Promise, stamped in writing on every storm restoration contract. If it’s not done right, Wade comes back and makes it right. You won’t get that from a national chain with an 800 number and a rotating crew list. You get it from a man whose name is on the truck and whose cell number you’ll have by the time he leaves.
Our Storm & Disaster Restoration Services in Druid Hills
Emergency Board-Up
After a tree limb goes through a window or a door blows in on Lullwater Road, your house sits open to weather, animals, and people who shouldn’t be inside. We get a crew to Druid Hills fast, sometimes inside an hour, to secure openings with plywood and heavy-duty fasteners. On narrow, tree-lined streets, our team knows how to stage trucks without blocking the roadway, and we coordinate access for townhomes and alley-load properties off Ponce de Leon Avenue before we arrive.
Roof Tarping
A storm-damaged roof in Druid Hills rarely means a simple shingle patch. Most homes here have slate, clay tile, or original wood shake roofs over old-growth sheathing. Slate slips and cracked tile let water in slowly, silently, for weeks before you see the stain on the plaster ceiling. We tarp with Dri-Eaz salvage covers sized to the actual damage, not a one-size-fits-all blue tarp that flaps loose in the next wind event. On Oakdale Road after a July oak fall, our crew had a ridge sealed within 90 minutes of the call.
Debris Removal
A fallen oak on your Druid Hills property isn’t just a weekend chainsaw job. DeKalb County requires right-of-way permits before you can place debris or equipment on narrow streets like Lullwater Road, and the Druid Hills Civic Association watches curb placement closely. We handle the permit coordination, cut and haul the tree, and clear the work area without leaving ruts in the lawn or damage to Olmsted-era plantings. If you drag a limb to the curb without the proper paperwork, the citation is yours. Let us handle it right the first time.
Flood Damage Restoration
Druid Hills sits on gentle Piedmont topography that channels surface water into basements and crawl spaces during Atlanta’s intense summer convective storms. A 1910s Craftsman on Oakdale with a fieldstone foundation and original cast-iron plumbing will flood differently than a modern slab home. We use Phoenix axial air movers, XPOWER dehumidifiers, and B-Air air scrubbers placed with an eye on plaster walls and heart pine floors. Every day, Wade or a senior crew lead takes moisture readings and logs them. You get the full log at the end, because you should know exactly when your subfloor hit dry standard.
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.
Trusted Brands We Service in Druid Hills
We don’t run rental-grade equipment on Druid Hills jobs. Our dry-out fleet is built on Phoenix axial air movers, XPOWER dehumidifiers, and B-Air air scrubbers, with Injectidry systems for hardwood floors that need in-place drying. For a neighborhood where the floors are hundred-year-old heart pine, in-place drying matters. Pulling those boards and stacking them in the yard kills them. We stock enough equipment in our Atlanta office to dispatch to Druid Hills without waiting on a supply house, and we keep common tarp sizes and board-up panels ready to go.
Common Storm & Disaster Restoration Problems We See in Druid Hills Homes
- Olmsted canopy collapse damage. Frederick Law Olmsted designed Druid Hills with an intentionally dense, layered tree canopy running directly over estate-scale homes. Every Atlanta ice storm loads those limbs with ice, and they come down on slate roofs and old-growth structural members. This isn’t a shingle repair. It’s often a full historic-roof intervention.
- Plaster walls damaged by storm water. Original three-coat lime plaster doesn’t dry like drywall, and you can’t patch a saturated lath wall with a sheet of green board. The DeKalb County historic preservation office and the Druid Hills Civic Association both push back hard on drywall replacement in contributing structures. We bring in an IICRC-certified specialty plasterer who matches the original profile.
- Basement flooding from surface runoff. The neighborhood’s Piedmont topography channels storm water down parkways and into older basements with fieldstone foundations. Water comes in through the cove joint, not through a burst pipe, which means the drying plan has to account for saturated stone and earth, not just carpet and drywall.
- Narrow-access debris and equipment staging. Streets like Lullwater Road have tight clearances, mature tree lines, and no shoulder to speak of. Emergency board-up and tree removal require staging plans that keep one lane open and protect the curb and planting strip. We do this every week in Druid Hills.
Pricing for Storm & Disaster Restoration in Druid Hills, GA
We Also Serve Cities Near Druid Hills
If you’re in North Decatur, Atlanta proper, Gresham Park, or North Druid Hills, we cover those areas too. The same crew, the same equipment, and the same 90-Day Done Right Promise. Storm & Disaster Restoration in Druid Hills keeps us close to the neighborhoods we know best, but storm damage doesn’t respect city limits, and neither does our service area.
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 - Storm & Disaster Restoration in Druid Hills
If your home is a contributing structure in the Druid Hills Historic District, DeKalb County and the Druid Hills Civic Association will require that plaster repairs match the original three-coat lime plaster profile rather than being replaced with modern drywall. You’ll typically need documentation of the damage (photos and a moisture log help), and the work should be done by a plasterer experienced with historic materials. Our team handles this paperwork and coordination as part of the restoration scope. Call (888) 690-3757 for a free assessment.
Lullwater Road is narrow, tree-lined, and has no usable shoulder, so a fallen oak or storm-debris pile can block the entire lane and make it impossible for heavy equipment to stage. We send a small advance crew to clear enough space for a truck, coordinate with DeKalb County right-of-way enforcement, and use hand-carried panels when the road is too tight for a lift. It’s slower and more labor-intensive than a suburban driveway job, which is exactly why you want a crew that’s done it in Druid Hills before.
First, don’t walk into standing water if you have power running to the basement. Call us and we’ll get extraction started the same day, usually within 90 minutes for a Druid Hills address. For a 1910s Craftsman with a fieldstone foundation and heart pine framing, the drying plan has to account for saturated stone and earth, not just the water you can see. We’ll take daily moisture readings and hand you the log when the job is done. Call (888) 690-3757 and Wade will walk you through it on the phone.
Yes, in most cases you’ll need a DeKalb County right-of-way permit before placing debris or equipment on the street or sidewalk, and the Druid Hills Civic Association monitors curb placement closely. A tree that falls entirely on your private property is yours to remove, but if any part of it touches the right-of-way, you’ll want the permit handled before the county issues a citation. We coordinate this as part of our debris removal service, so you don’t have to argue with anyone at a county office.
Slate and clay tile are slick, fragile, and unforgiving if you put a foot wrong, so tarping requires different fastening techniques than a shingle roof. We use salvage covers sized to the actual damage and fasten at the ridge and eaves without driving nails through sound tiles. The goal is to keep water out without damaging undamaged sections of the roof, which matters a lot when a full slate replacement runs $30,000 or more on a Druid Hills estate home. Call (888) 690-3757 for an emergency tarping quote.
One More Thing About Druid Hills
Druid Hills is one of the only neighborhoods in metro Atlanta where Frederick Law Olmsted’s intentionally dense, layered tree canopy runs directly over and alongside early-20th-century estate-scale homes. Every Atlanta ice storm or severe thunderstorm sends massive old-growth oaks and beeches crashing onto irreplaceable plaster-walled, old-growth-hardwood homes that cannot simply be patched with modern materials. Damage restoration here isn’t a swap-and-replace job. It requires historic-sensitive techniques to match original plaster profiles, period millwork, and century-old heart pine floors that respond very differently to water saturation than modern engineered products. A national chain crew that shows up with drywall and laminate won’t get it right, and DeKalb County and the Druid Hills Civic Association will make sure they redo it at their own cost. We get it right the first time, with the paperwork to prove it.
Written by Wade Ferris, Owner at Wade’s Restoration of Atlanta, serving Druid Hills since 2007.