DryHomeLab is published by the team behind HelpMeNow.com, a marketplace that connects homeowners with vetted local contractors — water-damage restoration, plumbing and waterproofing pros — in minutes. Before that, the same team ran a 24/7 water-damage restoration company in the Seattle area before building HelpMeNow: burst supply lines, failed sump pumps, slow leaks nobody noticed behind a dishwasher, and crawl spaces that had been wet for years. The dehumidifiers, air movers, pumps, moisture meters and leak sensors on this site are the categories we bought, ran, repaired and replaced on those jobs — and the ones the contractors on HelpMeNow still do.
What we are trying to do
Help you buy the right thing once, size it correctly, and know when a problem is beyond a product. A $60 leak sensor placed under the right water heater pays for itself a hundred times over; a dehumidifier that is one size too small never does. The calculators and the published scoring rubric exist so you can check our work.
What we will not do
- Copy Amazon reviews or star ratings. We link to them; we do not launder them.
- Rank by commission. Rankings are produced before links are attached, and the rubric is public.
- Claim lab testing we have not done. Where a score is based on verified specs and field experience rather than instrumented tests, the breakdown says so.
- Sell your emergency to the highest bidder. Requests go through HelpMeNow.com to vetted local contractors, and we say so on every form.
The people
DryHomeLab is written and reviewed by the team behind HelpMeNow.com, a marketplace that connects homeowners with vetted local contractors for water-damage restoration, plumbing and waterproofing. Before HelpMeNow the same team ran a 24/7 water-damage restoration company in the Seattle area; the equipment on this site is what we specified, bought and ran on real water losses. We publish the rubric behind every score.
- Ran a 24/7 water-damage restoration company, Seattle area
- Operate HelpMeNow.com, a contractor marketplace
- Publishes its scoring rubric
Priya Patel is a water damage restoration technician in Lynnwood who dries to a meter reading rather than a calendar. She documents every affected room with dated readings, which is why her reports tend to clear an adjuster on the first pass.
- Water damage restoration
- Structural drying
Tariq Hassan has run water damage jobs across Snohomish County for eleven years, from burst supply lines to sewage backups that need to be treated as the biohazard they are. He pulls wet insulation early because that is the difference between a drying job and a mold job.
- Water damage restoration
- Sewage and black water
Michael O'Brien manages water restoration out of Lakewood and has seen what a slow leak does to a floor over one wet weekend. He is direct about what a policy will and will not cover, even when the answer costs him the job.
- Water damage restoration
- Emergency response
Isabella Rossi consults on mold and indoor air quality across King County, usually on jobs where someone has already been told to gut a room they did not need to gut. She reads moisture readings the way other people read a weather report.
- Mold remediation
- Indoor air quality
James Okafor is a mold remediation specialist working out of Renton, with a run of crawl spaces and post-flood basements behind him. He separates the cleanup from the cause, and he will not sign a clearance until the readings say the space is dry.
- Mold remediation
- Crawl spaces
Derek Foster manages storm and emergency response from Shoreline and has been doing it for sixteen years, including holiday weekends. He coordinates tree removal, roofing and water mitigation as one job so the adjuster hears a single story.
- Storm damage
- 24/7 emergency response
Emily Larsen advises homeowners through storm and water claims from Redmond, with a focus on what to document before the adjuster arrives.
- Insurance claims
- Adjuster liaison
Georgiy Kharchenko is the founder and builder of HelpMeNow, a nationwide marketplace that routes homeowners to vetted contractors in minutes, and of the restoration company that came before it.
- Founder, HelpMeNow.com
Who answers when you call
The number on every page, (844) 543-5757, rings at HelpMeNow.com, which this team operates. It is staffed around the clock. Tell them what is leaking and where you are; a background-screened local contractor (reviewed with Checkr) calls you back and, for an active loss, dispatches a crew. The same line takes installation quotes for sump pumps, shutoff valves and crawl-space work. We may receive a fee when you hire a contractor we connected you with, and we say so wherever the number appears.
Contact
Corrections, questions about a product, or a manufacturer who thinks we got a spec wrong: info@helpmenow.com. We update pages when we are shown to be wrong and note the change. Mail reaches us at 1915 140th Ave NE #1699, Bellevue, WA 98005; the contact page has hours and the HelpMeNow address for contractor requests.