Kent office overview
After a fire
Stay out until the fire service says it
is safe. Do not wipe soot: it smears
and can stain surfaces.
Water or flooding
Turn off the water at the stopcock.
If water is near sockets or a ceiling
is bulging, keep out of the room and
switch off the electricity only if you
can reach the fuse box safely.
Sewage
Keep children and pets away and do not try to clean it yourself.
For your insurer
Photograph the damage before
anything is moved, and tell your
insurer as soon as you can.
Our services in Kent
What we see in Kent homes and buildings
Choose by what has happened. If you are not sure, contact our team and we will help get you the most appropriate service.
Emergencies
Damp, mould and leaks
Office
Ideal House, Crismill Lane, Maidstone, Kent ME14 3LY
Areas covered
Kent, East Sussex and West Sussex
Typical attendance
1 to 2 hours
Emergency response
24 hours a day, every day
Google rating
4.8 from 358 reviews
Insurance claims
We can deal directly with your insurer or loss adjuster
Who we work for
Homes, landlords, housing providers, insurers & businesses
Specialist cleaning
Environmental
Where our work stops
We clean, dry, decontaminate and investigate. We do not rebuild, carry out structural repairs or redecorate. We leave the property ready for your builder or your insurer's contractor. We don’t repair pipes or appliances. If water is still coming in, turn off the stopcock and call a plumber. Once the leak is fixed, we take over the drying and clean-up. If you can’t find the leak, our leak detection service can trace it for your plumber to repair.
How quickly we reach you
Typical attendance for an emergency call in Kent and Sussex. We send whoever can reach you soonest. We confirm a firm arrival time when you call. Ideal House is close to the M20 and M2, with fast routes to the Medway towns, Ashford, Canterbury, Thanet and the coast.
While you wait for us
| AREA | TYPICAL JOURNEY TIME FROM MAIDSTONE |
|---|
| Maidstone and Medway | 15-45 minutes |
| Ashford, Canterbury, Folkestone, Dover and Thanet | 30-75 minutes |
| Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Dartford and Gravesend | 35-65 minutes |
| East Sussex and West Sussex | 1 to 2 hours, allowing up to 2½ hours for more distant locations or heavier traffic |
Journey times are approximate and depend on the exact location and traffic conditions. They exclude mobilisation time.
Your safety comes first. Only do what you can do safely.
Recent work in Kent
Industrial fire clean for Viridor in Rochester
After a major fire at Viridor’s recycling facility, we cleaned plant, high-level machinery and around 250 conveyors. A test clean proved the method first, then day and night teams worked with four DOFF systems, with chloride testing to check for corrosive residues. The main clean finished in just over five weeks against a six-week estimate, so electrical repairs could start sooner. Read the full case study.
Duration
Just over 5 weeks
Service
Fire damage cleaning
“Very satisfied with the service and works achieved on site. A pleasure to work with the team from Ideal Response. They were very professional and acted promptly to resolve any urgent matters.”
Veekram Mohabeer · Viridor
Tahlia Golding
Technical Account Manager
“On a large industrial fire, choosing the wrong cleaning method and then scaling it up can waste days. A
controlled trial lets the team judge cleaning performance, production rate and the effect on the
substrate before committing multiple crews and machines.”
Low-lying land and the coast
Much of north Kent, including the marshes along the Thames and Medway estuaries, the Isle of Sheppey and the Swale, is
low-lying ground kept dry by sea walls and drainage, as is Romney Marsh in the south. Gravesend, Dartford and the open
coast at Folkestone and Margate also face tidal and coastal flooding. Kent County Council puts more than 60,000 Kent
properties at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea.
River valleys and chalk groundwater
The Medway, Stour and Beult flood their valleys, and water held in the chalk of the North Downs can rise after a wet winter.
Groundwater can flood low ground and basements without ever showing on a river flood map.
Oil tanks, older homes and frozen pipes
Much of rural Kent is off the gas grid and heated by oil from on-site tanks, so a leaking or overfilled tank can contaminate
ground and water and needs specialist clean-up. In older detached and coastal homes, exposed pipework and loft tanks can burst in a hard winter, as in our Margate case study.
What happens when you call
Step 1Tell us what happenedCall or send the address, what has happened and whether it is safe to enter. Photos help.
Step 2AssessmentAteam attends, finds how far the damage has spread and makes it safe.
Step 3Scope and quoteYou receive a written scope of works you can share with your insurer.
Step 4Work and handoverWe clean, dry or decontaminate, photograph before and after, and hand over to the next trade.
Accreditations and who we work with
| ACCREDITATION | WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU |
|---|
| BDMA | We’re members of the British Damage Management Association, the UK trade body for damage management and restoration, and we work to its standards and code of conduct. |
| Constructionline Gold | Our company details, insurance, health and safety, environmental and quality credentials have been independently checked to Gold level, so you don’t have to re-check them before appointing us. |
| CHAS Elite | Our health and safety and wider supply-chain risk management have been independently assessed to the Common Assessment Standard. |
We work for homeowners and landlords, housing providers working to Awaab's Law timescales, managing agents, farms and estates, hospitality venues, insurers and loss adjusters, and public and commercial sites.
Towns we cover from Maidstone
Maidstone, Medway (Chatham, Gillingham, Rochester), Ashford, Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Dartford, Gravesend, Folkestone, Dover, Thanet (Margate, Ramsgate, Broadstairs) and the rest of Kent, London, plus East Sussex and West Sussex.
Further afield? We work across the UK too. Call 0800 088 4170 and we'll tell you straight away how we can help.
