Provider profile
Bouchard Cleaning & Restoration DKI
Provider snapshot
What this listing says
Maine homeowners statewide who need a single company to handle water, fire, or mold damage from assessment through rebuild, especially insurance-referred jobs requiring coordination with adjusters.
Best for
- Homeowners anywhere in Maine dealing with mold after water damage, where one company handling both the water mitigation and mold removal simplifies the process.
- Insurance-referred jobs where the company needs to coordinate directly with your adjuster and produce mitigation reports.
- Property owners who want rebuild and repair handled by the same firm that does the remediation, avoiding the need to hire a separate contractor.
- Commercial property managers needing a single point of contact for multi-trade disaster recovery across a large facility.
- Homeowners with smoke- or water-damaged clothing and soft goods who want restoration rather than replacement.
About this company
Bouchard Cleaning & Restoration DKI is a family-owned restoration company based in Hampden, Maine. Norman Bouchard started the business over 40 years ago as a carpet cleaner in northern Maine. Mold is one piece of a broader operation that covers water damage, fire and smoke damage, biohazard cleanup, duct cleaning, and full rebuild services. They do both mold assessment and mold removal.
Two things stand out. First, they belong to DKI, the largest disaster restoration contracting network in North America, which gives them access to extra crews and equipment for large-scale jobs. They deployed staff to New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy through this network. Second, they run an Esporta Wash System for clothing and soft content restoration, cleaning smoke- and water-damaged textiles to food-grade standards rather than discarding them. They use Benefect products for cleaning and list HEPA air scrubbing and anti-microbial treatments on their mold page.
Norman Bouchard still owns the company. His daughter Lisa Beck runs the office and his daughter Lara Clark handles marketing. Brian Simpson serves as general manager. They operate from two offices: corporate headquarters at 29 Carey Drive in Hampden and a southern Maine location at 24 Bridgton Road in Westbrook. They sponsor the Maine Mariners, Husson University, and the University of Maine.
Services
Service area
Bouchard operates from two offices: a corporate office in Hampden (near Bangor) and a southern Maine office in Westbrook (near Portland). They claim to service all 16 counties in Maine, including coastal islands, from Presque Isle to Kittery. They list nine specific locations on their website: Bangor, Waterville, Portland, Lewiston, Hampden, Augusta, Belfast, Westbrook, and Presque Isle. The statewide coverage claim is broad for a two-office operation, so confirm response times for remote locations.
Review consensus
Lara Clark gets named in four separate positive reviews for being responsive, knowledgeable, and easy to work with. Multiple reviewers highlight same-day or next-day response for emergencies, particularly water damage situations. Repeat customers are a pattern: Melissa MacCrae returned for a second sewer backup and said she would not trust another firm. Carole Bailey, Rosie Harmon, and Sean Kelly all describe fast water extraction with reasonable pricing. Christine Gettig noted same-day service for a sewer backup with a clear cost estimate. The cleaning crew that worked Ellen Bagley's job drew specific praise for Don and Kean, with Josh and Sonia also named as helpful. Sarah Ruth Jacobs directly compared Bouchard favorably against Servpro for leak response.
3 found across 75 total reviews at 4.5★. Johanna Wheeler (175 reviews, Local Guide) hired Bouchard through her insurance adjuster for water damage and described a communication failure at every stage. Crews left her home without telling her, provided only one- or two-word answers to questions, and project manager Josh never followed up as promised. Two weeks after work ended, Bouchard still had not submitted the mitigation report to her insurance company, and her adjuster could not reach them either. Workers also left cigarette butts in her driveway and two bags of debris in her entryway. Amber (45 reviews, Local Guide) hired four cleaners for a whole-house cleaning of an empty home and returned to find floors untouched, spider webs on walls, and bathrooms uncleaned. Jason Meisner (2 reviews) described an estimator who sent a crew with wrong-size insulation, resulting in visibly poor installation. The job took two extra days beyond the estimate, and the estimator later called demanding additional money for a claimed mistake, providing only a single-line invoice when asked for an itemized breakdown.
The negative reviews share a common thread: the office and sales side of the operation sets expectations that the field crews do not meet. Johanna's review describes a project manager who promised follow-up and then disappeared. Jason's describes an estimator who misjudged materials and then demanded more money. Amber's describes a cleaning job where four workers produced almost no results. The positive reviews, by contrast, consistently praise the front office (especially Lara Clark) and emergency response speed. This gap between office promises and field execution is worth watching for. The 0% owner response rate on recent negatives means there is no public evidence of the company addressing these complaints.
Lara Clark (marketing director — praised repeatedly for responsiveness and knowledge). Josh (project manager — praised in older reviews for fire restoration work, but named in Johanna Wheeler's 1-star review for failing to follow up on a water damage job). Don (technician — praised for doing an amazing job on a difficult cleanup). Kean (technician — praised alongside Don). Sonia (staff — praised for being helpful). Brian (general manager — praised for fitting an emergency into a busy schedule).
If you hire Bouchard, get your scope of work and timeline in writing before they start. Ask who your project manager will be and how often they will update you. The company clearly responds fast to emergencies and has the equipment and network to handle large jobs, but recent reviews show that follow-through after the initial response can fall apart. Pin down the communication plan upfront.
Keep in mind
- Bouchard does both mold assessment and mold removal. That means the same company telling you how much mold you have is the one billing you to remove it. Consider getting an independent assessment from a separate testing firm before committing to their remediation scope.
- Communication breakdowns are a theme in recent negative reviews. One reviewer described a project manager who stopped returning calls entirely and never delivered the required mitigation report, holding up her insurance claim for weeks. Another reviewer found the crew left without notice despite the homeowner being present.
- The owner has not responded to any of the 3 recent negative reviews. There is no public evidence of the company engaging with complaints on Google.
- They claim to service all 16 counties in Maine, including coastal islands. For jobs far from their Hampden or Westbrook offices, confirm response times and whether your area requires travel charges.
- Bouchard is primarily a general restoration company. Mold is one of many services they offer, not their sole focus.