When Utah's Governor's Mansion burned just before Christmas 1993, Dennis Jensen got a call.
Jensen's company, Utah Disaster KleenUp, helped decontaminate the burned mansion and also restored many of its contents.
Today, people visiting the pristine and beautiful mansion who do not know about the fire would never know it happened.
That's the whole point of Utah Disaster KleenUp — restoring, instead of merely replacing, property damaged in a disaster. That idea has grown into a company that today provides restoration and disaster services to residential and business clients, from decontamination and restoration to electronic recovery.
Working out of a 32,000-square-foot facility in Draper, UDK offers 24-hour, 365-day response. When a disaster like flooding occurs, UDK teams remove damaged items — from furniture and electronics to carpet and clothing — and then clean, restore and reinstall everything with, the company hopes, "as little interruption as possible." The company gives owners access to their belongings any time of the day.
Jensen, who serves as UDK's president, also was instrumental in the creation of Disaster KleenUp International, a network of independent restoration contractors throughout North America.
The whole enterprise began when Jensen and his wife bought a dilapidated five-unit apartment building in Salt Lake's Avenues. While living in one apartment, the couple spent two years restoring the building — including one nine-month stretch in which they had no kitchen and washed dishes in the tub — then sold it for a substantial profit.
That blood-sweat-and-tears profit provided seed money for the company that became Utah Disaster KleenUp.