Water at the foundation in Olalla, WA

The likely causes here

A dead footing drain: silted corrugated pipe or a buried outlet. In Olalla that usually means 1970s and 80s polyethylene gone brittle near Burley, and the ground, peat in the Olalla Creek valley, decides how far the water travels before you see it.

The second thing we rule in or out is runoff and groundwater from uphill. On sloped lots, a curtain drain uphill of the house intercepts it before it reaches the backfill. It's common enough on small farms near Burley that we never skip it.

Finally, grading. The ground slopes toward the house in the first few feet. Worth five minutes before anyone digs outwash that drains and hides leaks.

What to check first

French drains and swales with gravity outlets, and footing drain replacements on the 1970s to 2000s homes, are the common work.

What you can check yourself on wooded acreage on Banner Road: watch the downspouts in a hard rain. Find the footing drain outlet and see if it flows. If you get that far, we'll pick it up from there with pop-up emitters, dry wells and downspout adapters and cleanouts.

The fix in Olalla

In Olalla the work that follows the diagnosis is downspout drain line repair, and it runs in order: replace, excavate, backfill and restore. Well lines with no drawings in hardpan on Banner Road sets the pace on pasture parcels off Olalla Valley Road; the sequence doesn't change.

Our Olalla coverage for water at the foundation runs the Olalla Bridge, Al's Grocery, Olalla Valley Road, Colvos Passage and everything between. We're based in Central Kitsap, about forty minutes down Highway 16, with pop-up emitters, dry wells and pumps on the truck.