Water at the foundation in Poulsbo, WA

The likely causes here

The most common cause we find in Poulsbo is downspouts. The buried line is crushed, clogged or was never there, and roof water dumps at the wall. On subdivision lots off Viking Avenue with hardpan on Finn Hill and Viking Way underneath, that's where we look first.

We also check a dead footing drain, because in Poulsbo it explains a real share of water at the foundation calls. Silted corrugated pipe or a buried outlet.

Finally, runoff and groundwater from uphill. On sloped lots, a curtain drain uphill of the house intercepts it before it reaches the backfill. Worth five minutes before anyone digs sand near Liberty Bay that sloughs.

What to check first

Poulsbo's hillside neighborhoods send a lot of runoff toward the bay, across the lower lots on the way.

Before we arrive in Poulsbo, three things you can do: check the slope against the wall on every side. Find the footing drain outlet and see if it flows. Note which wall gets wet and what's uphill of it. None of it requires tools, and all of it helps us replace faster on shared easement lines in the old core.

The fix in Poulsbo

Fixing water at the foundation here usually ends with downspout drain line repair near Highway 305: replace with downspout adapters and cleanouts, test and trace on compact lots near Front Street, excavate. One crew, one visit, bay-side outwash that drains instantly put back the way it was.

We've handled water at the foundation near Viking Avenue where the cause was galvanized under Front Street foundations, and near Big Valley Road where till with roots out Big Valley Road was hiding a drain failure. Under twenty minutes up Highway 3; we schedule Poulsbo so you aren't waiting a whole day.