Why Is My Crawlspace Wet Every Winter? (Lofall, WA)

What usually causes wet crawlspace in Lofall

Start with a leaking water service line. If the crawlspace is wet with no rain, or wet in August, or wet on the side facing the meter, do the meter test. Around Highway 3 and Kitsap Memorial State Park the housing dates from 1970s-to-2000s acreage homes and small farms, which makes this the likeliest answer to wet crawlspace.

Then downspouts dumping at the foundation. A 2,000-square-foot roof sheds over a thousand gallons in an inch of rain. We've seen it near Kitsap Memorial State Park more than once, usually on HDPE replacements pulled in one piece.

And grading that slopes toward the house: decades of landscaping and settled backfill often reverse the slope in the first few feet around the foundation. Less common on parcels along Highway 3, but we've found it near Lofall Road.

First steps on a Lofall property

French drains with real outlets, regraded swales and footing drain replacements make up most of the drain work.

First steps for wet crawlspace near Pioneer Way: find the footing drain outlet and see whether it's flowing. Note which side of the crawlspace the water enters from. Walk the house in a hard rain and watch every downspout. Then call; the rest is a locate through hardpan a foot down on the uplands, not guesswork.

How we fix it

When it's the buried line, the fix in Lofall is footing drain repair: we backfill with rock, excavate the foundation through beach deposits below the bluff at the marked spot on acreage along Lofall Road, and remove and replace. Filter fabric and clean and the mini excavator ride on the first trip so it's finished the same visit.

Lofall Road, Pioneer Way, Port Gamble: near any of them, wet crawlspace gets the same crew and the same equipment. About half an hour north of Poulsbo, day or night, with the mini excavator on the trailer for waterfront on Hood Canal.