Footing Drain Repair, Port Townsend WA

How we handle drains here

The water service line shares the trench along the foundation, and in Port Townsend it's often poly on the Cape George parcels. With mid-century grid lots on Sheridan Street open we'll say what it's made of and what shape it's in. Fixing both while sandy bluffs above the Strait is already moved saves a second dig.

If you're near Sheridan Street or Kah Tai Lagoon and you've noticed a wet historic basement, the odds are on century-old lines with unknown routes in clay seams in the uplands. That's a job for footing drain repair, not a guess with a shovel.

Exterior drain work in Washington is excavation and drainage, not plumbing, and footing drain repair is core Port Townsend work for us. It pairs with the water line, often century-old lines with unknown routes, that shares the trench along a foundation on waterfront near Point Hudson.

A wet crawlspace in Port Townsend usually traces to a footing drain that silted shut decades ago. Homes from an 1880s Victorian seaport ringed by mid-century neighborhoods have corrugated pipe at the footing laid in sandy bluffs above the Strait without fabric. We excavate the affected walls on mid-century grid lots on Sheridan Street, lay perforated pipe in fabric on rock, rebuild the outlet, and backfill with rock.

Why Port Townsend drains fail

Downspout lines on the historic homes often end at the foundation. Water comes from the Big Quilcene and Little Quilcene rivers through the City's Olympic Gravity Water System pipeline, and the City's meters are in boxes at the sidewalk or street edge.

Pressure that has faded for decades on small Victorian lots in Uptown is usually water with nowhere to go in clay seams in the uplands. Footing drain repair gives it somewhere: we diagnose, we remove and replace, and we excavate the foundation with an outlet that actually discharges.

How the work goes

Three steps carry most of the weight on waterfront near Point Hudson: diagnose, remove and replace, excavate the foundation. Near Kah Tai Lagoon that has meant working perforated PVC or HDPE around outwash sand under the historic districts and 1920s galvanized under Uptown gardens; the sequence doesn't change, the hours do.

What makes footing drain repair in Port Townsend quick or slow: outwash sand under the historic districts, acreage toward Cape George, copper on the Hastings Avenue grid. What doesn't change: sump basins where needed, perforated PVC or HDPE, pumps and the mini excavator on the first trip to Uptown.

Small Victorian lots in Uptown near Sheridan Street, century-old lines with unknown routes below, clay seams in the uplands around it: that's the Port Townsend version of footing drain repair, and a wet historic basement is the usual first clue.

Around Port Townsend

Kah Tai Lagoon, Fort Worden, Uptown, Water Street: near any of them, footing drain repair is within our everyday range. A dedicated trip across the Hood Canal Bridge, with the mini excavator on the trailer for acreage toward Cape George.