Silverdale, WA

Silverdale is where we're based, and it is also the part of Kitsap County with the most predictable leak problem we see. The big build-out after the Kitsap Mall opened in 1985 filled the Ridgetop plateau, the Island Lake area and the slopes above Dyes Inlet with subdivisions, and a large share of those homes were plumbed with polybutylene or first-generation polyethylene service lines. Polybutylene in particular was pulled from the market in the mid 1990s because it degrades from the inside when exposed to chlorinated water. Forty years on, those lines are splitting, and Silverdale Water District customers are finding out one high bill at a time.

The ground here helps us and hurts us. The Clear Creek valley and the flats near Old Town are glacial outwash, which is easy digging and drains quickly, so a small leak can run for months without surfacing. Up on Ridgetop and Bucklin Hill the till is denser, which means a leak will eventually push water to the surface but the trench takes longer to open. Either way, we locate first with acoustic equipment and only dig where the leak actually is.

Because Silverdale is home, our trucks, our mini excavator and our pumps are minutes away. We handle the entire job ourselves: pinpoint the leak, open the ground, replace the failed section or the whole run in PEX or HDPE, bed the new pipe in clean gravel, backfill, compact and put your lawn or beds back. We don't hand the excavation to a subcontractor and we don't leave you waiting on a second company.

Whether the problem is a wet spot by the meter on a cul-de-sac off Silverdale Way or a dropped pressure reading at a commercial building near the mall, 360 Leak Finders answers 24/7 at (206) 354-9906.

Leak detection in Silverdale

Silverdale is polybutylene country. On the Ridgetop, Island Lake and Bucklin Hill subdivisions we expect gray poly, and it fails by splitting along the pipe rather than at a fitting, which gives a distinct acoustic signature. In the outwash near Old Town and Clear Creek the sound carries well but the water never surfaces, so the correlator is what finds it.

Water line repair and replacement in Silverdale

When we expose polybutylene in Silverdale we recommend replacing the whole run, because the material fails from the inside and a repair in one spot leaves the same pipe everywhere else. Most Ridgetop and Island Lake runs are short enough that a continuous PEX or HDPE replacement is a one-day job with the driveway and lawn put back the same afternoon.

Exterior drains in Silverdale

Silverdale's plateau subdivisions were graded fast in the 1980s and 90s, and a lot of the lots drain toward the house or a neighbor. Clear Creek's wetlands and the high winter water table near Dyes Inlet mean French drains need a real outlet; a dry well in that ground just fills. Footing drains on the plateau homes are frequently silted corrugated pipe.

Excavation in Silverdale

Silverdale digs two ways: fast in the outwash flats, where the walls want to slough and the pit takes on water, and slow on the hardpan plateaus, where the bucket earns its keep. Subdivision lots have tight side yards and buried irrigation everywhere, so locates matter.