Where This Site Connects You With Drainage Contractors

Tacoma

The center of the coverage area and the hardest ground in it. The North End, Stadium District, Proctor, and Hilltop are till uplands full of pre-1930 houses with basements and clay-tile footing drains at the end of their lives; the South End and Eastside are post-war crawl space neighborhoods on the same hardpan; and the waterfront from Old Town through Ruston to Browns Point sits on marine bluffs that seep all winter. Every drainage job on this site gets done in Tacoma proper.

University Place

About five miles west of downtown, on the till ridge above Chambers Bay and the Narrows. Mid-century and newer houses, mostly on crawl spaces, and the same perched winter water as the Tacoma hills. Slope lots toward the water get curtain drains; flat ones get perimeter drains to a sump.

Lakewood

Roughly seven miles southwest. Much of Lakewood is on the outwash prairie, where the gravel drains fast and water trouble is usually roof water and grade rather than groundwater, but the lake-edge neighborhoods around American, Gravelly, and Steilacoom Lakes sit low and wet. Dry wells work in one half of the city and fail in the other, which is why the soil gets tested first.

Fife

Four miles east on the floor of the Puyallup valley. Flat, low, and close to the water table, with almost no basements and a lot of crawl spaces. Drains here end in a sump because there is no downhill, and a backup pump matters.

Puyallup

Between eight and ten miles southeast. The valley floor around downtown and the fairgrounds shares Fife's high water table; South Hill climbs onto till and behaves like the Tacoma uplands. Two soils in one city, and a contractor should know which side of the hill the house is on.

Sumner

About ten miles southeast, where the White River meets the Puyallup. The lowest, flattest part of the coverage area, with older housing on the valley floor and groundwater that has nowhere to go in a wet winter. Sump-based systems with backup power are the standard here.

Gig Harbor

Eight miles across the Narrows on the Kitsap Peninsula side. Bluff and slope lots above the harbor and the Sound, with the same sand-over-clay seepage as Tacoma's waterfront, and till ground inland. Curtain drains and footing drains do most of the work; a lot of the housing is newer, so failed original drains are less common than in the North End.

Federal Way

About thirteen miles north, just over the King County line. Till uplands with 1960s-through-1990s housing on crawl spaces and slabs, and steep ravine lots toward Dash Point and the Sound. Perched winter water and yard ponding are the usual complaints.

Parkland

Seven miles south, unincorporated Pierce County around Pacific Lutheran University, on the outwash prairie. Groundwater problems are rare; standing water here is almost always downspouts and grade, and it is usually one of the cheaper fixes in the county. Site development review, where it applies, goes through Pierce County rather than the City.

Spanaway

Eleven miles south, and the place the Spanaway soil series is named for: deep gravel outwash that drains faster than the rain falls. The low ground around Spanaway Lake is the exception. Dry wells and downspout tie-ins solve most of what comes up here.