Washington Plumbing & Drain is a veteran-owned, family-run shop out of Port Orchard with more than 200 Google reviews at a five-star average. Greg and his plumbers do the work. Corinne answers the phone, gives you a four-hour window, and the plumber texts when he leaves the previous job. The price is flat and approved on your phone before the first fitting comes off the truck.
No bridge toll is charged westbound, and we do not add a trip charge for coming over the hill. We treat Gig Harbor as home territory because, by drive time, it is.
Gig Harbor at a glance for plumbing
Water
A patchwork. The City of Gig Harbor runs its own well-fed water system for the downtown core and part of the urban growth area. Washington Water Service serves several areas on the peninsula, Peninsula Light Company provides water to thousands of members between Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula, and a good number of Artondale, Rosedale and Crescent Valley homes are still on private wells.
Sewer or septic
The city owns the sewer system and the treatment plant on the west side of the harbor, which serves the city limits plus a few developments like Canterwood. Most of the unincorporated peninsula, including large parts of the growth area, is still on septic. When we get a drain call we ask which one you have, because the answer changes the whole approach.
Homes
Three distinct eras. The old fishing-village core along the harbor has homes from the 1910s to the 1950s with original cast iron drains and galvanized supply lines. The 1970s and 80s ramblers around Artondale, Rosedale and Point Fosdick often carry copper that is reaching the end of its life and water heaters on their second replacement. Gig Harbor North and Harbor Hill are mostly built after 2000 with PEX, pressure regulators and tankless or power-vent heaters.
Ground and weather
Glacial till over most of the peninsula, with hardpan a few feet down that holds winter water and keeps crawlspaces damp. Steep bluffs drop to the harbor, Wollochet Bay and Hale Passage, and the waterfront lots have long, sloped service lines and drain runs that rely on pumps. Mild most of the year, but the arctic outbreaks in December 2022 and January 2024 froze hose bibs, crawlspace lines and uninsulated pump houses across the peninsula. Rainy season runs October through April and the atmospheric rivers push groundwater into crawlspaces and old sewer joints.
Three Gig Harbors, three kinds of plumbing
Walk Harborview Drive and you are looking at homes built when the Skansie boatyard was still launching purse seiners. Many of these houses still have cast iron drains under the floor and galvanized steel water lines in the walls. Galvanized closes up from the inside over decades, so a 1930s cottage with a weak shower is usually a pipe problem, not a fixture problem. We repipe those houses in PEX, often from the crawlspace, in a day or two.
The middle ring of the peninsula, Artondale, Rosedale, Point Fosdick and the Reid Road area, went up in the 1960s through the 80s. Copper supply lines from that era are starting to pinhole, especially where well water is slightly acidic. The water heaters out here are commonly on their second or third replacement and the expansion tanks, where they exist, are waterlogged. A lot of these homes are still on wells and septic, so the pump house and the pressure tank are part of the plumbing system we service.
Gig Harbor North, Harbor Hill and the newer parts of Canterwood are a different trade. The pipe is PEX, the drains are ABS, and the problems are regulators, tankless heaters that have never been descaled, and builder-grade fixtures wearing out in a hurry. These houses also tend to have very high incoming pressure off the city system, which is why their faucets and toilet fill valves fail young.
Water pressure on the city system and on wells
City of Gig Harbor water comes from deep wells and is pushed through reservoirs on the high ground, so homes lower on the hill can see pressure far above what fixtures are rated for. A pressure reducing valve is supposed to tame that, and when it fails you get banging pipes, dripping relief valves on the water heater, and running toilets. We test pressure at the hose bib on most calls, and replacing a PRV is a routine job for us.
Well homes have the opposite complaint. A waterlogged pressure tank or a tired pressure switch gives you pulsing pressure in the shower and a pump that cycles every few seconds. We service pumps, replace Well-X-Trol and Amtrol tanks, and install DAB booster systems for homes on long runs or on the uphill side of a shared well. If you are on a Peninsula Light or Washington Water Service system and the pressure is weak at the top of the hill, a booster pump is usually the fix rather than a complaint to the utility.
Sewer inside the city, septic outside it
If you are inside the city limits or in Canterwood, your drains run to the city sewer and the city's plant on the west side of the harbor. Your responsibility is the side sewer from the house to the main, and on the older streets near downtown that pipe is often clay or cast iron with root intrusion from the big firs and maples. We clear roots with a sectional machine, confirm with a camera, and excavate and replace the bad section with a new cleanout when it has reached that point.
Step outside the city and you are most likely on septic. We do not pump tanks, but we handle everything on the house side: the main drain, the effluent pump and float switches in a pump chamber, the alarm panel, and the line out to the tank. On the sloped waterfront lots along Wollochet Bay and Horsehead Bay, the drainfield is often uphill from the house, so a dead pump means sewage in the house. We keep Liberty pumps on the truck for exactly that call.
Buying a home in Gig Harbor? A sewer camera inspection before closing is one of the best few hundred dollars you can spend, whether the house is on sewer or septic. We have caught bellied lines, crushed pipe under driveways, and tanks nobody could find.
Freezes, atmospheric rivers and the Narrows wind
The December 2022 cold snap and the January 2024 freeze both hit Gig Harbor hard. Bluff homes above the Narrows and Hale Passage take the wind straight off the water, and crawlspace vents on that side let the cold in. We spent days repairing split copper, cracked PEX fittings and frozen pump houses. Insulating exposed lines, closing crawlspace vents in a cold snap, and swapping standard hose bibs for frost-free models prevents most of it.
The rainy season brings its own list. Glacial hardpan under most of the peninsula holds water near the surface from November on, and crawlspaces that are dry in August can be ponds in January. We install sump pumps with proper discharge lines, and we camera sewer lines that only back up after a big rain, because that pattern almost always means groundwater getting into a cracked pipe.
Plumbing problems we see most in Gig Harbor
Local patterns
- Pressure reducing valves failing on homes fed by the city system, with pressure well over code
- Crawlspace copper and PEX freezing on bluff homes exposed to wind off the Narrows
- Septic effluent pumps and alarms on waterfront lots where the drainfield sits uphill
- Roots from fir, cedar and maple in older clay and cast iron side sewers near downtown
- Tankless heaters scaled up on hard well water in Artondale and Rosedale
- Hose bibs split by the 2022 and 2024 freezes, found in spring when the hose goes back on
- Water heaters in Gig Harbor North tract homes reaching replacement age all at once
Neighborhoods and areas in Gig Harbor we serve
We work throughout Gig Harbor, including Downtown waterfront and Harborview Drive, Gig Harbor North and Harbor Hill, Canterwood, Artondale, Rosedale, Point Fosdick, Wollochet Bay, Kopachuck and Horsehead Bay, Crescent Valley and Olympic Village and Uptown, and around Skansie Brothers Park and the Netshed, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Kopachuck State Park, Uptown Gig Harbor, Harbor History Museum, Cushman Trail. Population is around 12,000 inside the city limits, with several times that on the surrounding peninsula; ZIP codes include 98332, 98335, 98329.
Gig Harbor plumbing questions
Do you charge extra to come to Gig Harbor from Port Orchard?
No. Gig Harbor is about 25 minutes down Highway 16 and we are here most days. Our flat-rate pricing is the same whether you are on Harborview Drive or out in Crescent Valley.
Is my Gig Harbor home on sewer or septic?
Inside the city limits, Canterwood and a few other developments are on city sewer. Most of the unincorporated peninsula is on septic. Your county parcel record or a septic as-built from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department will confirm it, and we can usually tell on site.
Why is the water pressure so high in my Gig Harbor North house?
The city system runs at high pressure to reach the upper zones, and homes lower on the hill rely on a pressure reducing valve to bring it down. When the PRV fails you get high pressure, noisy pipes and dripping relief valves. We test, replace the valve and add an expansion tank if the house needs one.
Can you service the well and pressure tank at my Artondale property?
Yes. We replace pressure tanks, pressure switches, check valves and well house plumbing, and we add booster pumps for homes on weak community systems. If the problem is in the well casing itself we will tell you and point you to a well driller.
Do you offer sewer scopes for home purchases in Gig Harbor?
We do, and we recommend one on any home more than 20 years old. You get the footage and a plain explanation of what we saw, and if the line is fine we say so.
