It is more than an hour of driving each way for us, so we are candid about scheduling. Hansville calls get grouped with Kingston and the rest of North Kitsap, and we arrive with the truck stocked for the work. For a true emergency we come when we are needed; evening, weekend and after-hours emergency calls are answered.
Pricing is flat-rate and approved electronically before we start, the same as it is five minutes from our shop. Our work carries a satisfaction guarantee and extended warranty, and we document everything with photos, which second-home owners checking in from Seattle or out of state tell us they appreciate.
Hansville at a glance for plumbing
Water
Kitsap PUD serves most of Hansville through a system that is now linked with Kingston and Gamblewood. Some outlying properties toward Eglon and on the Hood Canal side are on private wells.
Sewer or septic
There is no public sewer in Hansville. The whole community, including Driftwood Key and the waterfront around Point No Point, is on septic, much of it older systems on small lots where effluent pumps and tight drainfields are the norm.
Homes
Hansville was a fishing resort and summer cabin community before it became a retirement destination. The housing is a mix of 1950s and 60s beach cabins that have been winterized, 1970s Driftwood Key homes on the canals, 1980s and 90s view homes on the bluffs, and a scattering of newer custom builds. Roughly a third of the homes are second homes that sit empty for stretches, which is its own plumbing risk.
Ground and weather
Hansville occupies the northern tip of the Kitsap Peninsula, with Puget Sound on one side and Hood Canal on the other. Point No Point is a low sandy spit with a very high water table; Driftwood Key's canal lots are at sea level; the bluff neighborhoods sit on glacial till and clay above the beaches. Salt air and brackish groundwater corrode buried steel fast. The most wind-exposed community in Kitsap. Storms off Admiralty Inlet and Hood Canal bring down trees and power lines, and outages here run longer than almost anywhere else in the county. The December 2022 freeze and January 2024 cold snap froze lines in cabins that had been shut up for the winter without being drained.
Everyone in Hansville is on septic
There is no public sewer anywhere in the community, and that includes Driftwood Key's canal lots and the houses along the spit at Point No Point. Many of those lots are small and close to the water table, so the septic system depends on an effluent pump lifting treated water to a raised drainfield or a sand filter. The pump, its float switches, the check valve and the alarm panel are the parts that fail, and they are the parts we fix.
When the alarm sounds, run as little water as possible and call. We replace effluent pumps with Liberty or equivalent units, reset the floats so the chamber cycles correctly, and test the alarm before we leave. If the tank is simply full, that is a pumper's job and we will tell you so instead of selling you a pump you do not need.
We also repair the line between the house and the tank, which in older cabins is sometimes cast iron or Orangeburg that has crushed under a driveway, and we install cleanouts so the next person does not have to dig.
Second homes, freezes and the shutoff you need
About a third of Hansville's houses are weekend or summer places, and the two recent hard freezes found the ones that were not winterized. A pipe splits while the house is empty, the leak runs until a neighbor notices water under the door, and by then the subfloor and cabinets are ruined. We repair the burst section, but we would rather help you prevent the next one.
The prevention is simple: a main shutoff valve you can reach and actually close, lines drained before a freeze, and a Flo by Moen smart shutoff that watches flow and closes the valve when it detects a leak pattern. We install all three, and we relocate shutoffs that are buried in a crawlspace to somewhere by the door.
Salt air and old cabin plumbing
The 1950s and 60s cabins around Point No Point and along Hood Canal Drive were plumbed in galvanized steel, and the salt air and brackish groundwater have been working on that steel for sixty years. Pressure fades, water runs rusty, and the buried service line from the PUD meter pits through. A PEX repipe inside the house and a new polyethylene service line outside solve both, and they are the most common larger projects we do in Hansville.
Drains in these cabins are often cast iron or a mix of cast iron and old ABS. The horizontal runs under the floor fail from the bottom. We camera them, replace what has rotted with Charlotte PVC, and add hangers so the new line holds its slope.
Water heaters without natural gas
Cascade Natural Gas does not reach Hansville, so water heaters here are electric or propane. We install Bradford White and A. O. Smith electric tanks, propane tanks, and Rinnai propane tankless units, and we are plain about which fits. A small cabin with two people does well with a quality electric tank. A full-time family home on propane with multiple baths can justify tankless. A heat pump water heater in a garage is worth considering for anyone watching the electric bill.
Every install gets an expansion tank, seismic strapping, a drain pan where the heater is over finished space, and for propane units, a check that the regulator and line are sized for the load, which is a step other installers skip.
Outages and pumps
Power goes out in Hansville more than most of Kitsap, and when it does the septic pump, the sump pump and the well stop together. A long outage with a family in the house can overfill a pump chamber. We install battery backup sump pumps and help homeowners plan generator circuits for the pumps that matter most.
Plumbing problems we see most in Hansville
Local patterns
- Septic effluent pumps and float switches on small lots near sea level
- Frozen and burst pipes in second homes left unheated through a cold snap
- Corroded galvanized and steel service lines in the salt air near the beaches
- Original cast iron and galvanized plumbing in winterized 1950s and 60s cabins
- Sump pumps and crawlspace groundwater on the low spit at Point No Point
- Well houses and pressure tanks on the Eglon and Hood Canal side
- Extended outages stopping septic pumps, wells and sump pumps at once
Neighborhoods and areas in Hansville we serve
We work throughout Hansville, including Point No Point, Driftwood Key, Shore Woods, Cliffside, Point No Point View Estates, Eglon, Twin Spits, Buck Lake area and Hood Canal Drive, and around Point No Point Lighthouse, the oldest on Puget Sound, Norwegian Point County Park, Buck Lake County Park, Foulweather Bluff Preserve, Hansville Greenway trails, Driftwood Key marina and canals. Population is around 3,000 to 3,500, with a share of weekend and summer homes that fill up in July; ZIP codes include 98340.
Hansville plumbing questions
Will you come to Hansville for a small job?
Yes. We group Hansville with Kingston and other North Kitsap stops, so a small job gets scheduled on a day we are already north. For emergencies we come when needed. There is no distance surcharge.
Is any part of Hansville on sewer?
No. Every home in Hansville, Driftwood Key and Eglon is on septic. That is why effluent pumps and alarms are such a common call up here.
Who supplies water in Hansville?
Kitsap PUD serves most of the community through its North Kitsap system, now linked with Kingston and Gamblewood. Some properties toward Eglon and on the Hood Canal side are on private wells, which we also service.
How do we winterize a cabin we only use in summer?
Shut the main, open the lowest faucet and a high one, drain the water heater or leave it on low, and pour antifreeze in traps. If you would rather not do it yourself, we can winterize and de-winterize the house on a schedule.
A pipe burst while we were away and the floor is soaked. What do you handle?
We repair the plumbing and document what failed with photos and a clear invoice for your insurance. For drying and restoration we refer you to a water damage company; we do not do that part ourselves.
Our Driftwood Key septic pump runs constantly. Is that normal?
No. A pump that will not shut off usually has a stuck float, a failed check valve letting effluent run back, or groundwater leaking into the chamber. We check all three and fix the real cause.
Can you install a propane tankless water heater in Hansville?
Yes. We install Rinnai propane units, size the gas line and regulator for the load, and set up proper venting. For a well-served house we add a sediment filter ahead of the unit and recommend yearly descaling.
