There is no public sewer here, and water comes from Manchester Water District in some areas and from private wells in others. Add the bluffs at Point Southworth, the wet ground at Harper and the older cottages along Colvos Passage, and you have the recurring plumbing we handle in this corner of Kitsap: effluent pumps, pressure tanks, cast iron drains, frozen crawlspace lines and water lines that moved with the hillside.
You get a flat price before work starts, approved on your phone, backed by a satisfaction guarantee and extended warranty. Evening, weekend and after-hours emergency calls are answered. More than two hundred Google reviews at a five-star average say the rest.
Southworth at a glance for plumbing
Water
A mix. Some of the Harper and Southworth area falls within Manchester Water District's boundary, while many homes along Sedgwick Road, Banner Road and the back roads are on private wells or small shared systems.
Sewer or septic
No public sewer serves Southworth or Harper. Everything from the ferry landing to the bluff homes on Point Southworth is on septic, with pumped systems common on the small waterfront lots.
Homes
A commuter community built around the ferry. Waterfront along Colvos Passage and Yukon Harbor has 1930s to 1960s cottages, many rebuilt or heavily added onto, plus newer view homes. Inland along Sedgwick and Banner the homes are 1970s to 2000s on acreage. Plumbing ranges from galvanized and cast iron in the cottages to copper and PEX in the newer construction.
Ground and weather
Point Southworth is a high glacial plateau ending in clay cliffs above the water, which is why the elevation listed for the CDP is several hundred feet even though the ferry landing is at sea level. Bluff lots are unstable in wet winters. Harper sits low around a tidal estuary with a high water table. Inland, the ground is rolling till with hardpan a few feet down. Open to the east across Colvos Passage, so winter storms land directly on the waterfront and the ferry landing. Rainy season runoff off the plateau saturates the bluffs and the low ground at Harper. The December 2022 freeze and the January 2024 cold snap found uninsulated crawlspaces under the older cottages and exposed lines in well houses along the back roads.
Septic on every lot, pumps on most of the waterfront
Southworth and Harper have never had public sewer. The homes along the water sit on lots that are narrow, close to the tide line and often below the road, so a gravity drainfield does not work. An effluent pump in a chamber lifts treated water to a mound or field uphill, and that pump, its floats and its check valve are the components that fail. We replace them with Liberty or comparable pumps, set the floats so the chamber cycles correctly, and test the alarm before leaving.
An alarm is not always the pump. A stuck float, a failed check valve letting effluent drain back, or groundwater seeping into the chamber during a wet month can trip it. We diagnose which before replacing anything. If the tank is full or the drainfield is saturated, that is a septic company's job and we will say so.
The line from the house to the tank is ours to repair as well. In the older cottages it is sometimes cast iron that has rotted through or Orangeburg crushed under a parked car. We camera it, replace what has failed, and add a cleanout at the house.
District water or a well, depending on your road
Parts of Harper and Southworth are inside Manchester Water District's boundary and get district water, which can carry manganese that stains fixtures and settles in the water heater. Other homes, especially along Sedgwick, Banner and the back roads, are on private wells with their own pumps and pressure tanks.
For district customers, a low-pressure problem is usually a failing pressure regulator, a clogged filter or old galvanized pipe in the house. For well owners we start at the pressure tank and switch, which cause most surging and short-cycling, and we pull and replace pumps when that is the true cause. Homes high on the plateau and far from the main sometimes need a DAB booster pump to get a decent shower upstairs.
Cottages on Colvos Passage
The waterfront houses between the ferry landing and Point Southworth began as 1930s to 1960s beach cottages. The plumbing under them is cast iron drain on damp soil and galvanized supply pipe, both corroding for decades in salt air. The symptoms are weak pressure, rusty morning water and a crawlspace that smells faintly of sewage. We repipe the supply in PEX, replace the cast iron with Charlotte PVC, and move the main shutoff somewhere a person can reach it when water is running across the floor.
Bluff lots add another problem. The clay cliffs at Point Southworth creep in wet winters, and buried water lines running down the slope pull apart at couplings. We replace those runs in flexible polyethylene or PEX with room to move, and we install Flo by Moen smart shutoffs for homes that sit empty while the owners are off-island or traveling.
Harper's wet ground
The low ground around the Harper estuary has a water table that rises to the surface in winter. Crawlspaces there flood without a working sump pump, and a flooded crawlspace rusts out pipe, soaks insulation and feeds mold. We install Liberty sump pumps with check valves, battery backup for the storm outages that are common on this side, and discharge lines that carry water away from the foundation rather than back into the crawlspace.
Water heaters and freezes
Natural gas reaches some of the Southworth area and not the rest, so water heaters are a mix of gas, electric and propane. We install Bradford White and A. O. Smith tanks and Rinnai tankless units and are honest about which one suits the house. Every install gets an expansion tank, strapping and a drain pan with a line to daylight where the heater sits over living space.
The December 2022 freeze and January 2024 cold snap split hose bibs and crawlspace lines under cottages all along this shore. We repair burst copper and PEX, replace hose bibs with frost-free models, insulate exposed runs, and show you where your shutoff is so the next freeze costs you a valve turn instead of a floor.
Plumbing problems we see most in Southworth
Local patterns
- Septic effluent pumps on narrow waterfront lots lifting to a drainfield uphill
- Well houses and pressure tanks on the Sedgwick and Banner Road acreage
- Cast iron drains and galvanized supply under the older Colvos Passage cottages
- Water lines crossing unstable bluff slopes that shift and leak
- Frozen pipes under cottages and in well houses during cold snaps
- Crawlspace groundwater and sump pump failures in the low ground at Harper
- Low water pressure in plateau homes far from the district main
Neighborhoods and areas in Southworth we serve
We work throughout Southworth, including Southworth ferry landing, Harper, Point Southworth, Sedgwick Road corridor, Harper Hill, Yukon Harbor side, Colvos Passage waterfront and Banner Road north end, and around Southworth to Vashon and Fauntleroy ferry terminal, Harper Estuary and the old Harper pier, Point Southworth and its clay cliffs, The Blake Island kayak launch beside the ferry, Southworth Grocery, Harper Park. Population is around 2,400 in the Southworth and Harper area; ZIP codes include 98386.
Southworth plumbing questions
How quickly can you get to Southworth from Port Orchard?
About 15 to 20 minutes out Sedgwick Road. Southworth and Harper calls often fit the same day, and the plumber texts when en route.
Is any of Southworth on public sewer?
No. Southworth, Harper and Point Southworth are all on septic. Many waterfront lots use effluent pumps to reach a drainfield uphill.
Who supplies water in Southworth?
Depends on the street. Parts of the Harper and Southworth area are inside Manchester Water District; many homes along Sedgwick, Banner and the back roads are on private wells. Your bill, or the lack of one, tells you which.
The septic alarm went off during a storm. Is it the pump?
Sometimes it is groundwater leaking into the chamber faster than the pump can keep up, and sometimes a float or the pump has failed. Run as little water as possible and call; we check the pump, floats and check valve and fix the actual cause.
Our cottage crawlspace smells like sewage. What is going on?
Likely a cast iron drain line that has rotted through underneath. We run a camera to confirm, replace the failed section or the whole run in PVC, and install a cleanout so it never has to be crawled again for cleaning.
Can you install a smart shutoff? We are gone for weeks at a time.
Yes. A Flo by Moen valve on the main line monitors flow and closes automatically when it sees a leak pattern, and it sends an alert to your phone. We install them regularly on this side of the county.
Do you offer a plumbing inspection before we buy a waterfront house here?
We do, including a camera scope of the drain line to the tank, a look at the pump chamber, the supply pipe material, the water heater and the shutoff. You get a written report with photos and video.
