These are the questions homeowners in Olympia and the Thurston County towns ask most when they call about water under or inside the house. Each answer starts with the answer.
Treat it as one if it touches the joists, the insulation, or the ductwork. A skim of water on the dirt after a week of rain is common in an Olympia crawl space, but water at the insulation means the subfloor is wet from below. Crawl space water extraction pumps it out and meters what it reached.
Almost always from below. Fir floors in a 1920s house go soft when the subfloor under them stays wet, and in Olympia that usually means a wet crawl space or a slow galvanized leak under the floor. Leak detection finds the source before anyone pulls up flooring.
Often, yes. Galvanized steel supply lines rust from the inside, and after eighty or ninety years they pinhole, clog, and split at the threads, usually in the coldest week of winter. A plumber replaces the line; burst pipe cleanup dries the floor, the wall, and the crawl space it soaked.
It is not. River water carries mud, fuel, farm runoff, and whatever the storm drains held, so carpet, pad, insulation, and drywall it touched come out instead of drying in place. Storm and river flood cleanup is a different job from a clean-water leak, and the provider arrives ready for it if you say so.
Call the city for the street drain and call us for the inside. Downtown Olympia sits on fill only a few feet above Budd Inlet, and a king tide plus a storm pushes salt water up through the drains onto Capitol Way and the blocks near Percival Landing. The water inside is treated as contaminated, the same as river flooding.
Probably not below the surface. Joists, subfloor, and the sill plate hold water for weeks in a crawl space that never sees sun and sits at forty degrees. Structural drying runs dehumidifiers and air movers against daily readings until the wood comes back to the same numbers as a dry joist elsewhere.
That depends on how the water got in, and this site cannot read your policy. A split pipe or a failed water heater is often treated as sudden damage. Groundwater seeping in from below, surface water from the yard, and river or tidal flooding are usually excluded without a separate flood policy. Have the provider hand you photos, meter readings, and a written scope to pass to your adjuster.
Close the main and leave it closed until a plumber finds the split, because a second frozen section can open as the wall thaws. The arctic air of late December 2021 and December 2022 did this to garages from Lacey to Yelm. The cleanup provider dries the wall and the slab while the plumber replaces the line.
Farther than the puddle. Forty gallons spreads under the garage wall into the adjoining bedroom or laundry room, and in a rambler on a crawl space it runs down through the framing to the dirt below. Water heater leak cleanup meters the walls on both sides and checks under the house.
Both, and they can happen the same day. A roofer or a tarp stops the water; the cleanup provider dries the attic insulation, the ceiling, and the wall the water ran down. Roof leak water damage work often finds wet insulation well beyond the stain.
Not for the pumping and drying. Replacing subfloor, moving plumbing, rewiring under the house, or opening a load-bearing wall usually needs a permit from the city's Permit Center, and Lacey, Tumwater, Yelm, and the county each run their own desks. Whoever does the rebuild, the provider or a separate contractor, pulls the permit.
This site does not quote prices, and a provider cannot name a figure until they have taken readings in the house. How much water came in, how long it sat, and whether it was clean or from the river all set the scope. Ask for the scope on paper before any floorboard or plaster comes off.
Providers represent their own registration and insurance. Washington contractors register with the Department of Labor and Industries, and the About page has the lookup link. While you are at it, ask the provider for a certificate of insurance.
Call (360) 364-8868. Say whether the water is in a room or under the house, whether it came from a pipe, the roof, the ground, or the street, and whether it has stopped.