Indian Creek is the neighborhood in east Olympia around the creek that names it, between the Eastside and the Lacey line, north of Interstate 5 and south of Martin Way. The creek rises near the freeway, runs north through the neighborhood in a wooded ravine, and reaches East Bay through a culvert under the streets. The houses along it went up in two waves: 1940s and 1950s cottages and ranch houses on the blocks nearest the Eastside, and 1960s and 1970s ramblers and split-levels on the larger lots along the ravine and toward Lilly Road. The Woodruff Park and the trail along the creek are the neighborhood's front yard.
Living beside a creek in a fifty-inch-rain town has a cost. The ravine is glacial till over clay, the low lots along the creek take groundwater at the crawl space wall every wet season, and in a November atmospheric river the creek comes up over its culverts and spreads across the yards nearest it. The ramblers were built with vents at grade and a garage water heater against a bedroom wall, and the hose bibs on north walls froze in the arctic weeks of December 2021 and December 2022 as they did across the city.
This site connects Indian Creek homeowners with an independent local water damage provider by phone. The provider goes under the house before deciding anything.
A crawl space along the creek with standing water after a week of rain is a crawl space water extraction, and the discharge hose runs to the street, not to the ravine. Creek water that came over the bank and under the door in a big storm is a storm and river flood cleanup, and anything porous it touched comes out. A garage tank that let go is a water heater leak cleanup.
The creek and the streams like it that drain Olympia and Lacey to the bay are the work of Stream Team, the volunteer program the cities and the county run together to plant, monitor, and clean the urban creeks. A homeowner pumping a crawl space near the ravine should keep the discharge out of the creek for the same reason. Rebuild permits go through the city's Permit Center; the drying needs none.
Call (360) 364-8868 and say whether the water came from the creek, the ground, or a pipe. We put you through to an independent local water damage provider serving Indian Creek.
Standing water pulled off fir floors, tile, and concrete on any level of an Olympia house, then the first moisture readings on the walls it reached.
Air movers and dehumidifiers run against daily readings until joists, subfloor, and plaster reach a dry target in a damp Puget Sound winter.
Water pumped out from under a craftsman or rambler after a wet-season storm, then the joists, insulation, and vapor barrier checked and dried.
Cleanup after an old galvanized line or a frozen hose bib split, with the wall, floor, and crawl space below it metered and dried.
Mud, debris, and outside water removed after the Deschutes, the Chehalis, or a king tide came into the house, with soaked materials cut out and the rest dried.
The source of a stain, a damp floor, or a high water bill traced with meters and thermal imaging before anyone cuts into plaster or lath.
A tank that let go in a garage, a utility closet, or a crawl space, with the floor and the walls around it dried before the new tank goes in.
Wet attic insulation, ceilings, and walls dried after a windstorm lifted shingles or moss-clogged gutters sent water behind the fascia.