We come over from Port Orchard by way of Highway 16 and Artondale, about 35 minutes door to door, and we carry what the island needs: Liberty effluent pumps and floats, pressure tanks, booster pumps, frost-free hose bibs, and the descaling pump for tankless heaters. Flat-rate quotes, approved on your phone, before any work starts.
A lot of our Fox Island calls come from owners who are not on the island when the problem starts. We do inspections and repairs for out-of-state and second-home owners and send photos and a plain write-up when we are done.
Fox Island at a glance for plumbing
Water
Fox Island Mutual Water Association, a member-owned groundwater system, serves most of the island, and a separate South Fox Island water system covers part of the south end. A number of outlying properties are on their own wells. Groundwater on a small island is a finite thing, and summer conservation is a real topic here.
Sewer or septic
Septic, with very few exceptions. There is no public sewer on Fox Island. The Panoramic View development uses a large community on-site system; everyone else has a tank and a drainfield, and many waterfront lots have pump chambers lifting effluent uphill to a field.
Homes
The island went from a few hundred people in the 1950s to a wealthy Tacoma exurb, so the homes range from 1950s and 60s beach cabins on the Hale Passage side to large custom builds from the 1990s through today. The older cabins carry galvanized and early copper; the newer houses have PEX, tankless heaters, and water-feature plumbing that was never maintained by absentee owners.
Ground and weather
A gently domed island of glacial drift with bluffs along much of the shoreline and a few low beaches. Soils drain poorly in places, which limits drainfield options, and the water table under the low shoreline lots is close to the surface in winter. The island takes wind straight across Carr Inlet and Hale Passage. The December 2022 and January 2024 freezes split pipes in exposed crawlspaces and pump houses on the windward shores, and power outages during winter storms shut down pressure pumps, effluent pumps and tankless heaters all at once.
Septic pump chambers on waterfront lots
Most Fox Island homes drain to a septic tank, and on the bluff and beach lots the drainfield is often uphill from the house. That means a pump chamber with an effluent pump, two or three floats and an alarm panel sitting between your tank and your field. When the pump quits, the alarm sounds and you have hours, not days, before the tank backs up into the lowest shower.
We replace effluent pumps, floats, check valves and the piping in the chamber, and we test the alarm so you actually hear it next time. We do not pump tanks, and if the chamber is full of solids because the tank is overdue we will tell you to get a pumper out first. Reviews mention that we have shown up on holidays and weekends for alarm calls, and the island is no exception.
Community water, private wells and the pressure problem
Fox Island Mutual Water serves most of the island from groundwater wells, and the South Fox Island system covers part of the south end. Pressure on a community system depends on your elevation and your distance from the tank. Homes on the high middle of the island and at the end of long lines get the weakest showers, and summer irrigation drops it further. A DAB booster pump with a small tank fixes that at the house without any argument with the water association.
Properties on private wells deal with the classic well list: a waterlogged pressure tank that makes the pump short-cycle, a pressure switch with burned contacts, a check valve that lets the system bleed down overnight. We replace Well-X-Trol and Amtrol tanks, switches and controls, and install whole-house filtration for the iron and sediment that island wells often carry. For drinking water we add an A. O. Smith reverse osmosis unit under the kitchen sink.
Island groundwater has enough minerals that tankless heaters need descaling on a schedule. If your Rinnai runs lukewarm or throws a flow error, the heat exchanger is scaled. We descale it, add isolation valves if the installer skipped them, and talk about a filter ahead of it.
Wind, freezes and the second-home problem
Fox Island shoreline homes face open water, and a northeast wind in a cold snap pulls the heat out of a crawlspace in a night. In December 2022 and again in January 2024 we repaired split copper under beach cabins, cracked PEX fittings in pump houses, and a frozen water line that fed a house whose owners were in Arizona. The repairs are routine; the water damage from a split pipe running for a week is not.
For second homes we install Flo by Moen automatic shutoffs that sense a leak and close the main, and we winterize properly: main off, lines drained, heater set to vacation, hose bibs isolated. For year-round homes we insulate crawlspace lines, replace standard hose bibs with frost-free ones, and make sure the main shutoff is a ball valve you can actually turn.
Long service lines and hidden leaks
Island lots are big, and the water line from the meter at the road to the house can be a few hundred feet of old polyethylene or galvanized buried under a lawn or a gravel drive. A soft spot in the yard, a water bill that climbed with nothing changed, or a meter that creeps with every fixture off all point to a leak in that line. We locate it, and we replace the whole run in new pipe when the material is past saving, which is usually the better choice than chasing one pinhole at a time.
Inside the house, the 1950s and 60s cabins on the Hale Passage side are overdue for a repipe. Galvanized supply lines close up and rust, and early copper in acidic groundwater pinholes. We repipe in PEX from the crawlspace and leave the walls alone wherever we can.
Plumbing problems we see most in Fox Island
Local patterns
- Effluent pumps and float switches failing in septic pump chambers on waterfront lots
- Low pressure at the far end of community water lines and on the island's high ground
- Pump-house and crawlspace freezes on homes facing the water
- Scale on tankless heaters and fixtures from mineral-rich island groundwater
- Long private service lines from the road to the house developing leaks under lawns
- Second homes left unwinterized through a cold snap
- Whole-house filtration needs for iron and sediment on private wells
Neighborhoods and areas in Fox Island we serve
We work throughout Fox Island, including Fox Island Bridge end and Hale Passage, Island Boulevard corridor, Nearns Point, Gibson Point and the south shore, Ozette and the Bella Bella area, Tanglewood Island shoreline and Fox Island Mutual Water area (north and central island), and around Fox Island Bridge, Fox Island Historical Museum, Fox Island Fishing Pier, Tanglewood Island, Hale Passage and Carr Inlet shoreline. Population is just under 4,000 year-round residents; ZIP codes include 98333.
Fox Island plumbing questions
Is Fox Island too far for you to come out for a small job?
No. It is about 35 minutes from Port Orchard and we are in the Gig Harbor area most days. A dripping faucet or a running toilet is a normal call for us on the island.
My septic alarm is going off. Is that something a plumber handles?
Yes, if it is the pump, floats, check valve or wiring in the pump chamber. We replace all of those. If the tank itself is full of solids, a septic pumper has to empty it first, and we will tell you that rather than sell you a pump you do not need.
Who supplies water on Fox Island?
Most of the island is on the Fox Island Mutual Water Association, a member-owned groundwater system. Part of the south end is on a separate small system, and some outlying homes have private wells.
Can you improve the water pressure at my house on the high part of the island?
Usually with a booster pump and a small pressure tank installed where the line enters the house. It gives steady pressure regardless of what the community line is doing.
We only use our Fox Island house in summer. Can you winterize it and check on it?
Yes. We winterize in the fall, install leak sensors or a smart shutoff for peace of mind, and do inspections for owners who are out of state, with photos and a written summary.
Does well water on Fox Island need treatment?
Many island wells carry iron, sediment or hardness. We test what is coming out of the tap and recommend filtration only where it will actually help, with reverse osmosis for drinking water where it makes sense.
