We serve both. From Port Orchard it is about 40 minutes over the Narrows and up through the West End, and we fold Ruston into our North Tacoma route. Flat-rate pricing before the work starts, a four-hour window, and a text when the plumber is on the way.
Washington Plumbing & Drain is veteran-owned and family-run, with over 200 Google reviews at a five-star average.
Ruston at a glance for plumbing
Water
Tacoma Water serves Ruston, as it does the surrounding Tacoma neighborhoods, with soft Green River water backed by wells.
Sewer or septic
City sewer. Ruston's wastewater runs through the Tacoma system to the North End treatment plant on the waterfront nearby. Septic does not exist here.
Homes
A company town laid out in the 1890s for smelter workers, so the old grid is full of small 1900s to 1920s cottages and 1940s infill on narrow lots, many with basements dug into the slope. Point Ruston added hundreds of 2010s condominiums and apartments on the cleaned-up smelter site, with modern PEX, booster pumps and common-wall plumbing.
Ground and weather
A steep slope from the bluff top down to Commencement Bay, with the old smelter's slag and fill under the waterfront and a Superfund cleanup cap over the residential soil. Digging in Ruston yards comes with rules. The slope faces north over the bay and catches wind off the water. The December 2022 and January 2024 freezes split pipes in the old cottages' basements and crawlspaces, and heavy winter rain runs down the slope into aging drains and basement floor drains.
Company-town cottages and century-old pipe
The houses on the old Ruston grid are small, close together and built between about 1900 and 1925, with a layer of 1940s infill. Nearly all of them started with galvanized supply and cast iron drains, and a surprising number still have both. A shower that trickles, rusty water first thing in the morning and a main drain that needs cabling every year are the three symptoms that tell us what we are going to find.
A PEX repipe in a Ruston cottage is a short job because the houses are small, and we route through the basement or crawlspace to leave the plaster alone. Cast iron goes to PVC. Where the original builder ran the drain straight down the slope to the street without a cleanout, we add one, because a sewer that drops steeply is one you want easy access to.
Side sewers on a slope, under a cleanup cap
Ruston's side sewers run downhill fast through clay pipe with joints that have shifted over a century. Roots from the old street trees get in, and the steep grade lets solids outrun water and build up at the offsets. We clear roots with a sectional machine, camera the line, and replace the sections that have failed.
Digging in Ruston has a wrinkle the rest of Pierce County does not: the residential yards sit under a cleanup cap from the smelter-era Superfund work. Excavation has to respect that. We plan sewer and water line repairs here with the soil rules in mind and keep disturbance to the minimum the repair needs.
Basements on the north slope
Many Ruston cottages have basements cut into the hillside, and those basements collect everything the slope sends down: groundwater in a wet winter, cold air in a freeze. Floor drains back up when the side sewer is blocked, ejector pits for basement bathrooms fail, and water heaters tucked in a corner by the foundation freeze their supply lines in a cold snap.
We replace ejector pumps and floats, rebuild floor drains with new traps, install backwater valves where the main surcharges, and relocate or protect water heaters that have no business sitting against an uninsulated north wall. In December 2022 and January 2024 we repaired more than one split line in a Ruston basement that had never frozen before.
Point Ruston and modern multifamily plumbing
Point Ruston's condos and apartments are a different trade. PEX manifolds, electric and gas water heaters in closets, booster pumps for the upper floors and fixtures that get heavy use. The calls we get are water heater replacements in tight closets, leaking supply stops and shower valves, disposals, and the occasional leak that shows up in the unit below.
We work with unit owners, the HOA and property management, keep the job tidy in a shared building, and document what we did with photos. For owners who are not on site, we handle the whole thing by phone and text. A leak in a stacked building is urgent for the neighbor below as much as for you, so we treat those calls as emergencies.
Plumbing problems we see most in Ruston
Local patterns
- Cast iron and galvanized in 1900s to 1920s company-town cottages
- Clay side sewers running steeply downhill with offsets and roots
- Basement floor drains and ejector pumps backing up in heavy rain
- Soil disturbance rules under the Superfund cleanup affecting excavation
- Freeze damage in exposed basements on the north-facing slope
- Condo and apartment plumbing at Point Ruston: water heaters, valves, fixture leaks
Neighborhoods and areas in Ruston we serve
We work throughout Ruston, including Old Ruston company-town grid, Point Ruston waterfront, Winnifred Street corridor, Pearl Street and the Point Defiance edge, Commencement Bay bluff and Ruston Way border with Tacoma, and around Point Ruston, Point Defiance Park and the zoo, Ruston Way waterfront, Commencement Bay, Site of the former ASARCO smelter. Population is about 1,000 in a town of a third of a square mile; ZIP codes include 98407.
Ruston plumbing questions
Do you come out to Ruston for small jobs?
Yes. Ruston is on our North Tacoma route, about 40 minutes from Port Orchard. A running toilet or a dripping faucet is a normal call.
Are there restrictions on digging in Ruston yards?
Yes. Residential soil in Ruston is under a cleanup cap from the smelter Superfund work. We plan sewer and water line excavation with those rules in mind and keep digging to what the repair needs.
Who supplies water and sewer in Ruston?
Tacoma Water supplies the water, and wastewater runs through Tacoma's system. The side sewer from your house to the main is the homeowner's responsibility.
Can you repipe a small 1910 Ruston cottage without destroying the plaster?
Usually. We route PEX through the basement or crawlspace and open as little wall as possible. The houses are small enough that a repipe is often a one-day job.
My cottage's main drain needs cabling every winter. Is there a permanent fix?
Usually. A yearly backup on a steep Ruston side sewer means offset clay joints or roots, and a camera shows exactly where. Replacing that section with a cleanout at the top of the run ends the yearly call.
Do you service condos at Point Ruston?
Yes. Water heaters in closets, shower valves, supply stops, disposals and leak investigation, coordinated with the HOA or management when needed.
