Washington Plumbing & Drain makes the drive up Highway 3 from Port Orchard every week for exactly that work. We also handle the older homes in Old Town along Dyes Inlet, the septic-served properties out Newberry Hill and Chico way, and the restaurants and retail buildings around the mall that need their grease lines and storm drains jetted.
Flat-rate pricing is quoted before the job starts and approved on your phone. Our work carries a satisfaction guarantee and extended warranty, and more than two hundred Google reviews at a five-star average explain better than we can how a visit usually goes.
Silverdale at a glance for plumbing
Water
Silverdale Water District serves most of the area from its own wells, and it has been expanding its boundaries, including taking over a small pocket of former Bremerton service. Homes out toward Newberry Hill, Chico and the Seabeck Highway are sometimes on Kitsap PUD community systems or private wells.
Sewer or septic
The Silverdale urban core, Ridgetop and most of the subdivisions built since the 1980s are on Kitsap County sewer, with flows going to the Central Kitsap Treatment Plant near Brownsville. The county plant also takes Bangor and Keyport. Septic systems remain common on the larger lots west of Highway 3 and along the Chico and Newberry Hill roads.
Homes
Silverdale grew with the Trident base. A small Old Town core of early 1900s and mid-century houses by the water gives way to wave after wave of tract subdivisions from the late 1970s through the 2000s on Ridgetop, Island Lake and the hills above Clear Creek, plus a lot of apartment and townhouse construction near the mall since 2010. That means copper and early PEX supply lines, ABS drains, polybutylene in some late-80s builds, and a generation of original water heaters reaching the end at the same time.
Ground and weather
Silverdale sits at the head of Dyes Inlet in a flat valley where Clear Creek and Strawberry Creek drain. The valley floor has a high water table and some fill; the subdivisions climb glacial till ridges on either side. Old Town is close enough to sea level that storm surges and king tides push into the lowest drains. Mild and wet like the rest of Kitsap, with the Clear Creek valley flooding in the biggest atmospheric rivers. The December 2022 freeze and the January 2024 cold snap both produced a run of split hose bibs and frozen garage water heater lines in Ridgetop homes where the pipe runs through unheated space. Snow on the ridges tends to linger longer than in Bremerton.
The subdivision water heater wave
A tank water heater lasts somewhere between ten and fifteen years on Silverdale Water District water. Homes built in the 1990s have mostly been through one replacement already and are due for a second; homes from the 2000s are hitting their first. The signs are a rumbling tank, rusty hot water, a relief valve that drips, or water in the garage drain pan.
We install Bradford White and A. O. Smith tanks and Rinnai tankless units, and we size them to the household rather than copying what was there. A two-story Ridgetop home with teenagers and two showers running at once is a good tankless candidate. A smaller home with one bathroom is not, and we will say so. Every replacement gets a new expansion tank, proper seismic strapping, and a drain pan with a line to daylight where the heater sits over living space.
Cascade Natural Gas serves a good share of Silverdale, so gas tanks and tankless are common. For all-electric homes we talk through a standard electric tank versus a heat pump water heater, which pulls heat from garage air and can cut the electric bill noticeably.
Pressure regulators and the hillside effect
Silverdale Water District delivers strong pressure, and on the lower slopes of Ridgetop and Bucklin Hill it arrives at the house high enough that a pressure reducing valve is required. Those valves wear out. When one fails open, the symptoms are banging pipes, a dripping water heater relief valve, running toilets and a shortened life for every appliance with a water line. We test static pressure at a hose bib, replace the PRV, and often find the expansion tank is waterlogged at the same time.
Homes at the top of the ridges have the opposite complaint. Pressure is fine at the kitchen but weak in the upstairs shower. Sometimes that is a clogged cartridge or a partially closed valve; sometimes the house really needs a DAB booster pump. We check the cheap causes first.
Polybutylene and early PEX
A slice of Silverdale homes built from the mid-1980s into the mid-1990s were plumbed with gray polybutylene pipe. It is usually fine until it is not, and the failures tend to be at the fittings, inside a wall, with no warning. If your house is from that era and you see gray pipe at the water heater or under the sinks, a repipe is worth pricing before a leak makes the decision for you.
Early PEX from the late 1990s is holding up better, but the original crimp rings and plastic fittings on some systems are now leaking at the manifold. We repair those or, when the house is being remodeled anyway, run a fresh PEX manifold system with a dedicated line to each fixture.
Old Town, Dyes Inlet and the valley floor
Down by the water, Silverdale is a different place. The homes along Byron Street and the blocks behind Waterfront Park include early-1900s and mid-century houses with cast iron drains, galvanized supply, and crawlspaces that sit close to the water table. Drains here run nearly flat to the sewer main, which means they hold sludge and need cleaning on a schedule. A king tide paired with a heavy rain can push water up the lowest floor drains.
The Clear Creek valley floor has similar groundwater issues inland. Crawlspace sump pumps, vapor barriers and properly routed discharge lines keep these houses dry. We install Liberty pumps with battery backup for homes that lose power during winter wind storms.
Commercial lines around the mall
Silverdale has the biggest concentration of restaurants and retail in the county, and the drains behind them collect grease, food solids and parking lot debris. We hydro jet grease lines, floor sinks and storm drains with our own jetting truck, and we camera the line afterward so a manager can see the pipe wall. Fall catch basin cleaning before the rains is the single most useful thing a property manager here can schedule.
Plumbing problems we see most in Silverdale
Local patterns
- Original water heaters from the 1990s and 2000s subdivision boom failing in batches
- Polybutylene supply pipe in some late-1980s Ridgetop and Island Lake homes
- Pressure reducing valves failing on the hillside subdivisions where district pressure runs high
- Frozen pipes in garages and bonus rooms over garages after the recent cold snaps
- Slow kitchen lines in two-story homes with long horizontal drain runs
- Septic pump chambers and alarms on the Chico and Newberry Hill side
- Commercial storm drains and grease lines around the mall and restaurant corridor
Neighborhoods and areas in Silverdale we serve
We work throughout Silverdale, including Old Town Silverdale on Dyes Inlet, Ridgetop, Island Lake, Clear Creek valley, Newberry Hill, Chico, Silverdale Way and the Kitsap Mall district, Bucklin Hill and Olympic View, and around Kitsap Mall, Waterfront Park and the Port of Silverdale dock, Clear Creek Trail, Island Lake County Park, Naval Base Kitsap Bangor to the north, Dyes Inlet. Population is a little over 20,000, still unincorporated after several failed votes to become a city; ZIP codes include 98383, 98315.
Silverdale plumbing questions
How far is Silverdale from your shop in Port Orchard?
About 25 to 30 minutes up Highway 3 outside of the afternoon shipyard rush. We schedule Silverdale calls in four-hour windows and text when the truck is on its way.
My Ridgetop house was built in 1989. Should I be worried about the pipes?
Check the pipe at the water heater and under a sink. If it is gray plastic with copper or plastic crimp fittings, that is polybutylene, and a repipe is worth planning. If it is copper or white or red PEX, you are in good shape and we would focus on the water heater and pressure regulator instead.
Is Silverdale on sewer or septic?
Most of the urban area and the subdivisions are on Kitsap County sewer, treated at the Central Kitsap plant. Larger lots west of Highway 3 and out Newberry Hill and Chico are often on septic. If you pay a county sewer charge on your tax statement or utility bill, you are on sewer.
Do you descale Rinnai tankless units in Silverdale?
Yes. We flush the heat exchanger with a pump and descaling solution, clean the inlet screen, and check the condensate drain and venting. The district's water is moderately hard, so a flush every year or two keeps the unit efficient and quiet.
The garage water heater froze during the January 2024 cold snap. How do I keep it from happening again?
Insulate the exposed supply and hot lines in the garage, keep the garage door closed in a freeze, and if the lines run through an exterior wall or an unheated bonus-room floor, let us add heat tape or reroute them. A split pipe in an upstairs bonus room floods the garage and everything in it.
Can you fix a leak another plumber already tried to repair?
That is a regular call for us, and the reviews mention it. We find the actual leak with pressure testing and, where needed, by opening the smallest section of wall or ceiling possible, then repair it properly and document it for your insurance if there was damage.
Do you do bathroom remodel plumbing in Silverdale tract homes?
We do a lot of tub-to-shower conversions and walk-in tile showers with grab bars for people planning to stay in their homes. We handle the valve, drain and supply work and coordinate with your tile and drywall contractors.
