Burien was built in a hurry after World War II, and the plumbing from that boom is now 70-plus years old. The ramblers and cottages of Gregory Heights, Seahurst, Lake Burien, and Boulevard Park went in with galvanized steel supply lines that have been narrowing with rust for decades and cast-iron drains that crack and scale. The classic Burien symptoms — a shower that loses pressure when the washer runs, rusty water first thing in the morning, a pinhole leak that appears in a wall — all point to the same fix: a whole-home PEX repipe, which we do here constantly.
Underground, the 1950s left Burien another gift: Orangeburg sewer pipe. This tar-impregnated fiber pipe was the cheap option during the post-war material shortage, and it deforms, blisters, and collapses with age. If your Burien home still has its original sewer lateral, a camera inspection is the smartest few hundred dollars you can spend — it tells us whether you're looking at a spot repair, a liner, or a full trenchless replacement, and we quote it in writing before any digging.
The bluff neighborhoods change the equation. Homes along Seahurst, Three Tree Point, and Shorewood sit on slopes above Puget Sound with long service lines, steep drainage, and shifting soil that stresses joints. Pressure varies block to block, and pressure-reducing valves are a common fix. Water throughout Burien is soft — delivered by Highline Water District and Seattle Public Utilities — so fixtures last, but soft water does nothing to slow corrosion in old steel pipe.
Permits for water heaters, gas lines, repipes, and side sewer work run through the City of Burien Community Development department, and the sewer side goes through Southwest Suburban Sewer District. We manage both. Burien is about 12 to 15 minutes north of our Federal Way headquarters via SR-509 or I-5, which puts it among our fastest emergency response areas, with live dispatch 24/7. We also serve North Highline, White Center, and Normandy Park from the same crews.
Burien neighborhoods we serve
- Olde Burien
- Seahurst
- Gregory Heights
- Three Tree Point
- Lake Burien
- Boulevard Park
- Shorewood
- Sunnydale
- Five Corners
- Salmon Creek
- Manhattan
- North Highline
- White Center
- Normandy Park
ZIP codes: 98146, 98148, 98166, 98168