11015 Airport Road Everett, WA 98204
11015 Airport Road Everett, WA 98204
Most cities want a permit. Redmond wants a permit and a name off a list. Under RMC 13.05.030 it is a violation for anyone to connect to a public main, or to build, alter or repair a private line, unless they are an active contractor on the city’s side sewer roster — kept by the Development Engineering Division, renewed every January, and gated behind a city business licence, a state contractor’s licence, $500,000 of liability cover naming the city as additional insured, and a $5,000 bond.
There is one exception, and it’s worth knowing: a homeowner who isn’t a contractor by trade may repair their own line, provided the repair is entirely within their own ground. Step into the right-of-way and that exception is gone.
We’re a plumbing outfit based in Everett working addresses right across King County. The Redmond plumbing professionals you call should be able to tell you which side of that line your job falls on. Before we quote anything here, we work that out and tell you plainly where we stand on the roster for the work you need. A local plumber who has read the code saves you a wasted visit. Everett is home; the drive over 520 is a short one.
Not sure whether your job needs a permit or just a wrench? Tell us where the trouble is and we’ll tell you straight. Call (425) 374-1557 or send us the details.
Roughly 60 percent of the water here comes down from the Tolt River watershed through Cascade Water Alliance; the other 40 percent comes up out of five city supply wells. It moves through 335 miles of main, seven reservoirs, three pump stations and around a hundred pressure-reducing valve stations before it reaches a tap.
That last number is the one that matters on a service call. A hundred regulator stations is a lot of places for pressure to be doing something the homeowner didn’t expect, and it is the first thing worth checking before anyone starts opening walls.
Ask any plumbing company what they will actually do about that before they quote. Professional plumbing work here starts with the map and the code, not the van. Homeowners get the same answer we give builders. Plumbing and electrical sit under one roof here, on one Washington State L&I registration. Have a look at what customers have said or who you’re actually hiring.
A permit is required before work begins on all side sewers here — new installations, alterations, repairs, lining, capping, relocating and removals. Not just the big trench jobs. The list is deliberately broad, and the city means it.
Permit holders are also expected to establish the depth and location of existing services before any excavation. That is the step that keeps a simple morning from turning into somebody else’s bad afternoon. A repair that starts with a locate is a repair that finishes the same day. Properties still on septic run into the same permit process the moment a septic system is abandoned and the house is connected to the main. More on how we handle buried line repairs.
Here’s the one that surprises people. If your place has a potential cross-connection with the public system, the city requires you to install and maintain an approved backflow assembly — and have it tested every single year, whether or not you used it. The city posts reminder letters. Washington’s Department of Health backs the rule up in WAC 246-290-490.
What counts as a cross-connection? More than people expect. Lawn irrigation is the big one. So are fire suppression systems, boilers, pools and spas — anything that could send water back the wrong way.
If a letter has landed and you don’t know what it’s asking for, bring it to the phone with you. It is usually a smaller repair than it reads like, and the water in Redmond is no harder on an assembly than anywhere else on the Eastside — it is the annual paperwork that catches people, not the plumbing.
Redmond inspects before the trench closes. The permit calls for an inspection prior to backfill, to review the finished installation and to witness a pressure test on the finished run. Nothing goes back in the ground until it has been seen and it has held. On a repair that is a short morning; on a full rebuild it is the whole job.
The build spec is just as plain: gasketed sewer-grade PVC, SDR35 to ASTM 3034, a minimum fall of two percent, and a cleanout at every bend and every hundred feet. Long runs across a deep lot pick up more cleanouts than people are expecting — which is a nuisance on the quote and a blessing in five years’ time.
A sewer repair on an older run is usually a choice between digging and lining, and the drainage around the trench decides more of that than people expect. Lining counts as side sewer work here, permit and all, so a trenchless fix is not a way around the process — it’s a different way through it. We scope for roots first either way, because the survey usually decides which method makes sense.
Discharging fats, oils and grease into the system is unlawful under RMC 13.04.360, and from October 2026 the city runs an inspection programme for restaurants and food production sites — operational practice, interceptor maintenance records, the lot. If you run a kitchen in Overlake or Downtown, the records matter as much as the hardware, and the repair bill when a line finally gives up is not small.
Houses get the domestic version of the same problem. The code’s own wording describes a line to which storm, surface and ground water are not intentionally admitted — worth remembering before anyone plumbs a downspout somewhere convenient.
Blended supply, five wells, a hundred regulator stations and a city that climbs from the valley floor up onto Education Hill. Pressure complaints here are worth measuring before they’re worth diagnosing, and the answer is as often outside the house as in it. A water heater fed at the wrong pressure fails early, which is why we measure before we quote a new water heater rather than after.
Water heater repair is the job we are called out for most. Sometimes the repair is a thermostat or an element and the heater has years left; sometimes the tank has been rumbling for a decade and the honest answer is a new heater. We will tell you which, and we will say so before the water is off. A water heater that is sized wrong for the house will fail the same way twice, so on a swap we size it for the house in Redmond you actually have.
A bill that climbed with nobody home is worth a call — those are the signs we chase. More on tank work, tankless water heating, whole-house repipes and finding leaks.
Waste coming up through a basement drain, a service line letting go under the driveway, a heater that has emptied itself into the garage. These do not wait for business hours and neither do we. An emergency plumber is no use to anybody at nine the next morning, so Danika is on call around the clock and an emergency here gets an emergency response. Find your main shut-off before you need it; here’s how to locate it. Then call (425) 374-1557 and tell us what you can see.
Not on the list? Check the full service area or call (425) 374-1557 and ask. Buying or selling on the Eastside and want the buried run looked at first? That’s a survey worth having — see everything we handle.
Not in the right-of-way. RMC 13.05.030 makes it a violation for any person to connect to a public main, or to construct, alter or repair a private line, unless they are an active contractor on the city’s side sewer roster. The one carve-out is for a homeowner who is not a contractor by trade, who may repair their own line provided the repair is totally within their own property.
The city’s Development Engineering Division keeps the list. A contractor has to hold a City of Redmond business licence and a Washington State contractor’s licence, carry a $500,000 liability certificate naming the City of Redmond as additional insured, post a $5,000 cash or surety bond and pay the licence fee. The roster runs from 1 January to 31 December, with renewals accepted through 31 January.
All of them, on the city’s own reading. A permit must be issued before work begins on all side sewers, including new installations, alterations, repairs, pipe lining, capping, relocating and removals. Permit holders are also required to determine the depth and location of existing services in the area before starting.
An inspection before the trench is backfilled, covering the completed installation or repair and a witnessed pressure test on the system. The build itself is specified too: gasketed sewer-grade PVC, SDR35 to ASTM 3034, a minimum fall of two percent, and a cleanout at every bend and at every 100-foot increment.
Because the city requires customers with a potential cross-connection to install and maintain an approved backflow assembly and have it tested annually, regardless of how often it is used. Reminder letters go out each year. The requirement traces back to the Washington State Department of Health under WAC 246-290-490, and the common triggers are lawn irrigation, fire suppression systems, boilers, pools and spas.
Yes, and most visits end up being exactly that. A running toilet, a dripping mixer, a supply line weeping behind a washing machine — none of it needs a permit and none of it needs the roster, because it is all inside the house. We would rather fix a small leak now than dig up the same problem later.
About 60 percent arrives from the Tolt River watershed through Cascade Water Alliance and about 40 percent comes from five city supply wells. It is distributed through roughly 335 miles of main, seven reservoirs, three pump stations and around a hundred pressure-reducing valve stations — which is why a pressure complaint is worth measuring before it is worth diagnosing.
Tell us the street and what it’s doing, and we’ll tell you whether the job needs a permit, whether it needs a roster contractor, and what we’d want to look at first. No guesswork about who owns which length of line, and no surprises when the inspector arrives. We take on Redmond, WA plumbing work right across the Eastside, and the city rules are the first thing we check. Financing is available on the larger jobs, and there’s a 24-hour line when it can’t wait.
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