Home Remodeling Contractors in Anderson Island, WA

Pierce County does. Anderson Island has no town government, so building permits for remodels, additions, decks, retaining walls and accessory dwelling units come from the county's Planning and Public Works department, and applications are submitted and tracked online through its PALS+ portal.

The county's Online Development Guide lets an owner search by parcel number or address to see which permits a project needs and what the application must include; it is a research tool, not a place to apply. For island parcels served by septic or private wells, or with critical area indicators, a Level 1 Pre-Application Screening comes before the application. Permits to install or replace residential plumbing and mechanical fixtures are issued as soon as they are paid for online.

Pierce County adopted the Anderson and Ketron Islands Community Plan on 17 March 2009. It describes an island of about 8.1 square miles, 4.3 miles from north to south, with 17 miles of shoreline and no urban area under the Growth Management Act. Most land is zoned Rural 10, one home per ten acres, and new lots on Anderson Island may not be smaller than two acres.

Existing smaller parcels can still be built on when septic, water and critical area requirements are met. That matters most in the Riviera community, whose community club dates from 1966 and where lots are typically smaller than a quarter acre. The island's only commercial zone is the Rural Neighborhood Center where Eckenstam-Johnson Road meets Lake Josephine Boulevard.

Island homes draw water either from a private well or from one of three community systems the county plan names: Lake Josephine Riviera, the Anderson Island Water System and Cole Point Heights. A Department of Ecology study in 2001 found that seawater intrusion was not a widespread problem, though it appeared to be occurring in three areas near the shoreline.

The health department reviews a remodel to make sure it will not harm the septic system or the drinking water source. Its application asks for a current operational evaluation of the septic system and a site plan that labels existing and proposed bedrooms. Adding an ADU on a private well also needs a well application with bacteria, nitrate and one hour flow tests, plus a chloride or conductivity test where the parcel falls in a possible saltwater intrusion zone on the department's map.

Schoolhouse Creek, less than a mile long, runs south into Oro Bay and is the only stream on the island known to support anadromous fish; the plan lists coho, chum and cutthroat in it. A large wetland complex stretches from Oro Bay north across the middle of the island, and the county plan flags one small area near Sandberg Road and Eckenstam-Johnson Road whose soils could liquefy in an earthquake.

Work near the water falls under Pierce County's Shoreline Master Program; the Department of Ecology's list of approved programs carries the county's November 2025 version. Away from the water, the county code puts the burden on the applicant to research the county's critical areas maps, and to find and mark any wetland, stream or slope buffer on the site, before or during the application.

All of Anderson Island lies outside an urban growth area, so Pierce County allows one accessory dwelling unit with a house, either attached or detached. Outside an urban growth area it may have up to 1,250 square feet of interior living space, counting any basement or attic but not a garage.

A new detached unit cannot sit in a required setback and cannot be taller than the main house, except that it may add one story when built over a detached garage. The ADU needs its own building permit, and a lot more than half a mile from a major transit stop must provide off-street parking for it under the county parking chapter.

The Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey counts about 1,450 residents and 1,112 homes on Anderson Island, 1,064 of them detached houses. The median home was built in 1993, and the 1990s alone account for about 40 percent of the housing. Roughly one home in four stands empty for part of the year as a seasonal or weekend place, and almost every occupied home is lived in by its owner.

For a house from the 1990s, original baths, kitchens, windows and decks are often reviewed as one scope rather than one at a time. We price that work line by line in writing before it starts.