Home Remodeling Contractors in Vashon, WA

King County does. The island has no city hall: Vashon and Maury islands, 37 square miles in all, receive local government services directly from the county, so building and land use permits come from the Department of Local Services, Permitting Division. Most residential permits are applied for online at MyBuildingPermit.com, and the county states that incorrect or incomplete submittals will not be accepted.

The county splits home projects into three kinds. A remodel changes existing space without creating new floor area, a structure addition builds new square footage onto the house, and a repair restores part of a structure, most often after a fire or storm. An accessory dwelling unit is filed as a separate permit type. Plumbing and gas piping permits are issued by Seattle and King County Public Health, and electrical permits by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

The island has more than 58 miles of shoreline, almost half of all the shoreline miles in King County. All of it falls under the county's shoreline master program: shoreline jurisdiction covers Puget Sound plus land within 200 feet of the water's edge, the 100 year floodplain and associated wetlands, and work there needs a shoreline substantial development permit unless it qualifies for an exemption. A normal protective bulkhead for a single house is one of the listed exemptions, yet it still goes through the county's shoreline exemption application, and a geotechnical report is required during review of any bulkhead.

A 2011 study funded by the King County Flood Control District and FEMA counted 699 buildings on Vashon-Maury Island inside the current Puget Sound 100 year floodplain. Its sea level rise analysis found that, because of how waves build along the shore, a two foot rise could push flooding six feet above today's levels in some places. King County tells each applicant for new development or redevelopment in the island's shoreline jurisdiction that the project may be affected by sea level rise and recommends setting it back farther than the code requires, and it allows no new groundwater wells in a coastal high hazard area, where a rainwater catchment system can serve a single house instead.

Rain is the only thing that refills the aquifer the island drinks from, and the county's plan counts 23 Group A water systems, about 134 smaller Group B systems and more than 1,000 private wells. The state Department of Ecology has closed four island basins, around Christiansen, Fisher, Judd and Shinglemill creeks, to new water rights.

Because the whole island sits over a sole source aquifer, county code places its recharge areas in stricter categories, and a third category exists only for ground over the Vashon-Maury aquifer. When a remodel counts as a substantial improvement on such a site, the owner of an underground storage tank, such as an old heating oil tank, must bring it up to state standards or decommission or remove it, and an abandoned well on the property has to be properly decommissioned. A new well inside the sea level rise risk area needs a surface seal against saltwater and a chloride test reported to Public Health.

Wastewater stays on site for most homes, and every load of septage pumped on the island is trucked off it. On a lot smaller than one acre in the most sensitive recharge category, a new septic system must meet the Department of Health's nitrogen treatment standard unless Public Health finds it will not work there. The county plan names Spring Beach, Harbor Heights, Tahlequah and Glen Acres as shoreline neighborhoods where small lots and failing systems are a known problem.

All of Vashon-Maury Island lies outside the Urban Growth Area, so the county's rural ADU rule applies: one accessory dwelling unit per lot. It must share a building with the main house unless the lot holds only one primary dwelling and either measures at least 3,200 square feet inside the Vashon Rural Town or meets the minimum lot size of its zone elsewhere, where the rural zones are RA-2.5, RA-5 and RA-10.

The unit may have up to 1,000 square feet of heated floor area and 1,000 square feet of unheated area, and the limit does not apply when it sits wholly within the basement or attic of the house. A detached unit stays within the zone's base height, no extra parking space is required, and the owner records a notice on title before the county approves the permit. Outside the sewer district, septic capacity is often the harder question: Public Health has required a separate system sized for at least three bedrooms for any ADU, and the county plan notes that an applicant may ask for a waiver of that minimum.

The Census Bureau's 2020 to 2024 American Community Survey counts about 5,460 homes in the Vashon census area, with a median build year of 1975. More than one in five went up in 1939 or earlier, and roughly four in ten predate 1970. Close to nine in ten are detached single family houses, about 240 are mobile homes, and more than four in five occupied homes are lived in by their owners.

Two figures stand out for an island. About one home in five is held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use, and while electricity heats a little over half of occupied homes, wood heats close to one in ten and fuel oil about one in twenty. A remodel of an older house here often turns up original wiring, an aging chimney or an old oil tank, and we price that work line by line in writing before it starts.