Working the Village.
Locals just call it the Village. Wander the brick storefronts on Harris Avenue or grab a coffee near the Village Green and you can see the problem and the charm in one look: Fairhaven was built on a slope down to the water in the 1890s and 1900s, on older brick-and-stem-wall foundations that have had more than a century to settle. The grade is the whole story up here.
Most of what we do in Fairhaven is hillside work. Retaining walls that hold a yard or a driveway back on a sloped lot, crack repair and reinforcement on old stem walls that have shifted, and concrete stairs and landings re-poured where the originals have heaved or cracked. The lots are tight and the access is often steep, so a clean pour here is as much about staging as it is about concrete.
Common home styles
Victorian-era homes from the 1890s to 1910s, early Craftsman houses, the historic brick commercial buildings along Harris Avenue, and newer condos near the village center.
Soil and water
Sloped ground above Bellingham Bay with constant marine moisture. Water moving downhill through the soil is what stresses the old foundations and the retaining walls, so drainage is central to almost everything we pour here.