Living on the river flats.
Ferndale sits on the flats where the Nooksack River winds toward the bay, north of Bellingham off Main Street and Portal Way. It's river-valley ground: soft soils and a high water table that rises with the wet season and the river. For a concrete and foundation crew, that combination produces a predictable set of problems, slab and crawlspace moisture, foundations that have settled into the soft ground, and drainage that was never enough for how wet it gets.
Most of our Ferndale work is fighting moisture and settling. We fix damp crawlspaces with footing drains, sump systems, and vapor barrier, re-pour or re-pier foundations and slabs that have settled into the soft river-valley soil, and put in the drainage that keeps the high water table from sitting against the foundation. On flat, soft, wet ground, the homes that stay solid are the ones where the water gets managed, so that's where we put the work.
Common home styles
Downtown Ferndale bungalows and older homes, farmhouses on the surrounding flats, and newer subdivisions built up out of the floodplain.
Soil and water
Nooksack river-valley flats with soft soils and a high, seasonally rising water table. The soft, wet ground is the source of the settling foundations, damp crawlspaces, and drainage work that define this area.