Stormwater and Standing Water Policy


Urban Northwest Homes follows ALL code requirements, specifically IRC 401.3, regarding keeping your crawl space free of standing water. To this, we create a slight slope away from your home, so surface water is encouraged to flow away from your foundation. Your crawl space also has a “low point” drain that is designed to drain any water that gets into your crawl space, under your vapor barrier, away from your home.

The backfill against your home’s foundation is the base layer, that is native and original to the specific subdivision lot, when the subdivision recorded. Over this, an outsourced layer of top soil has been laid, rich in nutrients, to promote healthy root development and soil maturation, in your lawn and planting bed areas. However, due to the unique local qualities of the soils of the base layer, variations in seasonal sun exposure and rain, shading from adjacent properties, and notable shifts in climate and weather; we do not guarantee your landscaping or lot drainage/infiltration/saturation rates after the closing of your home. Long term, as soils compact, settle, or shift, the vitality of the plantings may change, lawns can, at times of seasonal wet weather or from high amounts of irrigation, be saturated, or elevations in lawns may shift.

The subdivision you live in has very strict stormwater engineering callouts, as well. Please refer to the Clark County GIS: gis.clark.wa.gov/gishome/subdivisions for your specific subdivision engineering “As Builts”. The subdivision engineering is specific to your subdivision and specifically states how ALL stormwater must be managed. Urban Northwest Homes may not alter, tie into, or add to the stormwater engineering in our subdivisions, in any way. We are not allowed to build “French drains”, direct or create concentrated flows of water or manipulate the natural absorption rate of water on your lot, as it relates to the approved engineered stormwater plans, during the construction process. We encourage ALL homeowners to seek out the local codes that relate to stormwater and see how/if a homeowner may address water saturation within their landscaping, on their specific lot.

As always, we are here to assist you. Let us know if you have questions before or after your move, and we can always refer you the best, local landscape professionals.