Thinking about building a detached garage/shop on a sloped, rainy lot in Bellingham—what are the real must-dos for drainage, foundation, and grading to avoid water issues or settling? Anyone local gone through this recently and willing to share what actually worked (or what to avoid)?
7 Views
Yeah, the slope and constant drizzle definitely throw some curveballs into the mix. We've got a detached one out back that we finished a couple years ago, and honestly the biggest hassle was figuring out how to keep water from just running straight under the thing. Ended up with extra grading and some French drains that tie into the main system—it wasn't cheap, but no issues since. For the foundation, going with a bit more reinforcement on the downhill side helped a ton against settling. If you're shopping around for someone who knows these local quirks inside out, I've heard good things about digging into options via general contractor bellingham spots like on whatcomlocal folks there seem to get the wet, hilly reality we live with. Just my two cents from actually going through it. There might also be some minor options for this, but this one is the best for me