Creek running through a wooded ravine between hillside homes and a stone retaining wall, with a suspension bridge across the water beyond

District of West Vancouver Here the water runs along the rock, not through the soil.

Drainage Pro is a drainage contractor serving West Vancouver, based in North Vancouver. We diagnose before we excavate, then repair or replace perimeter drains, trace basement leaks and waterproof foundations. Rock lots and steep grades shape the trench, and creek setbacks decide what can be dug and where the water may go.

Book an inspection Call or text (604) 210-3892

Red Seal plumber runs every job
Camera down the line before anyone digs
Full perimeter drainage replacements backed for up to 10 years

What actually fails in West Vancouver

Many West Vancouver homes date from the 1950s through the 1980s. The older ones were built in the era of clay and cement drain tile. On West Vancouver properties upgraded in the 1970s and 1980s, early plastic drain systems were often installed with poor bedding and minimal slope. The terrain then adds its own ways for a drain to fail, and each one looks different on camera. Our perimeter drain repair and replacement starts by finding out which one you have.

Tile laid flat on rock. Where the rock shelf set the depth of the trench, long runs were laid level, and a level pipe collects silt. On camera: water standing along the run in a dry week, with silt sitting above the bottom of the pipe.
Water that arrives fast. Where the soil over the rock is thin, it holds little water, so runoff from the lot above reaches the wall faster than the original tile was sized for. On camera: often sound, clean pipe that still backs up when water is run through it. The problem is capacity, not damage.
Roots following the same shelf. Mature trees root along the rock surface, which is also where the pipe sits. Roots enter at the joints and fill the bore. On camera: a fine root mat packing the pipe, thickest at a joint. Drain cleaning and hydro jetting can clear it, and the camera shows whether the pipe underneath is still sound.
An outlet that has silted or washed out. Past the sump, the water has to reach a storm sewer, a drainage ditch, a stream, the ocean (indirectly) or an approved dry well, and when that outlet fails, sound pipe still backs up. On camera: sound pipe holding water back, with silt or debris where the camera reaches the discharge end, or no outlet found at all.

Signs your West Vancouver drainage is already failing

Any one of these can have a simple explanation. Two or three together, on a lot that steps down a hillside, usually mean the pipe is the problem. Our guide to the signs your perimeter drains are failing covers the general picture.

Water at the lower-level wall after heavy rain that clears again once the rain stops
Seepage or a wet streak running out of a rock cut behind the house
White chalky residue or damp shadows on the inside of the lower-level wall
A retaining wall that weeps along its base or has started to lean
A driveway or patio slab lifting, cracking or settling at one end
A downspout that gurgles, backs up or overflows at the base during a storm
A roadside ditch or outfall that has silted in, or one you cannot find at all
Moss and standing water in a side yard that never dries out

Rock is part of the job here

On rock lots, surface water runs across the ground and concentrates where the rock directs it, often at a foundation wall. Rock also changes three things: how the trench is dug, how much fall the pipe can have toward its outlet, and what the written scope says. The District's own drain-tile rules allow pipe laid on bedrock, so rock is expected here.

What moves the scope on a hillside lot is plain. How deep the rock sits and how far it runs along the wall. Whether the machine can reach the trench. How much fall is available to the outlet. Which mature trees and retaining walls stand in the way, and whether a creek setback applies. We check depth to rock and machine access before we scope a job. Where the ground is uncertain, the written scope says so before work starts. Yard reinstatement included.

Crew member checking the slope of new drainage pipe in an open trench beside a West Vancouver house, with a mini excavator behind

Covered by our Built Better Warranty.

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Creeks, ravines and setbacks

West Vancouver is one municipality, so there is a single District to deal with. It still adds steps that a lot without a creek never sees. Not every creek is on the District's map, so we look at the lot as well. In the Existing Neighbourhoods, any development within 15 metres of the top of bank of a watercourse needs an Environmental Development Permit. The District counts disturbing soil and developing a drainage system as development, and the permit has to be approved before you apply for a building permit.

In the Upper Lands, generally north of Highway 1, the strip along a creek bank or wetland edge has to stay undeveloped. Trees within a stream corridor are protected, and pruning or removing one takes a District tree permit. If equipment or spoil occupies the boulevard, sidewalk, road or lane, the District also requires a Street Occupancy Permit. We check the District's watercourse mapping before we scope a job. Permits and inspections arranged where required.

Technician feeding a drain camera cable into a ground-level cleanout beside a house, with the reel and monitor on the lawn

Where your drainage ends up

The District's drain-tile rules are specific about the far end of the pipe. Each drain tile system drains to a concrete storm sump, with the tile ends entering it separately. Roof and deck drains are kept out of the tile and sent to the storm system.

Those rules matter when you buy or renovate a hillside house. A roof drain tied into the tile, or a line that ends at a ditch nobody has looked at, does not show itself until a storm tests it. A drain camera inspection is the way to check before a storm does. We follow the drain on camera to its outlet and check that the outlet is clear.
Diagnose before you dig on a West Vancouver lot

On a hillside lot, a wrong guess means opening the wrong stretch of trench beside rock, trees or a creek setback. The camera goes in first, and the written scope flags rock and creek constraints before anyone digs. A wet lower-level room is not always a drain problem, and basement leak detection is how we find out which it is before anyone opens a wall.

Buying on the North Shore? A pre-purchase drainage inspection puts the condition of the drain in writing before you remove subjects. Drainage Pro is based in North Vancouver, serving the North Shore and Greater Vancouver, and West Vancouver is one of the four cities we work in.
How the wet season tests a drain

The precipitation chart on this page shows the 1981–2010 normals from the N Vancouver Wharves station, 3.7 km from West Vancouver Municipal Hall. It is the nearest Environment and Climate Change Canada station with a published 1981–2010 precipitation normal, and it sits across the boundary in the District of North Vancouver, so read it as a regional guide, not a West Vancouver gauge. At that station the six wettest months run from October to March, with November the wettest and July the driest.

A marginal system on a rock lot or beside a creek tends to show its limits in that stretch. The dry months are the time to find out. Book an inspection before a storm forces the question.

On the ground

Neighbourhoods we work in

These are the parts of West Vancouver our crew is in most often. If yours is not listed, it does not mean we do not go there — call with the address.

Ambleside
Dundarave
British Properties
Caulfeild
Horseshoe Bay
Cypress Park
Altamont
Sentinel Hill
Hollyburn
Eagle Harbour

Permits and municipal rules

Drainage work in the District of West Vancouver may need a permit before we dig and an inspection before the trench is closed. The municipal pages below set out what applies.

District of West Vancouver mechanical (drainage) permits
westvancouver.ca
District of West Vancouver environmental development permits
westvancouver.ca
District of West Vancouver building permits and inspections
westvancouver.ca

Local facts

The conditions that decide how a West Vancouver drainage job is scoped, with the source for each one.

At the N Vancouver Wharves station, 3.7 km from West Vancouver Municipal Hall, the 1981–2010 normal is 1,725 mm of precipitation a year. The station sits in the District of North Vancouver and is the nearest ECCC station with a published 1981–2010 precipitation normal, so it is a regional guide, not a West Vancouver gauge.: Source: api.weather.gc.ca
The District requires a drainage permit for installing and inspecting drain tile, sanitary and storm sewers and on-site water service lines. The drainage inspection is called with the pipe bedded in gravel and the top of the pipe showing, before backfill.: Source: westvancouver.ca
In the District's Existing Neighbourhoods, any development within 15 metres of the top of bank of a watercourse needs an Environmental Development Permit, and development includes disturbing soil and developing drainage systems.: Source: westvancouver.ca
In the Upper Lands (the District's Future Neighbourhoods, generally north of Highway 1), a setback from the top of a watercourse bank or the edge of a wetland must stay free of development.: Source: westvancouver.ca
The District's drain-tile rules allow pipe laid on drain rock, undisturbed soil, a concrete footing or bedrock. Each drain tile system gets its own concrete sump, and roof and deck drains go to the storm system, not into the tile. Past the sump, every storm system drains to a storm sewer, a drainage ditch, a stream, the ocean (indirectly) or an approved dry well.: Source: westvancouver.ca
The District shows watercourses on the Utilities Storm layer of its WestMap tool, and notes that its watercourse mapping is not exhaustive.: Source: westvancouver.ca
Protected trees include trees within a stream corridor, near the foreshore or in other environmentally sensitive areas, and a tree permit is needed to prune or remove a protected tree.: Source: westvancouver.ca
A Street Occupancy Permit is required whenever any part of municipal property, such as a boulevard, sidewalk, roadway or public lane, is temporarily occupied.: Source: westvancouver.ca

What we do here

What we handle in West Vancouver

One crew and one contract, from the first camera inspection to the reinstated ground.

Inspect

Diagnose the problem

Pre-purchase drainage inspection

Camera footage of the buried drains around a house you want to buy, a grading review and a written report to help you decide on subjects.

Drain camera inspection

HD video of what is inside your drain and sewer lines, with faults located from the surface, so repairs start from evidence.

Basement leak detection

A stain on the wall is rarely where the water got in. We trace the route first, so the repair is aimed at the cause.

Strata drainage assessment

Condition-rated drainage reports for strata councils and property managers, with footage or a site observation behind every rating.

Repair

Fix the cause

Perimeter drainage repair

Spot repair, one side or full renewal, scoped from camera footage of your drain tile and the age of the pipe around it.

Sewer line repair

Camera-located sewer lateral repair and replacement, from the house to the property line.

Drain cleaning and hydro jetting

Drain cleaning for sewer lines and hydro jetting for perimeter drains, with the camera showing what is blocking the line and whether cleaning will hold.

Sump & sewage pumps

Storm sumps and sewage ejectors load-tested, then serviced or replaced before they fail, with battery backup and alarms where they count.

Protect

Waterproof and restore

Foundation waterproofing

A membrane on the outside face of the foundation wall, protected by drainage board and put on while the trench is open.

Basement waterproofing

A written assessment of where the water gets in, then crystalline waterproofing from inside where the outside of the wall cannot be reached.

Foundation crack repair

Leaking cracks sealed by injection through the wall, once we know why they opened and whether they are still moving.

Structural foundation repair

Settling, bowing or heaving foundations, assessed with an engineer and repaired to the engineer's design.

Maintain

Prevent future failures

Strata maintenance programs

Common property drainage on a schedule council can budget for, scoped from measured condition and recorded year after year.

Annual drain camera inspections

Your drain runs filmed every year and set beside last year's footage, so slow change shows up while it is still a finding, not a failure.

Catch basin cleaning

We empty the sump, check the outlet and record each basin, for houses and strata parking areas, ahead of the wet months.

Vacuum truck services

Suction from the surface for full sumps, flooded pits and silted lines, with the material taken away rather than flushed downstream.

Drainage questions from West Vancouver homeowners

Do I need a permit to replace drain tile in West Vancouver?

Yes. The District requires a drainage permit, one of its mechanical permits, for drain tile and for storm and sanitary sewers. Its inspector checks the pipe bedded in gravel with the top of the pipe showing, before backfill, so the trench stays open until that inspection is done. Permits and inspections arranged where required.

There is a creek at the edge of my West Vancouver property. Does that change the job?

It can. In the District of West Vancouver's Existing Neighbourhoods, drainage work within 15 metres of the top of a creek bank counts as development and needs an Environmental Development Permit before the building permit. In the Upper Lands, generally north of Highway 1, a no-development setback applies instead. We check the District's watercourse mapping before we scope the job.

What happens if you hit rock on a West Vancouver lot?

Rock changes how the trench is dug and how much fall the pipe can have toward its outlet. The District of West Vancouver's drain-tile rules allow pipe laid on bedrock, so rock is a scope question, not a dead end. Our written scope flags where the ground is uncertain, such as rock, before work starts.

Where does a West Vancouver perimeter drain discharge?

Under the District of West Vancouver's drain-tile rules, each drain tile system ends in a concrete storm sump, and roof and deck drains go to the storm system rather than into the tile. Past the sump, the water has to reach a storm sewer, a drainage ditch, a stream, the ocean (indirectly) or an approved dry well. On camera we follow the line to its outlet and check that the outlet is clear.

Are the trees near the work area on a West Vancouver lot protected?

Some are. The District of West Vancouver protects trees within a stream corridor, near the foreshore and in other environmentally sensitive areas, and pruning or removing one takes a District tree permit. Tell us about creeks and large trees near the wall when you call, because they decide where the trench can go.

Published September 6, 2026 Updated October 2, 2026

We find the cause before we quote the fix

Tell us the address and what you're seeing — a backup, a wet wall, a smell, a sinking lawn. We'll tell you what the next step is and what it costs, before anyone digs. Not sure yet? Ask us a question first.

Book an inspection Ask us a question first

Or call or text (604) 210-3892