Getting there
About a mile from the Newport shop. Oldtown is just across the state line on US-2, so a site walk there is usually same day and the machines come over on the trailer with no travel in the bid.
River strip, then the hill
Oldtown's business district is on US-2 in a strip of ground only a few hundred feet wide between the state line and the river, and the digging down there is river-bottom sand and silt with water close under it. Trenches want shoring and any foundation near the water needs a compacted base and a plan for drainage. Just south and east of that strip the ground climbs Idaho Hill, and it changes to glacial gravel and cobble over hardpan, with rock outcrops higher up. Most of the homes and new lots around Oldtown are on that hill and along US-2 toward the dam, and that is good ground for a foundation once you get through the cobble. The Cat 303.5E2 handles it. Rock near the top of the hill is a hard-dig situation and we bid it that way.
Lots and homes around Oldtown
Oldtown started as the original Newport townsite before the railroad moved the town across the line in the 1890s, so the old core is small lots and old houses. Around it the housing is rural: acreage on Idaho Hill and off Albeni Cove Road with pine timber, a long gravel driveway, and a septic system out back. New homes there start with clearing and a driveway, and the septic dig is a bigger part of the job than it is in town because there is no sewer once you leave the strip. Albeni Falls Dam is about two miles east on US-2, and the ground between town and the dam is a mix of riverbank lots and timbered slopes.
The river, the dam, and the seasons
Albeni Falls Dam controls the river above it and the Box Canyon reservoir starts below it, so the water in front of Oldtown is managed water, and it still runs highest in spring and early summer. Low lots near the river get soft early and stay soft. Winter freezes the ground hard, and the north-facing slopes on Idaho Hill hold frost into spring. We schedule foundations and pads for when the ground has firmed up and use the mud weeks for clearing, hauling, and demolition. If a crawlspace in Oldtown floods every spring, the cause is usually grading and it is fixable from outside.
Building on a lot in Oldtown
New homes around Oldtown go in on the hillside lots and along US-2 toward the dam, and each one is the same new home site work sequence we run at home in Newport: clear the envelope, cut the driveway, grade the pad, dig the foundation, and trench the water, power, and septic before the driveway is finished. Our site preparation page at /service/site-preparation/ lays that out step by step. How new home site work runs, start to finish.
Permits around Oldtown
Oldtown is in Bonner County, Idaho, so the offices are different from Newport even though the shop is a mile away. Outside the city limits, land use and building location permits go through Bonner County Planning in Sandpoint, and septic permits go through Panhandle Health District. Inside Oldtown's city limits the city has its own process. We work both sides of the line every week and will tell you on the site walk which rules apply.
Around Oldtown
- Pend Oreille River
- US-2
- ID-41
- Idaho Hill
- Albeni Falls Dam
- Albeni Cove Road
What we do in Oldtown
Everything we do, on one page.
Questions from Oldtown
You are in Washington. Can you legally dig in Oldtown, Idaho?
Yes. We are licensed and insured in both Washington and Idaho, and Oldtown is about a mile from the shop, so we work there as often as we work in Newport. The permit offices are different on the Idaho side, Bonner County Planning and Panhandle Health District, and we deal with both regularly. Nothing about the state line changes how we bid the job.
Who handles the septic permit for a new house near Oldtown?
Panhandle Health District. Every septic permit in Bonner County goes through them, from the site evaluation to the final inspection, and the system has to be designed and permitted before we dig. We excavate the tank hole and the drainfield to the approved design and work with your installer and the inspector so the hole is open when they need it.
How deep is the water table on the river lots in Oldtown?
Close to the surface on the strip near the river, and it comes up in spring when the Pend Oreille runs high. That limits what you can put in a hole down there and it is why septic on those lots is a design question before it is a digging question. Up on Idaho Hill the water table is a different story and the ground drains well.
Nearby
We also work in Newport, Priest River and Blanchard. All the towns we cover.