Painter's Woods is the historic residential district south of downtown Forest Grove, built on small lots first platted in 1891. If water is running, a drain is backing up or a heater has failed, call (503) 974-3329 and describe it. The dispatcher confirms your address and sends a plumber.
Below are the facts the National Park Service and the City publish, general plumbing points that suit small city lots, and a plain list of what is not known.
What the public record says about Painter's Woods
The City of Forest Grove lists Painter's Woods as a National Register historic district south of downtown, created in 2009, and says it includes part of the city's first subdivision. The National Park Service nomination, which also calls it the Forest Grove Southside District, describes about 26.5 acres and 68 resources, 40 of them contributing, with a period of significance from 1880 to 1948.
That nomination gives 15th Avenue as the north edge, 12th Avenue as the south edge, Ash Street on the west, and Cedar and Elm Streets on the east. A 1999 city newsletter described a larger study area, so go by the nomination if an edge matters. The district takes in parts of the South Park Addition of 1891 and the Knob Hill Addition of 1909.
South Park was platted with uniform lots of about 5,000 square feet. The first building boom ran from the 1890s to about 1912. Knob Hill stayed mostly empty until the 1930s, and the second boom, from the mid-1930s through the end of World War II, produced modest houses, mostly along Birch Street. Building fell off after 1948.
Small lots and what they change
A lot of about 5,000 square feet puts the house, the side yard and the street close together. That does not make pipes fail. It does change how a repair is planned. A buried line may run a short way to the street, pass near a neighbor's fence and meet roots from trees on either side. A plumber needs to know where the line goes before a shovel goes in.
Dial 811 ahead of any digging and the public utility lines get marked. A sewer camera inspection can trace the drain line and show where it runs. Sewer line cleaning clears a main-line blockage when the camera finds one, and for a single slow sink or tub, drain cleaning is the usual first step.
The private sewer lateral belongs to the owner under City Ordinance 52.03, while the City handles the public main. In an emergency, shut the main valve inside the house and leave the city meter alone.
Slow drain, wet floor or dead heater in Painter's Woods? Call and describe it.
Call (503) 974-3329Modest houses, limited space
Smaller houses tend to tuck the water heater into a closet, a utility nook or a crawl space. Space often decides between a tank and a tankless unit, because tankless needs a gas line and a vent path that suit the room. See water heater replacement for the options when a tank fails.
Replacing a water heater needs a permit in Oregon. The City of Forest Grove Community Development office, 503-992-3229, can confirm what applies at your address, including whether any historic review is involved. This page cannot answer that part. Plumbing work in the state follows the Oregon Plumbing Specialty Code.
What we do not know
- What pipes are in a particular house, or when they were last replaced.
- Whether lines in the South Park and Knob Hill parts of the district run differently, since the nomination describes platting and architecture, not utilities.
- How many of the 68 resources have had plumbing work, or what kind.
- Whether drain or sewer calls are more common here than elsewhere in Forest Grove.
Each question has the same answer: look at the actual house. The Clark District lies just to the north by its published edges, and has its own page for the Clark District. The phone line also covers Cornelius to the east. For the full list of towns, see the service area page or the Forest Grove plumbing home page.