The kitchen has the potential to be one of the messiest places in your entire condo. It is where you cook and dispose of food, where you eat, and where you are most likely to experience spills, splatters, and crumbs. However, there’s another aspect to general kitchen grime that you may not be aware of: your kitchen drain. This aspect also has the potential to become a very expensive problem when left unattended.
The pipes that run along the inside of a building from one kitchen to another are known as the kitchen drain stack – referring to the “stack” of kitchens that runs from the top of the building to the bottom. This interconnectivity can be highly efficient, but can also lead to significant issues when residents are not careful.
Aquazen Services the experts in Kitchen Stack Cleaning, High Rise plumbing, and mechanical services. As residents use their kitchen drains, the buildup can result. This happens due to accumulations of food, fat, grease, and other materials that get poured down the drain, congealing and eventually causing full or partial blockages. This leads to the need for kitchen stack cleaning.
These blockages can cause drains to operate inefficiently; either drains become sluggish, not carrying away wastewater fast enough, or stop working altogether, resulting in standing water in the sink. Furthermore, bacteria can accumulate in these moist, oily clogs, eating through iron pipes, and causing breakages.
Aquazen Services the experts in Kitchen Stack Cleaning, High Rise plumbing, and mechanical services when clogs and breakages occur, it is time to call the plumber. The average cost of doing so tends to run between $360 to $498 for individuals; when the problem is not with one person, but with an entire kitchen stack, that number can increase exponentially. Kitchen stack cleaning can get highly expensive depending on how extensive the damage is.
If the problem escalates from a clog to an outright breakage, then you can expect to pay an average minimum of $739 for replacing damaged pipes; often, especially when the damage is extensive, this cost is significantly more, costing several thousands of dollars.
Getting Proactive About Your Kitchen Stack
If you want to avoid these kinds of hefty costs, then it is time to start evaluating your kitchen drains differently. This means a two-pronged approach:
Educating residents about the hazards posed by fats, oils, and greases when poured down the drain;
Investing in lower maintenance costs now to avoid significant repair costs in the future.
Residents should receive regular notifications explaining the steps they can take to reduce the possibility of needing drain stack rehabilitation. These steps include disposing of all cooking oil and grease in trash cans instead of pouring liquid grease down the drain.
As for maintenance costs, having regular kitchen stack cleaning performed on an annual basis can prevent the need for complete rehabilitation in the future, saving you thousands on re-piping.
Unit owners, property managers, and board members can all benefit from learning more about the maintenance solutions that companies like Aquazen Services can provide. We invite you to contact us directly to learn more about what we can do to clean and prolong the life of your kitchen drain stack.
How Aquazen Services Can Help with Problematic Kitchen Drain Stacks
If your building is already experiencing the sluggish drainage and clogged pipes associated with grease build-up, then it is time to look at additional options. Canada Pipelining Technology provides structural drain restoration for high rise kitchen stacks, and we can help you eliminate grease blockages through thorough cleaning of all grease build-up.
Not only can we clean and remove these blockages, but we can also help you prevent them from occurring again. Aquazen Services is experienced in all types of pipelining technologies. We use this technology to line the pipes in the stack with a smooth, seamless finish.
This is done with a special epoxy; Aquazen Services uses the ONLY epoxy that has been approved by the national plumbing code. It is 100% safe and durable, restores 100% efficiency to your drain stack, and prolongs the life of the stack by 50 years.
With this lining in place, you should still have high-pressure cleaning conducted on the stack on a regular basis. However, this cleaning can take place every 2 to 3 years, versus every year, resulting in significant savings over time.
In addition to using best-in-class pipe lining technologies to rehabilitate your drain stack, we can also perform cleanout installation, giving easy access points to your drain stack so that it is easier to remove clogs and examine the pipes moving forward, helping to pinpoint areas where repairs need to be made.
The Aquazen Services Difference
Aquazen Services follows a thorough, step-by-step process for doing kitchen stack cleaning in high rise condos and even commercial facilities. This ensures that the stack is restored to 100% functionality.
We start by locating the cleanouts along with the drain stack, which will be used for power flushing.
We establish the designated work stations throughout the building, taking the necessary precautions to prevent leaks and water damage.
We then a power flush all of the kitchen stacks, using the existing cleanouts, which typically are at the bottom of the stack, and may also be placed as high as the 5th or 6th
After the power flushing, we test the stack to ensure the water is flowing evenly.
We then clean up our work areas and leave the site in better condition than when we arrive.
If follow-up is needed, we contact the client to make additional recommendations about rehabilitation and additional cleanout installations.
Conclusion
Toronto is a busy city; it is also an aging one, celebrating its 180th year in 2014. As the city grows, prospers, and ages, older infrastructures, such as pipes and plumbing, need special attention to keep operating smoothly.
If you live in an aging condo building, or simply want to know more about how you can make your new condo’s plumbing last longer, contact Aquazen Services today 905-766-3440. Our licensed professionals can help you find the solutions for your lifestyle and your residents.