Kitchen Drain Cleaning in Toronto

Signs you need kitchen drain cleaning

The early warnings are easy to miss because the sink still drains, just slowly. Watch for these:

• Standing water in one or both bowls a minute after you pull the plug
• A gurgle from the sink when the dishwasher pumps out
• Water coming up in the second bowl when you run the first
• A sour smell from the drain even after you clean the strainer
• Backups that a plunger clears for a day or two and then return

What causes it in older Toronto homes

Most kitchen clogs are grease and starch, but older houses make them worse. Many semis and detached homes built before the war run the kitchen drain a long way horizontally to reach the stack, often through a basement ceiling, with less slope than a modern layout. Galvanized steel branch drains, still common in houses renovated in the 1950s and 60s, rust on the inside and give grease a rough surface to grip. Kitchens moved during a renovation sometimes ended up on undersized pipe. Add a dishwasher and a disposal, and that old line is asked to carry far more than it was built for.

What we do on site, in order

1. We pull the trap under the sink and look at what comes out, since the debris tells us a lot about where the clog sits.
2. We run a cable machine with a cutting head through the trap arm and into the wall, not just through the strainer.
3. If the line is packed with grease along its length, we flush it with hot water under pressure or recommend hydro jetting from a basement cleanout.
4. We reassemble the trap with new washers, run both bowls and the dishwasher at the same time, and look for weeping joints.

What affects the price

We tell you the price before we start. The main factors are how far down the line the blockage is, whether we can reach it from the sink or need a cleanout downstairs, and whether the trap or the pipe in the wall is corroded enough that it should be replaced instead of cleaned. If a camera look is worth doing, we explain why first.

When to call right away

Call immediately if a basement floor drain or laundry tub fills up whenever the kitchen sink is used, or if the sink fills with water you did not put there. Both mean the problem is past the kitchen branch and in the main line.

The job, in four moves

1. 1
   Pull the trap or cleanout

   Bucket under it, cap or trap off, standing water bailed first.

2. 2
   Run the right cable

   Small drum for sinks and tubs, sectional machine for the stack and lateral.

3. 3
   Camera the line

   Push camera fed in after the cable to read joints, roots and belly.

4. 4
   Flush and show you

   Hot water run at full flow, footage played back, trap reset with new washers.

Common questions