Drain Excavation in Kennesaw, GA

The kitchen drain that keeps coming back

Kitchen lines have a hard life. Fats, food particles and soap travel down them every day, and in a slab home the line often runs a long horizontal stretch under the floor before reaching the main drain. When the sink clogs, it gets snaked, runs fine for a while, then backs up again. Sometimes that pattern is just grease. Sometimes the pipe itself has cracked, sagged or shifted under the slab, and no amount of cleaning will fix it. In those cases drain excavation, opening the floor or ground to replace the damaged section, is the repair. In a Kennesaw kitchen, the trick is figuring out which situation you have before deciding.

Grease buildup or a broken pipe?

Grease that goes down warm cools and sticks to pipe walls, building up in layers until the opening is narrow. A cable can punch a hole through that buildup, which is why the sink drains again, but the remaining grease soon catches more. A damaged pipe gives similar symptoms with a few differences: clogs come back faster after each cleaning, the cable may snag at the same distance every time, and there may be a sewer smell or dampness near the cabinet base. Only looking inside the pipe settles the question.

Clean first, then look

A camera pushed into a line packed with grease shows little more than a wall of gray. That is why a thorough cleaning usually comes first. Hydro jetting scours grease off the pipe walls where the pipe is sound enough to take it, and then the camera can see the actual condition of the line. Common findings in kitchen runs include a belly where grease collects, heavy scale in old cast iron, an offset joint, or a crack along the bottom of the pipe.

When the fix is a dig

If the footage shows broken or badly sagging pipe, the damaged section has to be replaced. Kitchen drains often run beneath cabinets and appliances, so the location of the break matters. Sometimes the slab is cut in front of the cabinets; sometimes a base cabinet has to come out; and if the kitchen sits on an outside wall, tunneling in from the yard may avoid the interior altogether. Where much of the line is corroded, replacing the whole run from the sink to the main drain can make more sense than a patch.

Habits that help the new pipe last

• Wipe or scrape greasy pans into the trash before washing
• Keep coffee grounds, rice and fibrous scraps out of the sink
• Run plenty of water when using a disposal
• Skip chemical drain openers, which do little against grease and can be hard on older pipe

A new pipe with proper slope sheds water well, but no drain enjoys a steady diet of cooking fat.

Permits in Kennesaw

Permit applications in the city are filed online with Kennesaw Building Services, which also schedules the inspection and offers an affidavit for homeowners applying on their own behalf. A replacement kitchen drain is installed to the plumbing code the city currently enforces, so the new section meets today's standards for slope and materials even where the old line did not.

Kitchen drain questions

Can hydro jetting damage an old kitchen line?

It can if the pipe is already weak. Badly corroded cast iron or a line with an existing crack can be made worse by high pressure, so the age and material of the pipe are weighed first. Fragile lines get a gentler cleaning, and the camera run afterward shows whether the pipe came through intact or needs replacing anyway.

Will the kitchen cabinets have to come out?

Not always. It depends on where the break sits. Many repairs can be made by cutting the slab in front of the cabinets or reaching the pipe from outside. If the damage is directly under a base cabinet, that cabinet may need to be removed and reinstalled, and the estimate should say so.

How often should a kitchen line be cleaned?

There is no universal schedule. A household that cooks often and keeps grease out of the sink may rarely need it, while heavy use can call for periodic cleaning. If you find yourself scheduling cleanings more and more often, that pattern is a signal to have the line inspected.

Find out what is really in the line

Tired of the same kitchen clog? A cleaning and camera inspection of your Kennesaw kitchen drain will show whether a repair is needed; book it at (404) 409-4448. Other drain issues inside the house are covered under drain repair.