# Worst Sewer Call



## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

I would rather unstop a sewer line any day than run a grease line. There is a hospital that I take care of (one of three) They have a small in floor grease trap in a hallway behind their kitchen, that runs to a lift station. The trap itself is not big enough to handle the amount of grease they put down it. But they dont have the funds to upgrade so I unstop it on a yearly basis. 5 years ago it backed up when I was working for my first union shop. We walked down in the basement and the whole hallway was full of water and rotten food. The hallway is about 30yards long. It was horrible. Ran a cleanout on the upsteam side of the line. I swapped companies and I found myself back at the same hospital, Christmas Eve two years ago. Same situation. 8hrs later I finally got the thing to drain down. I now have a company come and jett the line out to the lift station once a year, and pump both pits down. It always stops up around Christmas time. Anybody have clients set up on yearly drain cleaning?


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## ToUtahNow (Jul 19, 2008)

At one time I thought my worst sewer was a KFC restaurant where some dumb kid drained the fryer into a floor sink. However, that paled to the KFC restaurant I did which did not have a grease trap and I spent the night forcing 4" grease logs 600' to a manhole where one of my guys was catching them and stacking them in the parking lot. I never figured out why there was no grease trap but the property owner blamed the KFC and the KFC blamed the property owner. I didn't care whose fault it was but I told them I could no longer work for them if they did not add a grease trap.

Mark


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## Plumberman (Jul 7, 2008)

. I have seen it happen before here as well.


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## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

I have done a few grease lines too. The fist one I ever did was stoped up. Ran a snake through and there was no clog! Snake came right out! After a bit I realized thet the grease was so thick it was closing up around the snake!


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## threaderman (Jun 17, 2008)

USP45 said:


> I have done a few grease lines too. The fist one I ever did was stoped up. Ran a snake through and there was no clog! Snake came right out! After a bit I realized thet the grease was so thick it was closing up around the snake!


That happens in residential as well.I've had more than one kit. sink stoppage where a cable would go through all day long,but the stoppage never cleared until you ran a mini-jetter or blow bag.


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## Bill (Jun 17, 2008)

threaderman said:


> That happens in residential as well.I've had more than one kit. sink stoppage where a cable would go through all day long,but the stoppage never cleared until you ran a mini-jetter or blow bag.


When I started out I used a rag on the end of a snake and got progressively larger each time till it was cleared.


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## threaderman (Jun 17, 2008)

I've done that too.It just goes to show how resourceful one can be when starting out with-out much equipment.Quite the flash-back,thanks.


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## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

Not so sure about commercial as I do very little commercial. They never seem to want to fix the problem, "just make it work (until the next time it happens)". However, severely slow or stopped up ks drains in residential will very often lead to replacement which means bigger, better, tickets.

I don't know about any of you but when I get this call for any older house that has galvi and/or ci pipe, I am warning the ho that after we clear it with the jetter, it may leak and if so will need to be replaced. When you have access to the piping, if you see any small rust colored spots on the bottom of the pipe (2" galvi usually but sometimes ci also), sometimes bordered by white rings (calcium deposits), even if it is not currently leaking, they will leak after you jet the line. If you are using a cable it will very often open up the weak spot and reopen a leak currently sealed with grease as well. 

You should warn the ho ahead of time and show the ho these suspect areas whenever possible. If there are more than one or two in the piping run I will recommend replacement as an option before I even start. If I jet the line and replacement then proves necessary, then the ho just spent $395 - $425 extra dollars unnecessarily. We do whatever they want to do without any pressure but we definately explain all of the possibilities that we are aware of before hand.


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