Hello, I’m a San Francisco Plumber. I have owned Magic Plumbing for over 20 years. And during those past 20 years I have unclogged drains all over San Francisco. One particular problem is a restaurant that constantly has all the drains clogged. They usually call as all the kitchen drains are clogged, first it’s the floor drains where the staff is wading through water, while cooking and washing dishes. By this point even the toilet drain is now clogged and there is an out of service sign on the bathroom door. Sometimes the restaurant manager will call a local San Francisco who will simply use an electric snake to clear the sewer blockage. The problem with this is the electric cable machine is merely boring a small hole through the drain which is usually impacted with grease, resulting in a drain that is still under capacity and will simply clog again within a month or so.
So how should that main sewer drain be cleaned? The right way to clean a restaurant drain is to use a hydro jet. This special machine uses high powered water to scour the inside of the drain. The high pressure water breaks down the build up of grease and debris inside the pipes, if done properly. If the correct action is performed by the San Francisco plumber, and an adequate amount of time is spent working the grease out of the drain, the result will be a sewer drain that is full bore meaning the grease that was clinging to the inside of the pipes will be gone.
When grease builds up on the inside of the drain it can completely clog the drain within a year in a high volume San Francisco restaurant.
If done incorrectly meaning not enough time was spent removing the grease or the incorrect technique was used, the plumber will leave but the drain keeps backing up. The cause of this is not all the grease was removed; now there are large chunks of grease barely clinging to the sides of the pipes, what they do is fall onto the drain as large chunks getting stuck at bends and at other sections still impacted with grease. The only way is to remove all the grease and this may take more than just an hour.
Without proper drain maintenance in San Francisco a 4" drain can easily be reduced to a 2" opening within six months. From my experience a restaurant in San Francisco should usually have their drains, maintained and cleaned out every 3 to 4 months. This also depends on the volume of the restaurant some require a maintenance every month or two while others only require drain service every six months to a year.
I have personally responded to hundreds or even thousands emergency drain clogs in San Francisco, and have performed hundreds of hydro-jet drain maintenances in local San Francisco restaurants. The scenario is usually always the same. The grease builds up over time, the restaurant starts to have drain back ups that become more frequent. Once I perform periodic drain maintenance they never have an emergency main sewer drain for the life of the drain cleaning maintenance.
When you hire a San Francisco plumber for drain cleaning make sure they have hydro jet equipment, because in most cases this is the only effective way to remove grease from a clogged drain in San Francisco.
Call me at 415-441-2255 for a free estimate and consultation and I will show you how to make your drain problems disappear.
