Kitchen Stack Cleaning

It’s a common practice for some people to pour kitchen liquid waste into the sink. When oil, grease, food crumbs and other things go down the kitchen pipe (or the kitchen stack), some of it stick onto the inner wall of the stack and do not go all the way down and out to the city sewage. Over time, this narrows the inside space of the stack pipe. Eventually, when the stack pipe get clogged up so much that it “vomits” the scum in its “stomach” (the black stuff in the picture) out to the kitchen sink.

Scums backs up and flows out to the kitchen sink.
(Click here to see a larger picture.)

High-rise condos have to schedule cleaning the kitchen stacks regularly. In the 880 Grandview Way building, kitchen clean-out openings (the access point) are located in each unit on the 2nd, 7th and 13th floors.

This year the kitchen stack cleaning in the 880 Grandview Way building will begin from September 14 to 22, and will be done by Firenza Plumbing. The cleaning costs about $6,000 (including taxes).

The more grease and food crumbs go down to the drain, the faster the scum will build up, and the more frequently this clean-out will have to be done (currently it’s done about once a year in the 880 Grandview Way building), and obviously the more costly your management fees will become.

You may help slow down (or perhaps even eliminate) the buildup of scum in kitchen stacks by avoiding dump liquid food waste (especially with oil and food crumbs) down the kitchen sinks. You may put the kitchen waste in a plastic bag (make sure it does not leak) – or even double-bag it – tie it tight and firm, and then put it down the garbage chute. This in the end will save you money.

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