As a new restaurant owner, familiarizing yourself with industry-specific commercial plumbing problems should be a top priority. Plumbing issues have the power to shut your establishment down for days at a time, meaning lost revenue in addition to expensive repairs. Learn about some of the most common restaurant plumbing issues here to stay ahead of costly clogs and backups.

What Are the Restaurant Plumbing Issues to Know About?

1. Clogged Kitchen Sink Drains

Depending on the traffic your restaurant receives, the kitchen drains might see a constant flow of food debris. Eventually, the debris accumulates within pipes along with other clogging agents, such as soap scum to create slow-draining sinks and standing water issues.

Use drain covers to prevent excess food debris from entering drains, and schedule professional drain cleaning at least once a year to keep serious clogs from forming.

2. Overloaded Grease Trap

Your kitchen’s grease trap protects the sewer main by catching grease, fat, and oil. All contribute to fatbergs, or large collections of floatable matter that can cause major sewer line blockages and harbor bacteria. Since restaurants are among the top contributors to fatbergs, an overflowing grease trap requires immediate servicing.

Excessive grease, oil, and fat also contribute to clogged restaurant pipes or cause backup-related grease floods that require a lot of time, money, and energy to clean up. Check the trap regularly and schedule emptying when it is about a quarter full to sidestep these problems.

3. Clogged Toilets

Restaurant restrooms can deal with a lot of waste and toilet paper daily, as well as patrons who flush foreign objects such as feminine products. The fewer facilities your restaurant has, the more susceptible its toilets are to clogging.

Place signs in all restrooms discouraging foreign object flushing and get the commercial plumbing system inspected and cleaned annually, if not biannually, to prevent backups that leak toxic fumes, inflict property damage, and expose customers and employees to pathogens and bacteria. 

 

Protect your restaurant’s commercial plumbing system with services from Arrowhead Plumbing. The plumbing company has served Gwinnett, Dekalb, and Fulton counties in Georgia since 2005, with all plumbers fully licensed and insured. Call (678) 226-2959 today to make an appointment or learn more about commercial plumbing services online.