Hydro Jetting
Cabling makes an opening. Jetting takes the pipe back to the wall. On a grease-lined restaurant line the difference is about nine months.
What it is
A hose is fed into the line carrying water at high pressure to a nozzle that directs most of that water backwards. The reverse jets pull the hose up the pipe and scour the wall as it travels. What comes off gets flushed back toward the access point. Done properly the pipe ends the job at the diameter it was built with.
When jetting is the right call, and when it is not
| Right | Grease-lined kitchen branches, scaled cast iron, soft root intrusion, and any line that has been cabled clear more than once in a year |
|---|---|
| Right | Restaurant and commercial kitchen waste, where the deposit is uniform along the whole run rather than in one spot |
| Wrong | A pipe that is cracked, badly corroded or already separated at a joint. Pressure will find that weakness and make it worse |
| Wrong | A blockage that is a solid object. A dropped phone does not respond to water, and cabling or retrieval is the answer |
Which is why the camera goes in first on any line we have not seen. Jetting a pipe that is structurally gone turns a drainage problem into a repair inside a finished ceiling.
Why grease behaves differently in a converted building
Two things make west-side loft conversions harder on waste lines than a purpose-built apartment house. Kitchens sit a long way from the stack, so there is more horizontal pipe for grease to cool in. And the branch often runs above a finished ceiling in the unit below, which means nobody notices the slow build until it is a blockage, and nobody wants to open it up once it is.
A line like that does not need clearing. It needs the lining taken off, and then it needs to be left alone for a few years.
Restaurants and storefront kitchens
Ground-floor food service on Ninth Avenue, in the Meatpacking District or along the Chelsea side streets puts more grease through a waste line in a month than a household does in a decade. Those lines want scheduled jetting on a known interval rather than emergency clearing on a Friday night, and the interval is set by what the camera shows after the first clean, not by a guess.
Grease interceptor servicing is a separate matter and a separate trade, but a working interceptor is what decides how often the line behind it needs attention. See commercial plumbing.
What we need on site
- A proper access point. A cleanout, a removed trap, or a roof vent, depending on the run
- Water supply and somewhere for the return to go
- In an occupied building, agreement on timing, because the line is out of use while we work
Need this doing?
Call and describe the problem. You will get the price before anyone starts.