Kitchen Plumbing

The long-run problem

In a purpose-built apartment the kitchen sits next to the stack because that is how it was drawn. In a converted floor the kitchen went where the layout wanted it, and the waste had to travel to reach the stack. Those long, shallow-fall runs are the reason loft kitchens block more often than anyone expects, and the reason grease is a bigger factor here than in a newer building.

It is worth knowing whether yours is one of them, because it changes the maintenance interval and it changes what to put down the sink. See hydro jetting for the difference between clearing a line like that and actually cleaning it.

Sinks and faucets

• Dripping is a cartridge or a seat, and is nearly always repairable on a good faucet
• Weak flow at one tap is the aerator nine times out of ten. Unscrew it and look before assuming anything larger
• Leaking underneath may be the supply connector, the trap, the strainer or the faucet body, and they want different fixes. Dry everything, run water, and watch where it reappears first
• Sprayer hoses and pull-down wands fail at the hose, usually where it rubs. A common cause of a cabinet that is mysteriously damp

Garbage disposals

A disposal that hums but does not turn is jammed, and a jam is usually clearable with the hex key that came with it. A disposal that does nothing at all has generally tripped its own overload and needs the reset button on the underside before anyone concludes it is dead. Leaks from the body itself mean replacement, because the casing is the tank.

One thing worth saying plainly: the long horizontal branch runs in a converted building are the worst possible place for the finely ground material a disposal produces. It does not settle in the trap, it settles halfway along the run where nobody can reach it. In a loft kitchen we would rather see less going through the disposal, not more.

Dishwashers and icemakers

Most kitchen floods we see start at an appliance connection rather than at a pipe. The recurring causes are a saddle valve fitted to a copper line decades ago and slowly weeping, a braided supply hose past its life, and a dishwasher drain looped incorrectly so waste siphons back. All three are inexpensive to put right and expensive to ignore.

Renovation

Moving a kitchen sink in an apartment is a waste-line question before it is a cabinetry question. How far it can move depends on the fall available and on where the stack is, and that is worth establishing before the design is settled rather than after. See bathroom plumbing for how rough-in decisions work in these buildings.