The Port Richey Kitchen Drain That Needed Jetting the Day After Thanksgiving, and the Three Things a Full House Sends Down the Pipes

On the Friday after Thanksgiving last year, our plumber hydro jetted the kitchen drain line in a home off Newell Drive in Port Richey, and the invoice totaled $1,275. The Monday before the holiday, a kitchen sink off Able Drive in Port Richey had required a standard drain cleaning, which totaled $625. That same Monday in Hudson, the upstairs toilets and showers in a home off Greengate Drive had backed up. Our plumber removed a toilet to clear the line beneath it for $850, which included $100 for the second floor location. On the Monday after the holiday, a toilet off Andros Lane in Port Richey overflowed because its fill valve would not shut off and the wax seal underneath it had failed, leaving approximately an inch of water on the floor.

A full house strains plumbing in three locations simultaneously. Additional cooking sends more grease and food into the kitchen line. Additional guests send more paper and wipes into the toilets. Extra showers, laundry, and dishwasher cycles push more water through a septic tank than it handles on an ordinary weekend. Each of those is easy to anticipate once you know where it appears first.

Grease is the slowest of the three. It enters the sink warm and liquid, cools inside the pipe, and adheres to the walls, collecting food particles and soap as it accumulates. In September our plumbers cleared a kitchen line off Windridge Drive in Holiday that had grease and calcium caked along the top of the pipe. It required several passes with a cable machine and a mini jet to restore it, for $1,235.25. At the end of October off Daphne Street in New Port Richey, a mechanical cleaning removed a heavy grease buildup from a kitchen drain for $400, and our plumbers inspected the backyard cleanout to confirm the main sewer line was flowing. A cable opens a passage through grease. Jetting scours the entire pipe wall, which is why a kitchen line that clogs every few months usually requires it. This August a homeowner off Lakewood Drive in Hudson told us another company had been clearing the same kitchen line every couple of months.

Keeping grease out of the line requires a few habits on the holiday itself. Let the fat from the roasting pan cool, pour it into a can or jar, and throw it out with the trash. Wipe greasy pans with a paper towel before they go into the sink or the dishwasher. Scrape plates into the garbage rather than the disposal, and keep potato peels, rice, and pasta out of the disposal entirely, because they expand or turn to paste inside the pipe. Running hot water after grease does not eliminate it. It only carries it farther down the line before it cools.

Toilets are the second pressure point. Wet wipes, including the varieties labeled flushable, do not disintegrate the way toilet paper does, and they snag at bends and joints. This October our plumber spent half an hour clearing a line off Seeley Lane in Hudson, and the camera revealed a large bundle of wipes caught immediately after a bend, probably snagged on roots, for $976.50. In September a sink and toilet off Bigelow Drive in Holiday bubbled whenever the shower ran, and baby wipes were part of the problem. When guests visit, place a small covered trash can in every bathroom. If a toilet starts to run over, turn the valve behind it clockwise until it stops. Closing that valve on Andros Lane is what allowed our plumber to restore water to the rest of the house.

Septic homes have a third concern, which is volume. A septic tank separates solids from water, and the liquid flows out to the drain field to absorb into the ground. A house that normally holds two people and suddenly holds eight sends considerably more water through the tank in a few days. A tank that is overdue for pumping has less capacity for solids to settle before the water moves on. On Christmas Eve last year we cleared stopped drain lines running to the septic tank at homes off Winder Drive in Holiday and Gloucester Road in Brooksville. Distribute laundry across the week rather than running it all the day before guests arrive, and avoid operating the dishwasher and the washing machine simultaneously. If your tank has not been pumped in three to five years, schedule it before the holiday. We do not pump tanks ourselves, but we coordinate pump outs with trusted local septic companies and handle the plumbing side, including the lines, the inlet, the outlet filter, and the effluent pump.

Here is when you should not spend money with us. A single slow kitchen sink immediately after a big meal is often grease sitting in the trap underneath the sink. A plunger, with the other drain of a double sink held closed, clears many of those. A toilet that clogged once with a houseful of guests and flushes normally after a plunger does not require a plumber. Chemical drain cleaners are worth skipping. They rarely dissolve grease or wipes, they can damage older pipes, and they make the job dangerous for whoever opens the line next. Call when two or more fixtures back up simultaneously, when water rises in a tub or shower as a toilet flushes, or when the same sink clogs again within a few weeks. Those symptoms indicate the main line rather than a single fixture.

Farrell Plumbing clears kitchen lines, toilets, and main lines in Port Richey, New Port Richey, Holiday, Hudson, Trinity, Spring Hill, Brooksville, and Palm Harbor, and emergency service is available twenty four hours a day. Farrell Plumbing holds Florida license CFC1430362.