A Flooded School Kitchen
If your drains are running slow, don't wait for them to stop completely
Got a call Tuesday morning from a school in Brentwood. Their kitchen staff arrived at 6am to start lunch prep and found sewage backing up through the floor drains.
Not ideal when you're meant to be feeding 300 kids in a few hours.
Turned out the main drainage line running from the kitchen to the sewer had given up. Fifteen years of food scraps, cooking oil, and who knows what else had finally taken their toll.
The dinner ladies had noticed things draining slower over the past month, but nobody wants to think about drains until they have to.
We brought the jetting unit out - that's our big gun for serious blockages.
While Dan was setting up the equipment, I had a walk around with the caretaker. Poor man was worried sick about health and safety - rightly so.
You can't have kids anywhere near backed-up sewage.
The smell was something else. If you've ever dealt with blocked drains, you'll know what I mean.
That heavy, sweet sort of smell that catches in your throat.
The kitchen staff were brilliant though - kept making cups of tea while we worked, even though their kitchen looked like a swimming pool
Took us four hours to clear it properly. Had to jet the line three times to shift all the build-up. Found all sorts in there - fat deposits hard as concrete, plastic gloves, even a spatula that must have slipped down months ago.
The head teacher came down while we were finishing up. He wanted to know how to stop it happening again.
Simple really - proper grease traps, regular maintenance, and training the kitchen staff about what should and shouldn't go down the drains.
We're going back next month to install new grease interceptors. Cheaper than dealing with another flood, that's for sure.
If your drains are running slow, don't wait for them to stop completely. Give us a ring on 01268 527335.
We cover Essex, Kent and London, and there's no call-out charge. Better to fix it now than end up with your own indoor swimming pool.
Geoff Ward
