Restaurants and commercial buildings

Grease first

Grease coats the inside of a kitchen line and hardens. A liner seals against a clean wall, so the line is cleaned of grease and scale before it is lined. The camera run after cleaning shows whether the pipe underneath is still round enough to line.

Lining doesn't change what goes down the drain. The grease interceptor still has to be pumped on schedule, or the new pipe will coat up like the old one.

Working around the business

• Nothing can drain while the liner is put in and cured, so the kitchen and the restrooms are out of use for that time. Ask for the schedule and plan the closure around it.
• A spot repair at one bad joint is a shorter job than a full-length liner, if that is all the camera finds.
• Lining from a cleanout leaves the parking lot and the walks alone. Digging would open them.

Size and length

Commercial lines are often longer and wider than a house lateral. Ask whether your pipe size and run length can be lined in one piece, and how many branch lines will need reopening.

Who does the work

The company that answers this number has lined sewer lines in restaurants, grocery stores, major hotels, hospitals, government buildings, power plants, airports, high-rise buildings and industrial buildings.

Check whether your city's lateral program covers a commercial building at all. The programs on this site's town pages are written for homes and small residential buildings.

Questions owners ask

Can a restaurant's sewer line be lined?

Usually, if the pipe is still round. The grease has to be cleaned off the pipe wall first, because a liner seals against a clean wall.