Commercial Floor Drain Cleaning in Phoenix

Almost every floor drain problem is one of four, and each looks a little different.

• A packed strainer. Water drains slowly right at the grate, and you can see debris. This is the simplest fix, and the code requires strainers that come out so it can be done.
• A dry trap. The drain drains fine, but the room smells like sewage. No water in the trap means nothing blocks sewer air.
• A clogged line. Water stands in the drain, rises slowly and drains slowly, but only this drain is affected.
• A backup from the main. Water or sewage comes up in several drains at once, usually the lowest ones in the building.

The first two are cleaned from the top in minutes. The last two take a cable or a jet. Telling us which one you see, and whether it is one drain or several, saves a trip.

A floor drain holds a plug of water in its trap that blocks sewer air. The 2024 plumbing code, as Phoenix adopts it, requires that seal to be between 2 and 4 inches deep. A drain that sees water only now and then loses that seal to evaporation, and in Valley heat that does not take long.

The code answers with trap primers. A water-supplied valve tops up the trap on a schedule. A wastewater-supplied device does it from a nearby fixture's drain. A barrier-type device, built to a different standard, blocks the air without needing water. A lavatory, hand sink or drinking fountain draining in the same room can also serve as the primer.

If your drain has a primer and still smells, the primer may be the broken part: a valve that no longer opens, a feed line that has clogged, or a connection that was cut. We trace it and test it. If the drain has no primer, pouring water in restores the seal for a while, and a primer or barrier device is the permanent answer. See our guides to whether commercial floor drains need a trap primer and why dry floor drains smell in Arizona.

A caution about the smell itself. OSHA notes that hydrogen sulfide, which is sewer gas, smells like rotten eggs at low levels but can overcome your sense of smell at higher ones. If the odor is strong, comes with headaches or dizziness, or is worse in a closed room, leave the room and call us.

We clear the drain from the top first, then the line, then confirm the seal.

1. 1We lift the strainer and clean out the bucket and the trap by hand.
2. 2We run a cable or a small-bore jet through the line to the first cleanout, working with the flow.
3. 3We check the trap primer: where it is fed, whether it opens, and whether the trap seal refills.
4. 4We run water into the drain to confirm that it drains fast and that the seal stays.
5. 5If this drain has backed up before, we run a camera down the line to look for a sag, roots or a break.

Walk-in cooler drains are different, and we leave them that way. Under the code, they drain indirectly, through an air gap, into a receptor outside the cold space. We clean that line and do not connect it directly to the sewer.

Kitchen floor drains are grease-bearing, and their lines feed the interceptor. When one backs up soon after your last pump-out, the cause may be the interceptor or a downstream line, not the drain. Our page on grease trap backing up into floor sinks walks through that, and a licensed hauler handles pumping. Trench-style drains, common in dish rooms, have their own page at trench drain cleaning.

• The smell is real but the drain is wet. If the trap holds water and the room still smells, the source is elsewhere: a cracked line, a dry fixture trap, or a vent. A smoke test traces it.
• Several drains back up together. This is a main line problem. Jetting one drain will not help, and our page on restaurant main line jetting explains the next step.
• Water stands only after heavy rain. A floor drain tied to storm drainage is a different system, and its fix is not a sanitary cleaning.

You can pour a gallon of water into a rarely used drain yourself and see if the smell goes away. If it does, put the drain on a reminder, or have a primer installed.

Call with where the drain is, whether it smells, drains slowly or fills, and how many drains are affected. We offer 24/7 emergency service, free estimates and an upfront price before work starts. Related: commercial drain cleaning, hydro jetting, and property management for buildings with many drains.