Article
Standing water in the kitchen sink is usually the drain
A kitchen that will not empty is the most common drain call we take, and it is often described as a leak because the water is visible. It is not a leak in the supply sense. The water was counted when the faucet opened. It is sitting in the basin because the branch, the trap, or the line toward the main cannot carry the grease, the rice, and the soap that a Los Angeles kitchen puts down it. If the rest of the house drains, and the tub does not gurgle when the kitchen is used, the problem is that branch.
Pages that rank for a sink that will not drain tend to sell a chemical opener first and a camera of the sewer second. Both skip the split that decides the truck. Chemical opener poured onto standing water sits in the basin. It does not reliably reach a clog further down the line, and it is a burn risk when someone later opens the trap. We do not use it, and we ask you not to add it before we arrive. A camera is a later conversation, and only if a proper cleaning fails to hold. It is not the first tool for a greasy kitchen branch.
Basin, or the cabinet under it
Look under the sink before you decide what you have. Hot or cold water on the cabinet floor, with the basin otherwise empty, is a supply drip: an angle stop, a supply hose, or the faucet itself. That can be the smallest repair in the house, and it can move the meter if it is steady. It is not a main-line cleaning. A basin that holds water, with a dry cabinet, is a drain.
A double sink that drains on one side and not the other often has the stoppage at the tee between the basins. That is a short job. If both basins and the dishwasher stand together, the stoppage is past that tee, toward the rest of the kitchen line or the main. Say which of those you see. It changes what comes off the truck.
A dishwasher that will not empty into a sink that otherwise drains is usually its own hose or air gap, not the city main and not a slab. Tell us that separately so a simple hose is not described as a main-line cleaning.
When the kitchen is only the symptom
If the basin fills from below while nobody is running the faucet, or it rises when the washer or a bathroom is used, the kitchen is the opening the main has chosen. A short cable will poke a hole in the grease and the water will come back. A coated main needs a hydro-jet, which washes the wall of the pipe instead of tunneling through the middle of the clog. When that is the right tool, and when it is the wrong one, is in hydro-jetting a main line.
A disposal does not create a new drain. It sends ground food into a branch that, in plenty of Los Angeles kitchens, is an older line with years of grease on the wall. Running it longer makes a paste. Stop. Do not keep testing it.
This is also not a slab leak. A slab leak does not fill one basin and leave the others alone, and it does move the meter while the faucets are off. If you are staring at a ceiling stain and a slow sink and you are not sure which story you are in, use slab leak or a drain before anyone talks about concrete.
What to tell us, and what to stop doing
Tell us whether one sink failed or the whole house slowed, whether the water is in the basin or under it, and whether a cable was already tried. Those three facts decide the visit. Do not open the trap yourself if you have already poured a chemical into the standing water. Leave it, and say so, so we can drain it without a splash.
We work in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood, Valley Village, Toluca Lake, Northridge, Glendale, Studio City, Calabasas, Beverly Hills, Woodland Hills, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Porter Ranch, and Santa Clarita. Drain cleaning is priced as drain cleaning. If the meter is the thing that worried you, the free leak inspection will say out loud whether this is a drain. If sewage is already on the floor, call 818-631-7296 and do not wait on a form.
Grease, older pipe, and the second visit
Los Angeles kitchens put a steady film of grease on the pipe, especially where the run is long or the slope is lazy. A cable can restore flow on a Tuesday and lose it by the next weekend because the film is still there. If that is the history you already have, say so. The honest next cleaning on a coated line is a jet from a real cleanout, not a longer cable through the same trap. If you have never had the line cleaned, we start with the smaller opening and we do not skip ahead to the machine to make the invoice larger.
Galvanized kitchen branches are still common in older houses in the Valley and in parts of the city. They narrow from the inside. A brand-new disposal on a narrowed branch will pack food against that roughness and look like a "bad disposal." Replacing the appliance without looking at the branch is a familiar wasted repair. We will tell you if the branch itself is the limit, and we will not describe that as a slab or as a city sewer.
If an upstairs bathroom slows on the same day as the kitchen, stop treating them as two appointments. One building drain is complaining at two fixtures. Book it as one problem and let the cleaning start at the cleanout that reaches both. If only the kitchen failed, and it failed the day after a holiday meal, say that too. A single heavy grease load is a different cleaning from a line that has been slow for a year.
Questions people ask
Is a sink full of water a leak?
Usually no. Water sitting in the basin was counted when the faucet opened. It is there because the drain cannot carry it. Water on the cabinet floor, under the sink, is a different problem and is often a supply drip.
Should I run the disposal until it clears?
No. A disposal does not clear a line that is already full. It grinds food into a paste and packs grease tighter. Stop using it until the line is open.
When is it the main line instead of the kitchen branch?
When other fixtures speak. If the tub gurgles, a floor drain rises, or the basin fills from below while the washer runs, the kitchen is the opening the main has chosen. A single slow basin, with the rest of the house fine, is the kitchen branch.