The kitchen sink takes more abuse than any other fixture in the house. Hot water, grease, coffee grounds, starches, a disposal grinding away, a dishwasher pumping into the same drain, and an ice maker line running behind the fridge that nobody has looked at since it was installed. It is not surprising that kitchens generate a large share of our service calls.
Most of the work is straightforward and same-day: a disposal that hums but will not turn, a faucet that has finally worn through, a supply line that started weeping under the cabinet. Some of it is bigger — a kitchen drain that has been collecting grease since the Nixon administration, or a remodel that needs the whole thing re-plumbed.
We handle both, and we will tell you honestly which one you have. A disposal that jams is a ten-minute fix. A kitchen line that backs up twice a year is a pipe problem, and clearing it a third time is not the answer.
Signs you need kitchen plumbing
- Garbage disposal hums but does not turn, or trips its reset repeatedly
- Kitchen sink drains slowly or backs up, especially when the dishwasher runs
- Water pooling in the cabinet under the sink
- A faucet that drips, sprays from the base, or has lost pressure
- Dishwasher not draining, or draining back into the sink
- Persistent odor from the disposal or drain
- Ice maker or fridge water line leaking behind the appliance
- Planning a kitchen remodel that moves the sink or adds a pot filler
A kitchen line that backs up more than once a year is telling you about grease build-up or a defect in the pipe, not about what went down it last week. That is a camera-and-jetting conversation.
What the job includes
Garbage disposal repair and replacement
Jams, failed motors, leaking flanges and cracked housings. When replacement is the answer we size it to how you actually cook — a light-duty unit under a family kitchen is a two-year appliance.
Kitchen faucet and sink installation
Faucets, pull-downs, pot fillers, sink swaps, and the new quarter-turn shutoffs that should go in at the same time. Undermount sinks in stone counters need care and we take it.
Dishwasher and ice maker connections
Proper supply, correct drain routing with a high loop or air gap so waste water cannot siphon back, and a shutoff that is actually reachable.
Kitchen drain clearing and hydro jetting
Grease is the defining kitchen drain problem. Cabling opens a channel; jetting cleans the pipe wall. On a line with thirty years of build-up, jetting is what actually solves it.
Under-sink leak repair
Trap arms, tailpieces, basket strainers, supply lines and shutoffs. The cabinet floor tells the story — we look at the water damage pattern to work out how long it has been going.
Kitchen remodel rough-in
Relocating sink drainage, adding an island with proper venting, running new supply for a pot filler or fridge, all coordinated with your cabinet and counter schedule.
How we work
1. Find the real source
Under-sink water can come from the faucet base, the sprayer hose, the basket strainer, the trap, the supply lines, the disposal or the dishwasher connection. We dry it, run it, and watch — rather than replacing parts hopefully.
2. Repair where repair makes sense
A jammed disposal, a worn cartridge or a failed strainer gasket are repairs. We do not replace a working appliance because a $6 part failed.
3. Right-size any replacement
Disposal horsepower and grind stage to your cooking, faucet to your sink configuration and hole count, supply lines braided stainless rather than the plastic that came in the box.
4. Address the drain if it needs it
If the line has been backing up, we camera it. Repeat kitchen clogs in an older house are almost always a grease shelf or a defect, and both are solvable once you can see them.
5. Test under real load
Fill both bowls and release, run the dishwasher through a drain cycle, run the disposal under load. That combination finds the problems a quick tap test misses.
What drives the price
We do not publish fake prices, because a number that does not match your house is worse than no number at all. What we can do is tell you exactly what moves the figure, so nothing on the estimate is a surprise.
Repair versus replacement
Many disposal and faucet problems are a part, not an appliance. We quote the repair first when it is genuinely viable, and tell you when it is not.
Access under the cabinet
A clear cabinet with a shutoff you can reach is quick. A sink base packed with a water filter, an RO tank, a disposal and a dishwasher connection in a 1940s cabinet takes longer.
Cabling versus jetting
Clearing the clog and cleaning the pipe are different jobs at different prices. On a grease-loaded line we will tell you which one actually solves your problem.
Counter and sink material
Removing and re-setting an undermount sink in stone is careful work with real risk, and it prices differently from a drop-in stainless swap.
Remodel scope
Moving a sink, adding an island, or bringing new supply across a kitchen means opening the floor or the ceiling below and re-running drain and vent at proper slope.
What this looks like in Catonsville
Kitchen drains in Catonsville's older homes have a specific problem: cast iron plus decades of grease plus hard water scale. Grease congeals on a scaled pipe wall far more readily than on smooth PVC, so a fifty-year-old kitchen line can have a substantial shelf of accumulation that no amount of hot water and dish soap will move. That is the single most common cause of the "we clear it every year" kitchen.
Many older Catonsville kitchens have also been remodeled at least once, often without a permit, and the drainage sometimes reflects that. We regularly find undersized trap arms, missing or improvised venting on a relocated sink, and dishwasher drains connected without a high loop so waste water siphons back into the machine.
Hard water is hardest on the moving parts here. Faucet cartridges, spray head diverters and aerators in Catonsville see visible mineral accumulation within a couple of years. A faucet that has "lost pressure" usually just needs the aerator soaked — and if we can save you a service call by telling you that on the phone, we will.
Ice maker lines deserve a specific mention. The quarter-inch plastic tubing that came with a fridge twenty years ago is a common source of slow, undetected leaks that ruin flooring behind an appliance nobody moves. When we are in a kitchen we look at it, and swapping it for braided stainless is cheap insurance.
Kitchen Plumbing questions we get asked
My disposal hums but does not spin. Is it dead?
Usually not. That is the classic jam symptom. Cut the power, free the flywheel with the hex wrench in the bottom of the unit, then press the red reset button. If it runs after that, you saved a service call. If it trips again immediately, the motor is likely finished.
Can I put coffee grounds and eggshells down the disposal?
You can, and you should not. Grounds and shells create a dense sludge that settles in the trap arm and in horizontal runs. In an older Catonsville kitchen with scaled cast iron drainage, that sludge is exactly what starts the next backup. Grease is worse still — pour it into a can, not the sink.
Why does my dishwasher leave water in the bottom?
Most often a drain hose without a proper high loop or air gap, so the line siphons back. Sometimes it is a partial blockage at the disposal inlet or a clogged filter. It is a quick diagnosis and usually an inexpensive fix.
Do you install sinks during a kitchen remodel?
Yes. We handle disconnect and rough-in before the counters arrive and come back for the final set and hookup afterward. Coordinating with your counter fabricator matters — we schedule around them rather than the other way round.
