Local Plumber

Keep Your Catch Basins Clean

A catch basin is there to catch debris before it gets into the main sewer line. It consists of a pit, lined with brick or block, with one or more pipes coming into it, and a pipe that goes out to the sewer. The pipe that's going out to the sewer has an intake that's either protected by a dam (as in the first picture above) or with an upward facing intake (as in the second). The idea is that heavier debris will settle out before being drawn into the main line. Catch basins accumulate debris, leading to poor drainage, foul smells, and outdoor sewer & inside basement flooding. Plus dangerous pollutants collect which are highly hazardous. To avoid, regular cleaning is needed. A catch basin inspection is always included as part of our regular maintenance of your home or business's drainage system.

Catch basins prevent trash and other floatable materials from entering the drainage system by capturing such debris by way of a hooded outlet. The outlet pipes for catch basins on combined sewers (sanitary waste & storm water in a single pipe) are also outfitted with a flapper (trap) device to prevent the backflow of any unpleasant odors from pipes. Catch basins act as pre-treatment for other treatment practices by allowing larger sediments to settle in the basin sump areas. It's important to maintain catch basins to prevent storm sewer blockages and minimize the amount of pollutants entering storm sewers which may eventually discharge into local streams and waterways. Clogged catch basins can result in the ponding of water along streets & parking lots causing a nuisance to motorists, pedestrians, businesses as well as costly flooding damage to common building areas, businesses, homes, and basement areas.

All City

Chicago's

Plumbing Services

Professionals

Catch Basins - Grease Traps - Storm Sewers - Hydro Jetting & Rodding - Sludge Removal - Pipe & Drain Repairs

ALL CITY ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES

Stand-Up Guys That Won't Let You Down

We Service Restaurants & Commercial Kitchens

Grease causes sewers to overflow due to grease blockages. The importance of clean grease traps at restaurants is critical. A clean grease trap keeps grease out of the sewer system. A dirty grease trap will be noticed by customers, employees, and passerby with a raunchy stench that emanates turning people away causing potential new customers to think you're not a sanitary establishment. A grease trap (also known as grease interceptor, grease recovery device and grease converter) is a plumbing device (a type of trap) designed to intercept most greases and solids before they enter a wastewater disposal system. Waste from passive grease traps and gravity interceptors is called brown grease. Brown grease is rotted food solids in combination with fats, oils, and grease. All City Environmental pumps brown grease from the traps with our state of the art modern fleet of grease pumping trucks.

Catch Basin

Cleaning &

Maintenance

Grease Trap

Cleaning &

Maintenance

Our vacuum trucks clean catch basins by sucking debris and liquid waste

while also helping clean the adjoining sewer system.

Our pumper trucks pump out the grease, oils, fatty acids, and other debris accumulation to keep grease traps & sewers clean and prevent backup.

Integrity

Quality

Trust

Total Jetting &

Rodding

Services

We Put Powerful Jetting & Rodding To Work To Clear The Way

Power rodding and hydro jetting are powerful weapons in All City's arsenal to deal with drain blockages and sludge accumulation in pipes. To the homeowner standing ankle-deep in soapy water that fails to drain during a morning shower, a plumbing clog is a sudden event arriving out of the blue. Professional drain cleaning and maintenance means power rodding or hydro jetting. We utilize the latest techniques and technology with advanced tools and methods that are most effective and easier on your pipes. It’s a known fact that simply punching a hole in an obstruction causing a clog or hardware store liquid is frequently only a temporary solution. As long as conditions inside the pipe that reduce free flow of waste water persist—usually the accumulation of sludge or other residue—the drain is prone to clog again.

Sludge

Processing &

Removal

What Is Sludge?

Sludge is a mixture of solid wastes and water. All City Environmental treats it by method of filtration or sedimentation. It can be produced as sewage sludge from wastewater treatment or as a settled suspension obtained from conventional drinking water treatment and other industrial processes. It builds up over time in many places including septic tanks, basins, pipes, sewers, ponds, and water treatment plants. Sludge is mostly water with lesser amounts of solid material removed from liquid sewage. Primary sludge includes settleable solids removed during primary treatment in primary clarifiers. Secondary sludge separated in secondary clarifiers includes treated sewage sludge from secondary treatment bioreactors. Sludge effects all plumbing and sewer systems so be sure to have it regularly removed before it causes expensive flooding and permanent damage.

Treatment Options

Sewage sludge treatment are the processes we use to manage and dispose of sewage sludge produced during sewage treatment. There are various options for treating sludge including stabilization, thickening, dewatering, drying, and incineration. Typically a polymer chemical is used for the volume reduction process known as dewatering. Dewatering decreases sludge liquid volume as much as 90 percent. Digested sludge is put through large centrifuges that work in the same fashion as a washing machine spin cycle. The spinning centrifuge produces a force that separates the majority of the water from the sludge solid, creating a bio-solid substance. Then the water pulled from the spinning is sent back to the plant for reprocessing. Adding polymer chemical to the substance improves the consistency, creating a firmer product that is easier to manage. Water removal is the primary means of weight and volume reduction, while pathogen destruction is frequently accomplished through heating during thermophilic digestion, composting, or incineration. There are five basic steps for the wastewater treatment process, each of which involves a set of common chemicals, as follows; removal of solid particles, neutralization, odor control, disinfection, and sludge treatment and removal.

All City is experienced in all sludge removal and processing techniques. Contact us to make the sludge go away for you and your plumbing system.

Storm

Sewer

Cleaning

Grease Traps

Catch Basins

Hydro Jetting & Rodding

Sludge Removal

Storm Sewers

Drain & Sewer Line Repairs

Complete

Drain, Pipe &

Sewer Repairs

Have You Checked Your Storm Drains Lately?

All City Environmental specializes in storm drain inspections and cleaning. Storm drains are an integral part in a sophisticated system that has been designed and engineered to take all of the floodwaters and run off from rainstorms and channel it safely into the cities drainage systems. Without storm drains we’d have to deal with flooded areas frequently during bouts of severe rain. Our hydrojet trucks has a spinning head on the head that releases a very high pressure stream of water. The rapidly swirling water is able to “jet” through the toughest of clogs including mud, leaves, branches, garbage and more. The end result is a storm drain system that is clean and free of debris.

Storm drain systems can routinely get clogged with mud, sticks, garbage and a whole manner of objects that find their way through the grates and into the storm drain system. When a storm drain gets clogged with debris and/or garbage it can backup during severe rainstorms and flood your street and even flood your property which can cause extensive damage if it’s left unchecked.

How Do You Know If Your Storm Drain Is Clogged?

For starters it will probably have trouble keeping up with the flow of water and will begin to flood the area. If you notice a large puddle where a storm drain should be then it’s likely that branch of the system has a clog somewhere. In cases where the clog cannot be found immediately we’ll use our inspection cameras to inspect the storm drain system from the inside with a real-time camera feed. We’ll be able to pinpoint the exact location of the clog and what’s causing it.

How Do We Unclog Storm Drains Systems?

Storm drain systems need to be cleaned quite frequently, especially during periods with high rain fall such as the fall/winter weather. Routine storm drain system cleaning will greatly reduce the amount of debris both in the storm drain system and wherever it drains too.

Your storm drains don’t go straight into the ground and into oblivion either, this water is usually channeled elsewhere to a nearby treatment plant, a creek, or even the ocean in. Through the storm drain system there are long, flat sections of pipe that can be prone to clogging because there just isn’t enough a high enough flow to flush out the debris. Contact All City today to clean out your storm drains and to set up regular routine maintenance before flooding issues start to happen.

Regular Storm Sewer & Drain Cleaning

Maintenance Is Essential To

Prevent Costly Flooding Expenses

We Maintain, Repair & Install It All To Keep Your Plumbing

Running Like Brand New

Whatever your next plumbing project requires, All City Environmental does it all as Chicago's best full service plumber for the job. Various plumbing needs, repairs, and maintenance knows no boundaries and we partner with commercial businesses, restaurants, condo associations / buildings, property management, residential, and city / municipality customers to service all of their plumbing needs that arise. All City's experienced hometown team and outstanding reputation for top quality, utmost care, and seasoned know-how does the job right each and every time on all jobs that we perform - all priced right for you.

Contact All City today for whatever plumbing needs you have.

Regular Cleaning Is Essential To Avoid Flooding & Foul Odors

At one time, it was common practice to separate the waste lines from the soil stack. The "waste" was water from the sink drains and floor drains, while "soil" was effluent from the toilets. Often, the waste lines (that is, the drain lines coming off of the sinks) would terminate in the catch basin. This way, the catch basin could act as a grease trap, capturing cooking grease and soap scum, protecting the main sewer line from clogging. It's not uncommon to see floor drains that are piped into the catch basin. You'll often see gutters and downspouts piped into the catch basin as well.

It's important to keep catch basins clean and to keep the side walls in good condition. It is advised to have your catch basin cleaned every year. If too much debris is allowed to accumulate in the catch basin you can run into problems with sewer line blockages and backflow into basement areas through the floor drains.

Do you have a catch basin? When's the last time you had it checked?

When your catch basin's looking scummy and full of debris it's time to contact All City Environmental to have it cleaned. It's a routine maintenance item that's often overlooked and highly critical to maintain otherwise one day you will have a plumbing emergency on your hands.

Threaded Snake Cuts & Clears

Power rodding is a higher-tech, more effective version of the basic drain snake. The system employs a thin metal cable that is highly flexible and doesn’t over-stress delicate plumbing as it is threaded into the pipe. At the end of the cable, a cleaning head incorporates extremely sharp cutting teeth that are specifically sized to the diameter of the pipe. An external electric motor rotating the cable spins the cleaning head and teeth at a high rate of speed. The cutting action destroys the immediate clog, but the action of the high-speed blades also scrapes the pipe walls free of sludge accumulation that reduces water flow and promotes clogs. Power rodding can also be used to remove tree roots that have infiltrated an outdoor sewer line.

High Pressure Water Removal

Hydro jetting utilizes the power of hot, high-pressure water to clear obstructions and clean the pipe. A cleaning head attached to a water line is threaded into the pipe. The head features apertures that emit high-pressure jets of hot water at up to 4,500 p.s.i. injected into the line by an external pump. The force of the water obliterates the clog and flushes it away without damaging the pipe. The pressurized, heated water also dissolves sludge and grease that trigger clogs.

Common wastewater contains small amounts of oils which enter into septic tanks and treatment facilities to form a floating scum layer. This scum layer is very slowly digested and broken down by microorganisms in the anaerobic digestion process. Large amounts of oil from food preparation in restaurants can overwhelm a septic tank or treatment facility, causing release of untreated sewage into the environment. High-viscosity fats and cooking grease such as lard solidify when cooled, and can combine with other disposed solids to block drain pipes. Restaurant and food service kitchens produce much waste grease which is present in the drain lines from various sinks, dishwashers and cooking equipment such as combination ovens and commercial woks. If not removed, the grease clumps up, causes blockage, and backs-up in the sewer. Such sewer pipe blockages are the leading cause of sewer overflows, and grease is the primary cause of sewer blockages. Contact All City to get your grease traps cleaned and put on a regular maintenance schedule to avoid plumbing problems that will otherwise inevitably arise.

Our vacuum trucks suck out sludge from all susceptible areas including

bottoms of basins, tanks, pipes, sewers and water treatment plants.

Chicago's Environmental Waste & Plumbing Experts

Commercial - Residential - Industrial

Whatever Plumbing Related

We Do It RIGHT

Catch Basin Cleaning Is A Must

To Keep Sewers Draining Properly & Avoid Flooding

As They Collect Trash & Debris

Regular Grease Trap Cleaning

Is Critical To Free Flow Of

Pipes & Sewers

Power Rodding & Hyrdo Jetting

Are Highly Effective In

Permanently Eliminating Blockages

With our new fleet of vactor trucks and most current equipment available

we permanently clear all obstructions no matter what or where.

Sludge Is Plumbing Enemy #1

It Builds Up Everywhere Causing Blockages & Damages

That Prevents Proper Freeflow

We unclog storm drain systems with the use of our hydrojetting trucks

which uses a spinning head with high pressure water.

Keeping the drains & sewer lines cleaned, open and flowing is what we do,

All City handles all service maintenance & repairs necessary.

Expert Commercial Drain Repair Services

A clogged drain or leaky sink is often a plumbing problem that runs much deeper than may first appear. All City Environmental performs commercial drain repair services that are both lightning-fast and professionally done —leave it to our certified plumbing experts. The All City Team knows how to fix any commercial drain problem of any kind.

While a clogged, smelly, or leaky sink is a hassle in any type of building, it can be especially worrisome in a commercial space. After all, few things erode customer trust and satisfaction as quickly as unclean or poorly managed facilities. If you’ve noticed a problem with your sinks or floor drains, call us as we have been repairing commercial drains for decades, and we’ll fix your issue in a cost-effective and efficient manner—bringing your business back to normal as quickly as possible. No matter how big or small your building drainage repair issue may be, we will treat it with the utmost care at every step of the process.

Inspection: We start all commercial drain repairs with a thorough inspection to make sure we recommend the most appropriate and affordable solution.
Repair: From small cracks to major corrosion, we’ll repair your commercial drains and get them back to top-notch condition.

Replacement: If your floor drains are too worn out to function effectively, we’ll replace them with our high-quality models from recognized industry brands. Maintenance: We’ll give you tips on maintaining your drains to help prevent unnecessary repairs or replacement in the future.

All Repairs, Installations & Renovations

Sewer Line Cleaning, Repair, and Replacement Services

All City Environmental does more than just clean drains. We offer several sewer services – such as main sewer line repair, main sewer line replacement and main sewer line cleaning – to correct a number of problems, including:

Broken, cracked, offset or collapsed pipe: Pipes have been damaged due to shifting soil, frozen ground, settling, etc.
Blockage: Grease buildup or a foreign object is restricting or prohibiting proper flow and/or cleaning of the line.
Corrosion: The pipe has deteriorated and/or broken, causing collapses in the line and restricting flow.
Bellied pipe: A section of the pipe has sunk due to ground or soil conditions, creating a valley that collects paper and waste.
Leaking joints: The seals between pipes have broken, allowing water to escape into the area surrounding the pipe.
Root in sewer line: Tree or shrub roots have invaded the sewer line and/or have damaged the line, preventing normal cleaning.
Off-grade pipe: Existing pipes are constructed of substandard material that may have deteriorated or corroded.

All City's technicians and plumbers are fully trained in the use of state-of-the-art equipment and technologies to solve all of your plumbing and drain problems, including sewer repair and sewer line replacement.

Traditional Sewer Line Repair Method

Sewer line repair is typically performed using the "open cut" or "trench" method to gain access to the area surrounding the damaged portion of the pipe. A backhoe may be used to open and refill the work area.

Trenchless Sewer Line Repair Methods

Thanks to All City, sewer line replacement doesn't mean destroyed yards, ruined driveways or devastated parking lots. Our trenchless sewer line repair causes less damage than traditional repair methods. Trenchless repair is our next step in quality sewer maintenance with less environmental impact.

Repairing Burst Pipes

We make small access holes where the damaged pipe starts and ends. Using your broken sewer line as a guide, our hydraulic machine pulls full-sized replacement pipe through the old path and breaks up the damaged pipe at the same time. The new pipe is highly resistant to leaks and root intrusion, with a long life expectancy.

Pipe Relining Sewer Repair Process

Relining is the process of repairing damaged sewer pipes by creating a "pipe within a pipe" to restore function and flow. Epoxy relining materials mold to the inside of the existing pipe to create a smooth new inner wall, similar to the lining found in food cans.

Many times, pipe relining can be performed through a building's clean-out access and often requires little digging. Pipe relining may be used to repair root-damaged pipes; seal cracks and holes; and fill in missing pipe and seal joint connections underground, in roof drain pipes, in storm lines and under concrete. The relined pipe is seamless and durable, and all materials used in the relining process are non-hazardous.