Remove One Item from Your Stack of Cleaning To-Dos: Stack Cleaning

Remove One Item from Your Stack of Cleaning To-Dos: Stack Cleaning

When your list of to-dos is as tall as your condo building, knock one thing off by having your stack cleaning handled by the professionals. 

 

What is Stack Cleaning?

All of the drains in your building connect to two or more stacks. That includes your bathrooms, kitchens and any other water or sewage systems in the condo. 

Each stack collects all of the waste and water flushed down the drains and disposes it to the main city line. 

Stack cleaning clears those lines so they operate properly, and is generally scheduled every 1–3 years.

Think your building might need its stacks cleaned?

Talk to our team.

 

Why You Need a Plumbing Cleanout

Think of every unit within your condo building using their garburator, dumping grease down the drain, hair clogging the shower or even (though you cautioned against it) baby wipes or feminine products down the toilet. 

Gasp! How could they? 

Truthfully, it doesn’t feel like their problem. Until sewage starts to back up into their kitchen and bathroom, that is. 

The first step is educating your residents and letting them know what’s acceptable and what’s not. Start by giving them a list of preventative measures, like what belongs in the compost bin or down the garbage chute instead of their drain. 

However, even with the most pristine residents, you’ll still need to have your stacks cleaned. 

As you schedule your cleaning every one to three years, your cleaning company will clean out any build-up within your sewer lines. Paired with your resident education, regularly clearing your drains will help you avoid potential back-ups, insurance losses and costly repairs.

 

How Auger Stack Cleaning Works

At GoJaxon, we follow these steps to ensure you get the most out of your drain cleaning — meaning you might not need to see us every year but can stretch it to every three when all goes well. 

1. We conduct a site visit and during our visit, we look for:

  • The type of roof, whether it’s flat or angled
    • If you don’t have a flat roof, we access the stacks through the units on your top floor. As such, we will need to arrange access to each of them during the cleaning.
  • The location of the parkade/main level cleanouts
  • If they are available to you, we ask that you provide your building schematics to help us properly quote

2. You’ll need to alert your residents

  • Once the cleaning has been scheduled, you’ll need to arrange access to your roof or the units on your top floor
  • We recommend alerting your residents of the stack cleaning even if they are not all affected so they are aware a vendor will be onsite

3. Stack cleaning day

  • The technician uses an auger to clean the stack. 
    • If we have roof access, we go directly from the roof. If we are entering through the units we remove the toilet. 
  • The auger is a long cable-like machine with a head that is pushed through the stack to clean the pipe and remove any blockages
  • The same goes for the horizontal/main cleanouts, the auger is used to clean the pipes to the city main line.

 

Hiring a Drain Cleaning Company

These are big drains running through your building; as much as you wouldn’t try your hand at household plumbing the same should be true for your stack cleaning — leave it to the professionals.

Our tools and knowledge make us efficient, so the disruption to your residents is minimal. We also ensure that we don’t damage your pipes, notify you of any blockages and their location and get it done right the first time, so we don’t have to come back for another few years.

Schedule a stack cleaning assessment on its own or talk to your Go Jaxon cleaning team about adding it to your building maintenance plan for a bundled price with your regular cleaning services.

Schedule a Walkthrough

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