Gather around children, today we’re going to talk about GREASE TRAPS.
Exciting, right?
This requirement for new restaurants in our area has been the bane of our existence for several months now. Here’s the deal:
Grease traps (or “interceptors”) have been around forever. Restaurants typically produce a large amount of grease, and the traps keep the grease out of the water system. They are important, no question. They come in various sizes ranging from 30-40lb traps that cost a few hundred dollars to 1500lb traps that go for almost $10,000.
They are typically mounted under a sink or in the basement and they are cleaned out periodically by a special service.
In our area, this falls under the jurisdiction of Onondaga County Plumbing Control. At some point in the last few years, the code has been updated and they now require that ALL new restaurants install a 1000lb trap with manhole access outside of your building.
Existing restaurants can use whatever they have. The Health Department requires a grease trap, they don’t care what size it is. Plumbing Control decides how big it needs to be.
But here’s the thing – WE DON’T HAVE A KITCHEN.
Our food offerings are limited to what we can prepare on our 48″ cold prep table behind the bar. We do not have the ability to cook anything. We’ll have baked goods that we purchase already made, we’ll offer a rotating menu of 2-3 sandwiches and we’ll have cheese and meat plates in the evening. That’s it. Any private residence with an oven and stove produces far more grease than we will in this business.
Even so, we were told by Plumbing Control, the Health Department and the first plumber who came out that it does not matter – they want everyone to put the manhole and giant trap in.
That first estimate came in at around $15,000, not including repairing the asphalt when the project was done.
Crazy, right?
Speaking of plumbers, let’s talk about the plumbing situation for a minute.
We are required to use a master plumber who is licensed in the city of Syracuse. It’s apparently not a large pool of people. They come out, assess your project, create a plan and then run it by Plumbing Control to get the permit and hopefully complete the work.
Plumber #1 came in with the 15k estimate. He refused to entertain the idea of pitching a smaller trap to Plumbing Control because “they only allow the big ones these days”.
Plumber #2 was too busy to take on the project, but at least he let us know fairly quickly.
Plumber #3 would not return our calls or come out, though we did get to talk to the secretary several times.
Plumber #4 came out twice over the course of a couple of months. They got approval from the county for a 250lb trap in the basement, which is still overkill, but better than the alternative. They told us that they were waiting for approval from the city because we’re deviating from what they normally want restaurants to do.
Interestingly, my contact with the city tells me they have absolutely nothing to do with plumbing permits.
Okaaaaaay…
When we questioned who exactly needed to approve the plan from the city, the plumbers mysteriously came back with a message that all systems were a go and they expected to wrap up the project in a couple of days. We haven’t seen them or gotten a return call in a couple of weeks, so…here we are. We don’t have a grease trap and the bar plumbing is still not hooked up.
We are 100% at the mercy of contractors who know we don’t have any other options, and I can’t even tell you how frustrating that is. Why on earth is this so hard?
We are currently 4-5 MONTHS into trying to get this work done.
<Sigh>
