Kitchen Plumbing in Augusta, ME

Swapping a kitchen faucet or sink sounds simple until the shutoff valves underneath turn out to be original to the house. Valves that have not been turned in years often will not seal fully once they're closed, which is why we replace worn supply valves and lines as part of a fixture swap rather than reusing whatever is already there — it is the difference between a clean install and a callback for a slow drip six months later.

A like-for-like faucet or sink swap is usually a single visit. Moving the sink location, adding a second bowl, or upgrading to a pot filler or instant-hot dispenser means opening the wall or cabinet back to the supply and drain lines, which we treat as a small rough-in rather than a simple swap.

A kitchen remodel or a new island sink means running new supply and drain lines to a location that never had them, then coordinating the timing so the rough-in happens before cabinets and countertops go in and the trim-out happens after. We work directly with your cabinet installer or general contractor so the plumbing is never the thing holding up the schedule.

The drain side is usually the harder half of an island sink: it needs its own vent, which on a single-story home often means a loop vent under the sink cabinet rather than a straight vertical vent through the roof. We size and route that during the rough-in, before the countertop makes it inaccessible.

• Grease and cooking oil coat the inside of the drain line and narrow it over time, even when it goes down as a liquid — it solidifies once it cools past the trap.
• Coffee grounds, rice, and pasta swell or compact inside the trap rather than washing through it.
• A garbage disposal that isn't run with a steady stream of cold water pushes food waste further down the line instead of grinding it fine enough to clear it.
• A gurgling drain when the dishwasher runs usually means a partly blocked branch line or a disposal knockout plug that was never removed, not a dishwasher problem.

A disposal install includes a new mounting assembly, a discharge pitched correctly to the trap, and — if a dishwasher ties into the same disposal — removal of the knockout plug inside the disposal's dishwasher inlet. That plug is punched out at the factory but left in place until a dishwasher is actually connected; skip it and the dishwasher backs up into itself on every cycle.

For the dishwasher itself, the drain line needs either a high loop secured up near the countertop or an air gap mounted at the sink, so wastewater from the sink drain can never siphon back into the dishwasher. We confirm the electrical connection is live and test a full cycle before we call the job done.