Grease Spill Cleanups Take A Lot Of Hard Work

We got a call on Saturday afternoon to clean a grease spill at a restaurant.

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When our manager arrived to see what the job would entail, he found the grease spill had already been tracked across the parking lot. Most people don’t even think of trying to contain the grease spill when it happens. It can spread within minutes if it reaches a high traffic area where cars start to drive through it.

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This time the call came from the plumbing company that was fixing the grease trap backup instead of the restaurant. They must have decided the grease spill was their fault so they would have to pay for the clean up. And they wanted it done that night.

We told them we could do the work – but since our pressure washing crews had already worked a full day, they would be paid double time to come in and work again that night. And since we were going to have to clean the whole parking lot, it would take a lot of time and degreaser.

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We gave them an estimate and they said they would call us back. They called back a few hours later, apparently not finding anyone else who could handle this kind of grease spill cleanup.

And then they wanted us to wait 60 days for payment! This is one of those red flags that make you question who you’re dealing with. We were surprised a commercial plumbing company didn’t have a credit card they could charge the bill to.

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So we turned the work down. We have to pay for our materials and labor – just like any other business. And when someone we’ve never dealt with before wants us to do an emergency grease spill cleanup they couldn’t find anyone else to do, we expect to be paid promptly. We can’t imagine any business person would disagree.

So this plumbing company decided to try to clean it themselves. As shown in the pictures below, they didn’t accomplish much. We have no idea what they did with the waste water or if they just let it run into the storm drain.

To clean a grease spill the right way, you need the right equipment, materials and trained personnel to do the cleaning.

And you need the right equipment to capture the waste water so it doesn’t run down the gutter and cause a bigger mess. Water recovery is a big part of the job – if you want it done right.