Building Trap Removal

A building trap after removal from a home in Toronto

A building trap (aka main sanitary or sewer trap) is a device located in many older properties that serves to prevent sewer gases from backing up the main drain and into the home. If your home was built before the 1950s and has yet to have it removed, there is a chance that you may have one of these traps in your home or property. These traps were common throughout Toronto in years past.

These days every plumbing fixture has an independent trap rendering this implementation useless. Not only are they useless but building traps have also become a problem resulting in the need to replace them entirely.

Building traps have become so much of a problem that they have been prohibited by the plumbing code; as such, there are no new properties that have these traps installed. A building trap may also be referred to as a running trap due to the nature of this type of trap.

Problems with Building Traps

Due to the nature of these traps, they are very difficult (often impossible) to properly cleanout.  Usually, they are located directly beneath the basement floor, or even on the outside of the foundation of the home. When they were originally installed there was no thought given to dealing with the problems they would create 50 or 60 years down the road.

Since this trap cannot be cleaned out sediment will eventually build-up inside of the drain. As this is the main drain of a property, it is very important that it remain free of obstruction. Often time’s people simply have no idea they even have a building trap and are only made aware of it after the trap becomes completely blocked and they’re looking for a plumber to unclog their drain.

These traps are also highly prone to root intrusion. All it takes is a tree’s root structure to take up residence inside a building trap to put a serious damper on the drain.

A building trap is a ticking time bomb. If your property has one of these traps and you have not experienced any problems by now you should have it replaced as soon as possible.

Replacing the Main Sewer Trap

We have been replacing these traps all across Toronto for many years. While some main sewer traps will have a cleanout section it is still the most recommended practice to replace these traps. We will replace your building trap with a 2-way cleanout, providing access to the main sewer drain pipe both upstream and downstream ensuring that your entire drain pipe can be cleaned out regularly.

We provide all of Toronto with building trap replacement services; call us today at 416-252-5557.

Have a question? Give us a call, we’re here to help