Urgent
Sewage Smell in Kitchen or Dining Room
A persistent sewage or sulfur smell is often a sign that your grease trap is full and gases are escaping back into the building through the drain lines.
How fast can we respond?
Standard request
Within 40h
Submit a request today, we coordinate a vetted provider and confirm your slot.
Request serviceBoh coverage
Zero effort
On coverage, this service is scheduled automatically — before it becomes a problem.
See coverage plansWhat to do
Within the next 24 hours, stop using any floor drains that show visible backup or gurgling and contact a licensed grease trap and drain service provider to inspect the trap and drain lines. Pour water into any floor drains that see infrequent use to restore their P-trap seal as an immediate stopgap. Document when the grease trap was last pumped and have that information ready for the service provider.
What's causing it
The most common cause is a full or overloaded grease trap that is allowing hydrogen sulfide and methane gases to back-feed through floor drains and sink lines into the kitchen or dining room. Dry P-traps are another frequent culprit, especially under floor drains that see infrequent use and lose their water seal, leaving a direct path for sewer gas to enter. A cracked or deteriorating wax seal on a floor drain, a blocked or improperly vented drain line, or a grease trap that has not been pumped on schedule can all produce the same result. In kitchens with heavy fryer or prep sink output, grease trap saturation can happen faster than operators expect, especially if the pumping schedule has not been adjusted for volume.
What happens if you wait
Sewer gas contains hydrogen sulfide, which is both a health hazard and a fire risk at elevated concentrations, making this an urgent issue to resolve rather than monitor. A persistent odor in the dining room will drive customers out and generate negative reviews that are difficult to recover from. LA County health inspectors treat sewage odors as an active violation and can issue correction orders or close a food service operation if the source is not identified and remediated. Ignoring the problem also risks the smell intensifying as the underlying cause progresses, turning a pump and clean into a full drain line repair.
LA County Environmental Health requires grease traps to be maintained in proper working order and can cite sewage odor as a violation under the California Retail Food Code, triggering a required correction and follow-up inspection.
How Boh handles it
Boh dispatches a vetted, licensed provider to your location. Every visit is documented — before and after photos, service report, compliance certificate if applicable. You never chase a vendor.
Primary service
Restaurant Grease Trap Cleaning
Need immediate repair?
Boh dispatches same-day for sewage smell in kitchen or dining room-related repairs.
Not sure where to start?
Tell us what's happening and we'll route you to the right provider.