Emergency

The kitchen smells. The floor drain is slow. Now what?

Odor, gurgling floor sinks, and fruit-fly blooms around the interceptor are usually a full trap — or a trap that was never fully evacuated. Treat it as an operations problem first, then a compliance problem. This page is guidance, not a dispatch guarantee.

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1
Keep people safe, then contain
If sewage is on the floor, close the affected restroom or dish pit, keep guests out, and follow your health-department closing rules. Do not dump degreaser “to buy time” — it can push FOG downstream and still leave you non-compliant.
2
Stop adding load if you can
Pause the fryers and the dish machine feeding the interceptor if a backup is active. Running more water into a full trap makes the overflow worse.
3
Call a permitted transporter, not a random vacuum truck
You need a full evacuation and a legal manifest. In Houston that means a City-permitted waste hauler. A plumber can clear a floor drain; they cannot replace the paper trail.
4
Photograph and file
Snap the lid area, overflow, and the completed manifest. If you are inside a Chapter 47 window from an investigator, you will want proof of the pump-out — not a verbal “we cleaned it.”

When it is not the trap

A rotting floor sink, a dry p-trap, or a dumpster and used-oil bin Houston investigators also look at can smell like “the grease trap” from the dining room. If a permitted hauler opens a recently pumped interceptor and it is clean, call your plumber and check those surfaces before you pay for a second pump-out.

Not legal advice

TrapSchedule is editorial guidance for kitchen operators. Ordinances change. Confirm current rules with the City of Houston Health Department or your MUD / local authority before you rely on a schedule or fine range.