Grease Trap Cleaning Wellington

Every commercial kitchen that cooks with fat sends some of it towards the drain. A working grease trap catches it. A trap that is too small, overdue for a pump-out or cracked lets fat through, where it sets in your own kitchen line first and then in the public sewer. The usual result is blocked drains in the middle of a Friday night service.

Cheeky's Plumbers helps cafés, restaurants, takeaways and food courts from Te Aro and Cuba Street to Petone, Porirua and Paraparaumu stay on the right side of the trade waste rules. To be clear about who does what: large in-ground traps are pumped out by licensed liquid waste contractors with vacuum tankers. We install, size and repair traps, clean small under-sink units, jet the fatty lines that feed them, and book pump-outs so the records sit in one place.

Pricing: quotes are free, and every job gets a fixed price before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Grease Trap Cleaning Jobs We Handle Across Wellington

• Grease trap cleaning
• Grease trap installation
• Grease trap pump out
• Trade waste compliance
• Under sink grease trap cleaning
• Commercial kitchen drain jetting

Trade waste rules in the Wellington region

Since 1 July 2026, the councils in Wellington City, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua have delegated trade waste administration and enforcement to Tiaki Wai, with no significant changes to the rules; councils keep invoicing fees for an interim period. Businesses need a trade waste consent to discharge, and in Wellington City the governing bylaw is the Wellington Trade Waste Bylaw 2016. Grease trap waste collection is licensed separately under Wellington City Council's Collection and Transportation of Waste Bylaw.

On the Kāpiti Coast, Kāpiti Coast District Council runs trade waste itself under its Trade Waste Bylaw 2019, with consent fees set in Schedule 3 and a Trade Waste Officer on 04 296 4700. Under the Building Code, grease traps designed to G13/AS2 are the acceptable solution. If you are fitting out a new kitchen, our commercial plumbing team can plan the trap with your designer.

What Tiaki Wai looks for

Tiaki Wai publishes criteria for food businesses it calls environmental heroes. They are a useful checklist for any kitchen:

• A grease trap that is fit for purpose and working
• Cleaning by a council-approved contractor under a service contract
• The trap refilled with about ten minutes of cold water after each clean
• No risk of grease reaching the stormwater system
• Grease converters dosed daily with an approved enzyme product
• Waste oil drums bunded, and a double mesh sink screen on mechanical traps
• Food scraps binned before dishes are rinsed

How It Works

How often should a grease trap be pumped out?

There is no single number, because it depends on the trap size and how much fat your kitchen produces. National guidelines written for New Zealand trade waste officers say passive grease traps generally need servicing at least every 3 months, and grease converters or mechanical systems at least every 6 months by a qualified technician. A good rule of thumb is that at least 30% of the trap's capacity should still be free when it is serviced.

The same guidelines note that busy seasons change things. A trap that copes on a 3 monthly cycle in winter may need doing every month or six weeks over a busy summer. Your trade waste consent may set its own frequency, and that is the one to follow.

What a plumber does, and what the tanker does

Pumping out a large in-ground trap means removing the whole contents, scraping the baffles and walls, and refilling with cold water. That is done by a licensed liquid waste contractor with a vacuum truck, who also handles disposal and the waste paperwork. We work alongside them rather than pretending to replace them.

Our part is everything around the trap. We install and replace traps, repair cracked lids, baffles and inlet or outlet pipes, clean small under-sink units, clear and jet the kitchen lines that run into the trap, and book pump-outs on a schedule. Fat that has already escaped past the trap usually needs hydro jetting to remove properly.

Sizing, installing and older buildings

The national trade waste officer guidelines set a minimum of 500 litres for passive traps; smaller under-sink units need written approval and more frequent servicing. Sizing is based on the fixtures draining to the trap. The trap should sit close to the building, before any toilet connections, with clear access for inspection and for the vacuum truck. Installing an in-ground trap is drainlaying work, and we handle it as part of a fit-out or upgrade.

Central Wellington can add complications. A kitchen in an older multi-storey building in Te Aro may share a trap with other tenants, sit at the end of a long internal waste run, or have only tight basement access. We confirm who owns which trap and line before anything is cleaned, replaced or charged to you.

Why Choose Cheeky's Plumbers for Grease Trap Cleaning

Grease Trap Cleaning FAQs

Grease Trap Cleaning Across Wellington

Our grease trap cleaning team works in every Wellington suburb. Find your local plumbers:

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