Beyoğlu Vacuum Truck Company

Around İstiklal Caddesi, a problem in a shop often starts with the kitchen drain or water collecting in the basement. Because the shop needs to stay open, we plan the work for a quiet period rather than the busy lunchtime. In a flat in Tarlabaşı, a slow-draining washbasin in the bathroom of an elderly couple can be the first sign, and for two people it quickly becomes a growing worry. In both cases, the first thing to check is whether the blockage is at a single point or at several joints at once.

Many of the masonry apartment buildings in Cihangir, Galata and Tarlabaşı were built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and over time they were divided into flats or converted into hotels and short-term rental homes. The new bathrooms and kitchens added with each conversion were connected to the old cast iron shared stacks at different angles and often with too little fall, so a blockage can show up at several points at the same time rather than at a single joint.

In restaurants around Karaköy, Galata and İstiklal, kitchens built in the basement can have their drain outlet below the level of the sewer channel, so grease build-up and backflow often appear together. On the sloping streets of Kasımpaşa, the load coming from above collects at the lower connections, and the flats on the lowest floors are the ones that notice it most. In pedestrian zones and on streets with steps, we schedule the work for quiet periods so neighbouring businesses are not affected, and in narrow spaces such as light wells we work with a small vehicle.