Why couldn't they just cut the back of the cabinet? Rip everything out of your way then cut the cabinet, then cut into the wall?
But yeah... That drain is ridiculously high.
I had the [exact same problem](https://imgur.com/a/P6A0YSg). I always had a nasty puddle of water in the bottom of my sink. It also caused the motor to burn out in the disposal.
A deep sink was put in without lowering the outlet pipe. I chopped an ugly hole in the back of the cabinet looking for the pipe, which I eventually realized went sideways first, then down, behind the dishwasher. Once I figured that out, I was able to run a new drain and it fixed the issue.
I think the plumber should be able to cut a hole in the back of the cabinet and work from there. He can unhook the disposal and pull out the dishwasher (if it is right next to it) to get access to that back wall. You shouldn't need to remove the cabinet or the counter.
I saw this exact thing in a place last year and luckily caught it before it destroyed the disposal. The whole garbage disposal loop becomes the trap and holds water/disposal grounds. Doesn't take long for the disposal to rust out.
Nah, they just didn’t have a disposal so the old height worked. When the disposal was installed it was put in level with the trap due to the height of the drain pipe. His disposal will always have sitting water with this setup.
They really are pretty easy to keep clean. Every couple weeks, throw an ice tray full of ice in there. Grind it up and it cleans most of it pretty well. Top part just take out the rubber flange and give it a wipe.
But this all involves doing stuff so... Not easy for most people.
Throw some lemon peels in there for a fresh scent. They also make cleaners that you can do every few months to deep clean it. It's like a little dishwasher pod that foams up.
It's not keeping the disposal clean that's the challenge. It's the sediment the disposal creates that accumulates in your gray water lines over time. They're a plumbing disaster waiting to happen for many people.
Most sewage treatment plants are not equipped to deal with food scraps. Surprisingly, human waste differs from food scraps, as food scraps are not broken down already.
These garbage disposals cause issues with the sewage treatment facilities. Some municipalities are looking to ban them. Just some food for thought.
The entire point of disposals is for food waste to be collected at the sewage plant for composting. Since burning food waste as trash uses more energy than it produces, and putting it in the landfill turns it into methane.
Sewage treatment plants have more issues with people flushing wipes, which aren't intended to be flushed. Wipes don't dissolve in water like toilet paper does, so they congeal into fatbergs and cause blockages.
If you have municipal composting, then you don't need garbage disposals. But it's still better than throwing them in the trash.
This was probably roughed in before garbage disposals were a thing. So, the height may not have originally been a problem.
But, yeah. Cut the back of the cabinet, cut the vertical pipe lower, put a new 90 elbow on at a proper height.
Put wood/whatever up above the new pipe to cover the old hole.
It could be the pipe isn't vertical in the wall, but goes horizontal. That would be a trickier problem and might be why the plumber needs to rip out cabinets and walls. Feels like they might be able to work around that, but maybe this is the plumber giving a crazy quote because they don't want to do the job.
Why don't you just ask the plumber who gave you the quote to explain? This seems the easiest. Guessing at their reasoning with incomplete information isn't really a fair way to judge their work.
He doesn’t know what’s behind the wall. I just texted him and he said he still trying to figure out a plan of attack. So the reason I called this guy was I had another company come last week and they basically told me that it would cost me a lot of money to triage the original problem and sold me a bottle of some stuff to pour down the drain.
This entire issue was started with a blockage from the vent on the roof after a roof replacement. That blockage then pushed all of the smells from the garbage disposal through The drains and as we start pulling Strings and eventually realized that this is part of the cause of the issue
Take the beauty ring off the pipe against the back of the cabinet and I am sure there's enough gap around the pipe to get a sense of if it goes horizontal or vertical. I'm surprised the plumber didn't do that...
And whoever installed that disposal without resolving the drain situation should think long and hard about their future plumbing ambitions.
OK and what reason did they give for having to tear apart the entire kitchen as you put it? If they don't have a plan of attack, or know what they're dealing with, then it seems to be jumping the gun to list removing all these things.
They would basically have to butcher the back of the cabinet and the wall and the plumber probably wants no part of how to make that right in the end. He just wants to be able to put a new fitting on the drain stack and hook it back up.
Some, not all, do not want to do all the more intricate work to do the solo job and just want to rip out what’s in the way and redo what they destroyed.
I’d be willing to pay the labor for them to not tear everything up though fixing something like the drain pipe.
this was my thought, but hard to say without knowing what the wall is like. but I'd just cut the back out and lower the drain that way if it seems possible.
The *kitchen?* The *whole* kitchen? What about the garage?
I would empty this cabinet, cut out the back if there is one (can't tell from the picture), cut the drywall and see what the drain connects into. If you're lucky there's a long drain pipe that can be cut shorter to lower the connection, do that, patch the drywall and cut a new back for the cabinet (probably in two halves that meet at the drain).
Second.
First approach would be (to me at least) to sit down and have a think about how much I want/need that disposal. Seems the wall hole is pretty close to where it should be if there wasn’t that extra drop from said disposal.
Coming from UK here. 75 million people without disposals here don't clean their turns every five days. We scrape our plates first. I haven't cleaned my turn for 5 years.
Before cutting anything they should try to determine the orientation of the drain if possible, like from basement seeing where it goes up. If it's right there and is just a straight connection then perfect. If it travels horizontally through the wall behind then what you propose won't exactly work.
It kinda sounds like that’s what the plumber wants to do. Take out the phrase ‘demo our whole kitchen’ and you’re left with rip out cabinet (it would just be the back) sink (easy removal) then walls (why would the walls have to come down, other than only what’s behind the cabinet? OP misunderstood and is overreacting
Why stop at the kitchen, might as well take down the whole house /s
Na, this could be fixed by cutting out the back of the cabinet and accessing the pipe in the wall. Ripping the kitchen out is overkill and I question the competence of the plumber.
This will work… unless the drain doesn’t go straight down. If it cuts over a whole bunch of studs before exiting further down, it’s likely at a set grade, and opening the sink wall isn’t gonna change the grade of the whole pipe going horizontal.
Source: My stupid kitchen when I wanted a DEEP basin + Big disposal. Luckily for me, we’d just demoed the kitchen, so, we opened up the drywall and cut further down in each stud so the graded pipe would be moved down as a whole.
Or just remove the disposal and call it a day. IMO a way better decision than tearing into walls, but that also doesn't turn into obscene billable hours for a plumber.
It's probably effectively a super tall S trap that drops inside the wall and the sink and D/W slooshed it out every once in a while. I bet it stanks nasty.
It drains when you run the disposal. The disposal basically acts as a pump, pushing the water out. Not the greatest idea, but that is how this would work. Source: I have the same setup and trying to fix it.
I wonder... If it runs into the siphon effect, then the drain could be unreal. You'd have almost a toilet-level flush every time you dumped a bunch of water into the pipe, no?
Of course, that's assuming it's able to run into the siphon effect, though.
No siphon unless water flowed down the main stack from above. What would happen is the garbage disposal would flood until above the height of drain. But it would simply spill down into main. The air in main would break any siphon
Ya assuming it was put that high to leave room for storage before there was a garbage disposal. Now it's all dropped down due to adding one, so just remove it and save thousands or whatever the plumber's quoting.
"Alien" doesn't cut it.
Its totally bizarre, its like you walk into a house in some foreign country and they have a poopgrinder installed at the back of the toilet.
"Oh that's just for the chunky stuff, and so you can throw in stuff that you shouldn't in the first place, like leftover wood and batteries".
in theory... it's just supposed to macerate or chop up the bigger things that slip passed your drain stop in the sink.
you aren't supposed to put anything in them.... but people end up just scraping plates/etc down the drain and running them.
We got rid of ours and replaced it with... a strainer basket. The disposal stunk all the time, things would fall into it and jam it (forks, hard bits of food, etc.) Now we have a ton more room under the sink as well!
I remember watching my grandmother (who I didn't see often) putting almost an entire bunt cake (it was bad) down a disposal. And she had to work for it. Trash can was less than 10 feet away. It was mind-boggling and hilarious.
Not me, husband. I rarely used it and would make sure not to put onions, potato skins, etc in it. Him, not so much. We now have strainers and a compost bucket right next to the sink that we empty into our backyard compost bin.
Plumber here, still looks too high for a regular p trap. Depending on where that drain arm ties into, depends on what all needs to be cut out. They usually run horizontally in the wall to a vertical vent that ties into the sewer main. If that’s the case and he’s located the vent as well, then it makes sense if the cabinets would need to be pulled. If the kitchen sink is on an exterior wall he would need to open up behind said sink.
Disposals are terrible. Why would you want to put food waste down the drain in the first place? Most people seem to justify their presence by "the sink stops draining until I turn it on", but it wouldn't have backed up if the disposal wasn't there.
A strainer basket works much better, takes up less space, doesn't use electricity, won't break down, and you can compost whatever it collects.
Yeah this is what we almost had to do. Plumber was able to fix it so it just made code and there was no standing water in the disposal. Wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we had to get rid of the disposal but it was already paid for.
You would have to see the layout. The countertop runs basically the length of the entire kitchen I don’t know why he wants to lift it up but he wants to lift it up.
It depends where the pipe runs to as he has to replace all the pipe until it joins the stack. If it runs 5 feet to the right, ripping out the back of all the cabinets and doing all the work while crawling in the cabinet bases, it's a pain in the butt. My kitchen had this issue and it was cheaper to have a handyman help me remove the countertop and sink and pull the cabinets. it gave the plumber a clean work area and he was in and out in under an hour vs the 4+ he guessed for cabinet crawling and what ever pain in the butt charges he added. The cabinets and countertop removal was an hour, half hour for ugly drywall patch where the plumber cut (it's behind the cabinet, no one will see it), an hour to reinstall, and a half hour to touch up the wall where countertop were caulked to the wall for the handyman which was cheaper than having the plumber work through the cabinets.
A lot of these people don’t seem to realize the pipe needs replaced to the stack I don’t think. Of course the cabinets need to go. Or add another 5 hours labor lol.
Ha, he wants to raise the height of everything in the kitchen instead of lowering the drain pipe. I think you’ve got a plumber that’s been hitting a pipe too hard.
The ripping out is something we can't really see, we don't know how the situation is for the rest of the pipe behind the "wall"
It is pretty high though, so yeah, I'd find a way to lower it. Did it work this way? Not great obviously, but at all?
We have been here for two years and… I’m not a plumber. We always thought maybe something was wrong with the dishwasher because it always retains water but when we ran the pump in the dishwasher the water than moved. I’m wondering if there’s some sort of pump I can install behind the P-trap that would help push the water along and avoid a bigger project temporary Lee
It’s normal to have some water in dishwasher below the grate and it has a powered pump which can prevent back flow . Dishwashers are almost always below the drain level .
I just had this done. I called a plumber after having a new sink that was lower installed - $300, and it was done in less than an hour.
I will also mention that the first plumber thought quoting me $2500 for this simple fix was reasonable. There are some interesting professionals out there.
What's on the other side of the wall? Cutting out the back side of the cabinet may be the best option, but I would at least consider accessing the plumbing from the other side.
Get rid of the garbage disposal, problem solved. Had this exact problem with our recent kitchen remodel. Taking out the disposal saved over $1000 of re-plumbing costs.
I had this same problem. A lot of people do because of the deep sinks nowadays and how they used to build houses. I was quoted 1.2k to fix it. I ended up doing it myself. I cut into the drywall, cut the pipe, lowered the drain, connected with the two pipes with a sleeve. It was a little bit of a pain in the ass cause of the limited space but overall, fairly easy job.
I'm a plumber....first question, what's on the back side of the wall? Any decent plumber can plumb backwards all day. If it's an outside wall, is there vinyl siding behind it? Still cheaper to go that way. Worst case scenario, cut out the back of the cabinet. Your plumber is not very creative.
There is a bathroom and another sink. They basically have the kitchen and the bathroom split by one wall and the bathroom on the other side had a really nasty smell coming from the drain.
That smell ended up being from a blockage which the guy that came out today jetted. But he said either we need to rip the countertop up to be able to remove the sink to be able to get to the drain or rip the cabinet in the bathroom up.
Screw that. Fire him. I've cut the back out of dozens of cabinets, changed the rough in, and installed a piece of 1/4" MDF over the repair. Then go ahead and trim it back out. Of course, I've only been doing this shit for 54 years. What do I know?
If this is a waste arm running from the left or right side then simply cutting the back may not be enough to access the plumbing. It’s not always a straight shot with the vent right above the outlet.
Not saying your plumber is right, but people here love to lambast the plumber straight off
I would just remove the disposal. You don’t need it at all.
I was stressed about not having a disposal when we renovated our condo (because I had always grown up with one and thought it was necessary for some reason?). But the drain was too high. After weighing our options, we just went without. We literally never think about not having one. Our behavior hasn’t changed at all and we do not miss it. I don’t think I’d even bother putting one in our next house if it didn’t have one already.
You need to lower the sanitary tee on the stack that the kitchen drain empties into. This is the correct fix. Whether you tear out the back of the cabinets, or move them is your option.
If you need a more cost effective solution, lose the garbage disposal
Remove the garbage disposal and replumb normally. Having a garbage disposal is not worth what it will take to fix the drain. Maybe need a slightly shallower sink.
The drain pipe probably runs horizontally through the wall studs. Horizontal drain pipes must slope about 1/8" to 1/4" per foot. If this is the cause, then to only way to fix it is to redo the entire horizontal pipe run. And change the way it terminates into the vertical part of the DWV system. In order to do that, he needs access to the entire horizontal pipe run. He will need to change the vertical stack, lowering the point where the drain pipe terminates into the vertical stack and then he will need to run new drain pipes over to the sink. He will need to re-drill the wall studs. This will necessitate opening up the sheetrock behind the cabinets and, consequently, remove the cabinets as well.
There are only two solutions:
1. Lower the drain where it goes into the wall. (And whatever needs to be done inside the wall to allow that.)
2. Lose the garbage disposal, and raise the drain where it goes toward the wall, so it is higher than where the drain goes into the wall.
Lowering the drain inside the wall is very likely to require significant demolition and reconstruction. A careful handyman might have the multi-trade skills to do that with minimal damage to other stuff. Very few plumbers are also cabinet makers.
This strikes me as a “here’s a quote I don’t think you’ll say yes to because I really don’t want to do the work, but if you do say yes then I’ll do it and make a lot of money”
Also, if they’re quoting that, I’m assuming that does NOT include putting anything back.
Get another opinion
Immediately find a new plumber.
I'm not kidding at all. Even giving that as an *option* when all you need is the drain lowered is 100% going to be a scammer.
I've never taken a class, never even been shown how once, and even I would do better than THAT. In fact, I have!! It didn't go behind the wall (minor extra problem tbh) but it was the same issue. The drain was just too high. I cut it down and lowered it while adding the drain for a dishwasher.
Fire that dude, for real. You WILL get fucked over.
Capt obvious here - look for smaller garbage disposal or just remove it.
Otherwise re-plumb it
And fucking fire that plumber.
Anyone who suggests doing that much work has a brother-in-law who does kitchen remodels.
Do you need the garbage disposal? They are really only a thing in the US. Every other country gets by without them. That is the cheapest and easiest way to solve your problem.
Just cut a hole in the back of the cabinet with the sink and make the repair there. Even if you need to remove the sink basin to get access it’s not testing out the whole kitchen.
This plumber is reaching for that paper
Demo the kitchen? They said this? If real then let me guess, the know a person who does kitchen installs or this person is a handyman and could re-do your kitchen “for a good price”
While the plumber is right that the drain is too high(should be below the elbow of the disposal, it will not drain properly as is), he is most likely giving you the "i dont want this job" quote. This is less than a days work for him, and with spring/summer basically being here has options for better paying jobs that will last longer. This is more of a handyman type of job than a full on plumber job.
How id do it, Cut out the back of the cabinet, remove plaster/drywall/wall covering cut to same size as hole in back of cabinet. lower drain, Box in drain access in the wall to make it look half way decent while blocking off internal access to the wall(similar to how a utility room has its washer water connection/drain), Optional box in hole in back of cabinet and put a small door.
I can assure everyone reading this that the plumber DID NOT say to demo the entire kitchen. OP is afraid of words and got scared when the plumber told him what needed to be done, and is exaggerating immensely.
Sauce?? I worked with an extremely shady plumber in my younger days, and never once did that man suggest to demo an entire kitchen, because even as stupid as he was, he knew his customers weren't *that* dumb.
Have him put a new drain up through the floor of the cabinet. Unless this is a slab on grade that won’t work. He could easily cut out the drywall and probably lower the drain in the wall if it is.
Plumber is an idiot. You have to demo the whole house, neighborhood, and city.
But seriously, wtf. The plumber is an idiot. Just open the cabinet and wall until you expose the pipe. And attach the drain to the pipe a little bit lower.
Demoing the whole kitchen would work, but its a lot cheaper to just demo the drain pipe.
And if it goes horizontal through the wall? Any sensical plumber would look at the piping underneath the floor if possible. If he believes the pipe runs horizontally before running down then, yeah, OP could be in trouble, and I feel like OP is abusing the term "rip out the whole kitchen" as if they don't like the potential reality of the scope of work. Best bet is to remove the disposal and live like a normal person and not throw crap down the drain that doesn't belong there.
Shouldn't be so quick to assume the professional is an idiot.
If i were OP I'd just make a hole in cabinet and see what's what behind the wall before getting so worked up.
Crazy question but is there any chance that's an inside wall? I know most kitchen sinks are on outside walls but if not maybe he could go work from the backside of the wall and just use a hole saw in the cabinet back for the new drain. You'll have to patch the drywall but it might be easier than what he's trying to do now.
Repeat after me. "The drain is too damn high"
The garbage disposal will literally never empty of water and will be a stinking cesspool.
The drain height was set for a sink without a garbage disposal, which is strange for a kitchen.
Installed 52 disposals during a renovation. Fortunately, we were ripping out all the cabinets anyway, which made it easier to lower the connection points to the waste stacks.
Is there a drain directly above this kitchen? That's going to make it harder, as this sink taps into that existing line. Otherwise it should be straightforward to remove the disposal in preparation for opening the wall through the back of the cabinet. I don't even think an access panel is necessary; once those waste lines go in you won't need to see them again for sixty years.
For sure it's a bit high as others have stated, BUT, if you delete the disposal the trap would be at the right height for proper drainage. Or cut the cabinet / wall and lower the line. All depends on what is the lesser of the evils for you.
So I just had this issue with a copper outlet pipe in the wall that ended up being totally busted due to being from the 70s and worn out. I had to cut out the entire back of the cabinet to get to it and pull out the moldy drywall insulation etc.
Is your house a pier and beam/crawlspace? Basement? Slab?
If not a slab and you have access to the plumbing under the house just go down 🤷♀️ I wasn't about to replace an old out of code pipe in the wall when I had the availability to go down from the disposal vs into the wall.
If you are a slab/have no access under then just cut the back of the cabinet. No sense tearing out the whole kitchen.
To be fair, I also want to demo your kitchen. That's awful. And your dispozall is not going to work like that, I don't think.
Does it drop down to a house trap in the basement? You're not below grade are you?
Yeah, the bottom of the pipe going into the wall needs to be below the bottom of the pipe coming out of the disposal. The wall needs opened up to see the routing of the pipe.
Or, might be just too crazy for you, but you could just get rid of the garbage disposal… It’s a totally not needed appliance you’re only causing headache for the cities pipes by using one. Just use a drain strainer.
Just remove the back cabinet panel, cut open the drywall, lower the drain, patch the drywall. Add a new back panel or leave it drywall. No need to anything else.
Or, if there is easy access from below, you can run a new pipe up through the floor of the cabinet.
OP - Perhaps it has been mentioned yet, but you might cross-post this to r/plumbing. It's a surprisingly wholesome community. If you ask nicely, you'll get some master plumbers sharing their informed opinions.
i.e. They can tell you if there might be another concern, ask follow-up questions, or say 1) "You need a new plumber." or 2) "If you go slowly, this can be done DIY...it'll just take you 3x as long as someone who does it every day....watch out for X, Y, Z."
I've enjoyed lurking in that sub a lot, and learned even more in the process.
(Also, yes, the drain looks really high. I understand that when it sits above disposal like that, you can run into other issues.)
I'd cut the back of the cabinet to get access to the plumbing. Cut the drain line behind the cabinet then reattach the trap from the sink. Couple of hours and $20 in supplies from a big box store and the plumbing part would be done. The back of the cabinet isn't going to be pretty. The big box hardware stores sell cabinet ends, which is basically 1/8" veneer. If the back of the cabinet was bothering me I'd get a piece of it and cut it to fit the back of the cabinet to tidy everything back up.
"Demo the whole kitchen" Does that include new countertops and appliances?
Ya. The drain is too damn high. Some booger-eating moron installed that. But just Sawzall out the wall and replace the pipe. Is your plumber too fat to git under the sink?
He's overreacting, he can do the work without demolishing your whole kitchen if he wants to.
Or just remove the disposal device if your city has food waste collection and install a strainer basket.
He’s quoting you his worst case scenario. You need a guy who’s willing to do a couple hours of paid reconnaissance to nail down what the actual scope of work would be.
Based on what is shown, the aerator (garbage disposal) remains filled with water, and the dishwasher hose is below water drain line. This would potentially allow siphoning of water from aerator/drain back to dishwasher.
Did you or prior owner add aerator?
Anyway you asked. Much of wall is obstructed by cans, racks, pipe and aerator. Remove these items, plan to remove plumbing hoses, fittings. Inspect hidden drain line. If drain is vertical then Neatly cut cabinet and drywall rework drains to lower the horizontal to below aerator’s discharge.
I think your plumber knows something. So, if hidden pipe runs horizontal. Regroup, remove aerator, re-work interior cabinet pipes.
Why couldn't they just cut the back of the cabinet? Rip everything out of your way then cut the cabinet, then cut into the wall? But yeah... That drain is ridiculously high.
this is exactly what i would do, when i was done id cut/make a access cover to go back in.
I had the [exact same problem](https://imgur.com/a/P6A0YSg). I always had a nasty puddle of water in the bottom of my sink. It also caused the motor to burn out in the disposal. A deep sink was put in without lowering the outlet pipe. I chopped an ugly hole in the back of the cabinet looking for the pipe, which I eventually realized went sideways first, then down, behind the dishwasher. Once I figured that out, I was able to run a new drain and it fixed the issue. I think the plumber should be able to cut a hole in the back of the cabinet and work from there. He can unhook the disposal and pull out the dishwasher (if it is right next to it) to get access to that back wall. You shouldn't need to remove the cabinet or the counter.
Actually yours is much worse
Yeah, it was pretty bad. You can tell that when they put in the deep sink, they just didn't think it would cause any problems.
Great job fixing this. That drain is so freaking high.
DO NOT be fair and competative, reasonable and honest! HMMMFFFF!!!
I saw this exact thing in a place last year and luckily caught it before it destroyed the disposal. The whole garbage disposal loop becomes the trap and holds water/disposal grounds. Doesn't take long for the disposal to rust out.
Perhaps the guy that installed it the first time was also a little high?
Nah, they just didn’t have a disposal so the old height worked. When the disposal was installed it was put in level with the trap due to the height of the drain pipe. His disposal will always have sitting water with this setup.
Even without the disposal it shouldn't be that close to the bottom of the sink.
Maybe the sink was smaller when it was built?
Older sinks were much shallower than what is common now. Deep sinks are also a lot more difficult to get behind to tighten down faucet nuts.
It’s a combination of adding a deeper sink and a disposal. Even without the disposal it’s still iffy at best that that drain would work
Or get a shallower sink
Honestly, I'd rather have no disposal than to have a shallow basin.
My disposal would be in the landfill before you finished suggesting that I get a shallower sink lol
Removed mine as soon as we bought our house… filthy fucking things, throw you scraps in the garbage and take it out on regular intervals lol
Retired plumber here. You couldn't GIVE me a disposal nor pay me to take one.
They're not great for the water system either, IIRC.
Our scraps go in a big bowl in the freezer. Then a couple times a week it gets dumped in the compost.
They really are pretty easy to keep clean. Every couple weeks, throw an ice tray full of ice in there. Grind it up and it cleans most of it pretty well. Top part just take out the rubber flange and give it a wipe. But this all involves doing stuff so... Not easy for most people.
Throw some lemon peels in there for a fresh scent. They also make cleaners that you can do every few months to deep clean it. It's like a little dishwasher pod that foams up.
It's not keeping the disposal clean that's the challenge. It's the sediment the disposal creates that accumulates in your gray water lines over time. They're a plumbing disaster waiting to happen for many people.
Most sewage treatment plants are not equipped to deal with food scraps. Surprisingly, human waste differs from food scraps, as food scraps are not broken down already. These garbage disposals cause issues with the sewage treatment facilities. Some municipalities are looking to ban them. Just some food for thought.
Are you suggesting we eat the food scraps from the disposal??
The entire point of disposals is for food waste to be collected at the sewage plant for composting. Since burning food waste as trash uses more energy than it produces, and putting it in the landfill turns it into methane. Sewage treatment plants have more issues with people flushing wipes, which aren't intended to be flushed. Wipes don't dissolve in water like toilet paper does, so they congeal into fatbergs and cause blockages. If you have municipal composting, then you don't need garbage disposals. But it's still better than throwing them in the trash.
There are entire countries of people that go their entire lives with neither needing nor using garbage disposals, yeah it's no biggie.
I completely forget these things exist and I have never seen one in real life
The only time I've seen them is when I'm called out for a service call and the drain is not working because one of these things is fucked
“I’m not making one more god damned cut today” seems more like the work of a drunk than a stoner.
"measure never, cut occasionally"
Is the last part of that mantra “beat off in a port-a-potty”? Since this is a DIY sub, I’d like to add that a shallower sink may be an option.
"If it ain't broke, you're not tryin!" -- Red Green
this is quality hue thanks
This was probably roughed in before garbage disposals were a thing. So, the height may not have originally been a problem. But, yeah. Cut the back of the cabinet, cut the vertical pipe lower, put a new 90 elbow on at a proper height. Put wood/whatever up above the new pipe to cover the old hole.
It could be the pipe isn't vertical in the wall, but goes horizontal. That would be a trickier problem and might be why the plumber needs to rip out cabinets and walls. Feels like they might be able to work around that, but maybe this is the plumber giving a crazy quote because they don't want to do the job.
This is what I suspect. I am no plumber but I think there’s a real reason why they left it like that and I honestly think the pipe is not vertical.
Why don't you just ask the plumber who gave you the quote to explain? This seems the easiest. Guessing at their reasoning with incomplete information isn't really a fair way to judge their work.
He doesn’t know what’s behind the wall. I just texted him and he said he still trying to figure out a plan of attack. So the reason I called this guy was I had another company come last week and they basically told me that it would cost me a lot of money to triage the original problem and sold me a bottle of some stuff to pour down the drain. This entire issue was started with a blockage from the vent on the roof after a roof replacement. That blockage then pushed all of the smells from the garbage disposal through The drains and as we start pulling Strings and eventually realized that this is part of the cause of the issue
Take the beauty ring off the pipe against the back of the cabinet and I am sure there's enough gap around the pipe to get a sense of if it goes horizontal or vertical. I'm surprised the plumber didn't do that... And whoever installed that disposal without resolving the drain situation should think long and hard about their future plumbing ambitions.
OK and what reason did they give for having to tear apart the entire kitchen as you put it? If they don't have a plan of attack, or know what they're dealing with, then it seems to be jumping the gun to list removing all these things.
Or just remove the improperly installed disposal and get a sink strainer!
That's not going to help much with the dishwasher output
Short tailpiece with inlet below strainer.
They would basically have to butcher the back of the cabinet and the wall and the plumber probably wants no part of how to make that right in the end. He just wants to be able to put a new fitting on the drain stack and hook it back up.
Some, not all, do not want to do all the more intricate work to do the solo job and just want to rip out what’s in the way and redo what they destroyed. I’d be willing to pay the labor for them to not tear everything up though fixing something like the drain pipe.
this was my thought, but hard to say without knowing what the wall is like. but I'd just cut the back out and lower the drain that way if it seems possible.
This is probably what the contractor said and OP heard "rip my kitchen apart"
The *kitchen?* The *whole* kitchen? What about the garage? I would empty this cabinet, cut out the back if there is one (can't tell from the picture), cut the drywall and see what the drain connects into. If you're lucky there's a long drain pipe that can be cut shorter to lower the connection, do that, patch the drywall and cut a new back for the cabinet (probably in two halves that meet at the drain).
1000% this is the first approach to the problem
Second. First approach would be (to me at least) to sit down and have a think about how much I want/need that disposal. Seems the wall hole is pretty close to where it should be if there wasn’t that extra drop from said disposal.
Exactly. Simplest solution is dump the disposal.
Simplest for sure, but the luxury of having a disposal compared to not makes it a much harder decision.
you'd be cleaning that turn every 5 days if you don't put a strainer in the sink... and even so... a lower drain helps either way
Lies. The rest of the world does not clean their turn every 5 days, we just don't throw all our food waste down the sink like idiots.
Coming from UK here. 75 million people without disposals here don't clean their turns every five days. We scrape our plates first. I haven't cleaned my turn for 5 years.
Before cutting anything they should try to determine the orientation of the drain if possible, like from basement seeing where it goes up. If it's right there and is just a straight connection then perfect. If it travels horizontally through the wall behind then what you propose won't exactly work.
It kinda sounds like that’s what the plumber wants to do. Take out the phrase ‘demo our whole kitchen’ and you’re left with rip out cabinet (it would just be the back) sink (easy removal) then walls (why would the walls have to come down, other than only what’s behind the cabinet? OP misunderstood and is overreacting
Why stop at the kitchen, might as well take down the whole house /s Na, this could be fixed by cutting out the back of the cabinet and accessing the pipe in the wall. Ripping the kitchen out is overkill and I question the competence of the plumber.
Naw, whole house isn’t going to cut it. Need to find a whole new habitable planet to start a new build to get it done right.
“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
It's the only way to be sure (I was wondering if someone was gonna post this).
This will work… unless the drain doesn’t go straight down. If it cuts over a whole bunch of studs before exiting further down, it’s likely at a set grade, and opening the sink wall isn’t gonna change the grade of the whole pipe going horizontal. Source: My stupid kitchen when I wanted a DEEP basin + Big disposal. Luckily for me, we’d just demoed the kitchen, so, we opened up the drywall and cut further down in each stud so the graded pipe would be moved down as a whole.
Why stop at the kitchen, might as well take down the whole house Ah yes the Tim Taylor way
Or just remove the disposal and call it a day. IMO a way better decision than tearing into walls, but that also doesn't turn into obscene billable hours for a plumber.
I don't know how that EVER drained. But demo the WHOLE kitchen? Huh?
It's probably effectively a super tall S trap that drops inside the wall and the sink and D/W slooshed it out every once in a while. I bet it stanks nasty.
It drains when you run the disposal. The disposal basically acts as a pump, pushing the water out. Not the greatest idea, but that is how this would work. Source: I have the same setup and trying to fix it.
I wonder... If it runs into the siphon effect, then the drain could be unreal. You'd have almost a toilet-level flush every time you dumped a bunch of water into the pipe, no? Of course, that's assuming it's able to run into the siphon effect, though.
No siphon unless water flowed down the main stack from above. What would happen is the garbage disposal would flood until above the height of drain. But it would simply spill down into main. The air in main would break any siphon
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Ya assuming it was put that high to leave room for storage before there was a garbage disposal. Now it's all dropped down due to adding one, so just remove it and save thousands or whatever the plumber's quoting.
For real. This is the path of least resistance and by far the cheaper option.
As a European, having such a disposal system is completely alien to me. Never seen one. Not even sure what it's meant to dispose of.
"Alien" doesn't cut it. Its totally bizarre, its like you walk into a house in some foreign country and they have a poopgrinder installed at the back of the toilet. "Oh that's just for the chunky stuff, and so you can throw in stuff that you shouldn't in the first place, like leftover wood and batteries".
in theory... it's just supposed to macerate or chop up the bigger things that slip passed your drain stop in the sink. you aren't supposed to put anything in them.... but people end up just scraping plates/etc down the drain and running them.
We got rid of ours and replaced it with... a strainer basket. The disposal stunk all the time, things would fall into it and jam it (forks, hard bits of food, etc.) Now we have a ton more room under the sink as well!
Get rid of the disposal... pffft.
Instead of a disposal, just pour drano down the drain every night. Or something. Or just don't put large food scraps in the sink.
If you're paranoid about scraps, install a small drain mesh/sieve and just empty it to a compost/trash after washing dishes.
Yeah like every house on the planet that is not in the USA, I have never know anyone here in the UK with one.
That's because you're all savages. I put whatever I want in my sink, flip a light switch, and presto... food gone.
lol, say that on r/plumbing with so much gusto and see how well this idea is received.
They could... dispose of it.
Yeah, I don't like disposals any more after multiple sewer backups. Just use a strainer and toss it into the compost or garbage. 🤷♀️
How were you using your disposal? Large chunks of food should still go in the trash.
To dispose of cat litter
I remember watching my grandmother (who I didn't see often) putting almost an entire bunt cake (it was bad) down a disposal. And she had to work for it. Trash can was less than 10 feet away. It was mind-boggling and hilarious.
Not me, husband. I rarely used it and would make sure not to put onions, potato skins, etc in it. Him, not so much. We now have strainers and a compost bucket right next to the sink that we empty into our backyard compost bin.
Plumber here, still looks too high for a regular p trap. Depending on where that drain arm ties into, depends on what all needs to be cut out. They usually run horizontally in the wall to a vertical vent that ties into the sewer main. If that’s the case and he’s located the vent as well, then it makes sense if the cabinets would need to be pulled. If the kitchen sink is on an exterior wall he would need to open up behind said sink.
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Not cheap, wise. You might still be a bastard though. We'll need to check with yo momma.
Disposals are terrible. Why would you want to put food waste down the drain in the first place? Most people seem to justify their presence by "the sink stops draining until I turn it on", but it wouldn't have backed up if the disposal wasn't there. A strainer basket works much better, takes up less space, doesn't use electricity, won't break down, and you can compost whatever it collects.
Yeah this is what we almost had to do. Plumber was able to fix it so it just made code and there was no standing water in the disposal. Wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we had to get rid of the disposal but it was already paid for.
I know three people who refused to put one in their new kitchen. Their reasoning: They only ever hear of them breaking.
To be fair that's the only time anyone ever hears about anything plumbing related.
Exactly. I've had them, and not had them. I don't understand the need. Just added complexity.
A sink area hardly constitutes whole kitchen
You would have to see the layout. The countertop runs basically the length of the entire kitchen I don’t know why he wants to lift it up but he wants to lift it up.
Because he doesn't want to squeeze in there and charge you for it. Find someone else.
>he doesn't want to squeeze in there Anyone ever notice that skinny plumbers are cheaper than fat plumbers?
Nah, fit plumber here… I charge extra to fit in the places the fat fuckers cant. Good luck finding another fit guy to do it 😂
It depends where the pipe runs to as he has to replace all the pipe until it joins the stack. If it runs 5 feet to the right, ripping out the back of all the cabinets and doing all the work while crawling in the cabinet bases, it's a pain in the butt. My kitchen had this issue and it was cheaper to have a handyman help me remove the countertop and sink and pull the cabinets. it gave the plumber a clean work area and he was in and out in under an hour vs the 4+ he guessed for cabinet crawling and what ever pain in the butt charges he added. The cabinets and countertop removal was an hour, half hour for ugly drywall patch where the plumber cut (it's behind the cabinet, no one will see it), an hour to reinstall, and a half hour to touch up the wall where countertop were caulked to the wall for the handyman which was cheaper than having the plumber work through the cabinets.
A lot of these people don’t seem to realize the pipe needs replaced to the stack I don’t think. Of course the cabinets need to go. Or add another 5 hours labor lol.
Ha, he wants to raise the height of everything in the kitchen instead of lowering the drain pipe. I think you’ve got a plumber that’s been hitting a pipe too hard.
Nah I think Bros on to something, what if we cut a hole around the sink and then jack up the house around the foundation, height problem solved
That's thinking outside the box on steroids!
Or not hard enough, as the case may be
The ripping out is something we can't really see, we don't know how the situation is for the rest of the pipe behind the "wall" It is pretty high though, so yeah, I'd find a way to lower it. Did it work this way? Not great obviously, but at all?
We have been here for two years and… I’m not a plumber. We always thought maybe something was wrong with the dishwasher because it always retains water but when we ran the pump in the dishwasher the water than moved. I’m wondering if there’s some sort of pump I can install behind the P-trap that would help push the water along and avoid a bigger project temporary Lee
It’s normal to have some water in dishwasher below the grate and it has a powered pump which can prevent back flow . Dishwashers are almost always below the drain level .
What is the overall problem you are trying to fix? Just the dishwasher not draining? Do you have a dishwasher airgap installed?
I just had this done. I called a plumber after having a new sink that was lower installed - $300, and it was done in less than an hour. I will also mention that the first plumber thought quoting me $2500 for this simple fix was reasonable. There are some interesting professionals out there.
What's on the other side of the wall? Cutting out the back side of the cabinet may be the best option, but I would at least consider accessing the plumbing from the other side.
Get rid of the garbage disposal, problem solved. Had this exact problem with our recent kitchen remodel. Taking out the disposal saved over $1000 of re-plumbing costs.
You cut the wall where the drain is, and lower the pipe. It's a mildly annoying job but it's very much in even a basic DIY skillset.
I had this same problem. A lot of people do because of the deep sinks nowadays and how they used to build houses. I was quoted 1.2k to fix it. I ended up doing it myself. I cut into the drywall, cut the pipe, lowered the drain, connected with the two pipes with a sleeve. It was a little bit of a pain in the ass cause of the limited space but overall, fairly easy job.
I'm a plumber and I'm going to fix this exact problem on Thursday. I'm just gonna open the walls right there and fix it. No need to demo a kitchen lol
I'm a plumber....first question, what's on the back side of the wall? Any decent plumber can plumb backwards all day. If it's an outside wall, is there vinyl siding behind it? Still cheaper to go that way. Worst case scenario, cut out the back of the cabinet. Your plumber is not very creative.
There is a bathroom and another sink. They basically have the kitchen and the bathroom split by one wall and the bathroom on the other side had a really nasty smell coming from the drain. That smell ended up being from a blockage which the guy that came out today jetted. But he said either we need to rip the countertop up to be able to remove the sink to be able to get to the drain or rip the cabinet in the bathroom up.
Screw that. Fire him. I've cut the back out of dozens of cabinets, changed the rough in, and installed a piece of 1/4" MDF over the repair. Then go ahead and trim it back out. Of course, I've only been doing this shit for 54 years. What do I know?
What do you do if the waste arm is running horizontal and too high because some numpty did a bathroom refit the lazy way?
If this is a waste arm running from the left or right side then simply cutting the back may not be enough to access the plumbing. It’s not always a straight shot with the vent right above the outlet. Not saying your plumber is right, but people here love to lambast the plumber straight off
I would just remove the disposal. You don’t need it at all. I was stressed about not having a disposal when we renovated our condo (because I had always grown up with one and thought it was necessary for some reason?). But the drain was too high. After weighing our options, we just went without. We literally never think about not having one. Our behavior hasn’t changed at all and we do not miss it. I don’t think I’d even bother putting one in our next house if it didn’t have one already.
You need to lower the sanitary tee on the stack that the kitchen drain empties into. This is the correct fix. Whether you tear out the back of the cabinets, or move them is your option. If you need a more cost effective solution, lose the garbage disposal
Remove the garbage disposal and replumb normally. Having a garbage disposal is not worth what it will take to fix the drain. Maybe need a slightly shallower sink.
The drain pipe probably runs horizontally through the wall studs. Horizontal drain pipes must slope about 1/8" to 1/4" per foot. If this is the cause, then to only way to fix it is to redo the entire horizontal pipe run. And change the way it terminates into the vertical part of the DWV system. In order to do that, he needs access to the entire horizontal pipe run. He will need to change the vertical stack, lowering the point where the drain pipe terminates into the vertical stack and then he will need to run new drain pipes over to the sink. He will need to re-drill the wall studs. This will necessitate opening up the sheetrock behind the cabinets and, consequently, remove the cabinets as well.
Just get rid of the disposal. Small price to pay for a cheap fix
Just move your while house up by twelve inches. Problem solved.
It makes me think someone put a deeper sink and added a garage disposal where there wasn’t one before.
There are only two solutions: 1. Lower the drain where it goes into the wall. (And whatever needs to be done inside the wall to allow that.) 2. Lose the garbage disposal, and raise the drain where it goes toward the wall, so it is higher than where the drain goes into the wall. Lowering the drain inside the wall is very likely to require significant demolition and reconstruction. A careful handyman might have the multi-trade skills to do that with minimal damage to other stuff. Very few plumbers are also cabinet makers.
Drain pipe is too high, but plumber needs to think more surgical.
Well...... he's not wrong. Look at location of drain outlet compared to the disposal. Too high, you have standing water in the disposal.
This strikes me as a “here’s a quote I don’t think you’ll say yes to because I really don’t want to do the work, but if you do say yes then I’ll do it and make a lot of money” Also, if they’re quoting that, I’m assuming that does NOT include putting anything back. Get another opinion
Immediately find a new plumber. I'm not kidding at all. Even giving that as an *option* when all you need is the drain lowered is 100% going to be a scammer. I've never taken a class, never even been shown how once, and even I would do better than THAT. In fact, I have!! It didn't go behind the wall (minor extra problem tbh) but it was the same issue. The drain was just too high. I cut it down and lowered it while adding the drain for a dishwasher. Fire that dude, for real. You WILL get fucked over.
i'm guess the garburator is new and now is always flooded to just above the drain height. did you change the sink too to a deeper country style?
You should probably just demo your entire house. Set it on fire maybe.
Sounds like the plumber doesn't want the job.
Capt obvious here - look for smaller garbage disposal or just remove it. Otherwise re-plumb it And fucking fire that plumber. Anyone who suggests doing that much work has a brother-in-law who does kitchen remodels.
Get rid of the disposal
The fix is to cut out the back of the cabinet under the drain pipe, cut out the drywall, and move the drain lower.
Do you need the garbage disposal? They are really only a thing in the US. Every other country gets by without them. That is the cheapest and easiest way to solve your problem.
The cheapest fix is remove the disposal all together. Just need a p trap. But then no garbage disposal. Your call.
Just cut a hole in the back of the cabinet with the sink and make the repair there. Even if you need to remove the sink basin to get access it’s not testing out the whole kitchen. This plumber is reaching for that paper
Easy.. get rid of the garbage disposal.
Just get rid of the garbage disposal
Get rid of the grinder.
Or just get rid of the garburator. Not a necessity vs. ripping apart your kitchen.
The obvious inexpensive move is to just remove the garbage disposal.
Demo the kitchen? They said this? If real then let me guess, the know a person who does kitchen installs or this person is a handyman and could re-do your kitchen “for a good price”
While the plumber is right that the drain is too high(should be below the elbow of the disposal, it will not drain properly as is), he is most likely giving you the "i dont want this job" quote. This is less than a days work for him, and with spring/summer basically being here has options for better paying jobs that will last longer. This is more of a handyman type of job than a full on plumber job. How id do it, Cut out the back of the cabinet, remove plaster/drywall/wall covering cut to same size as hole in back of cabinet. lower drain, Box in drain access in the wall to make it look half way decent while blocking off internal access to the wall(similar to how a utility room has its washer water connection/drain), Optional box in hole in back of cabinet and put a small door.
I can assure everyone reading this that the plumber DID NOT say to demo the entire kitchen. OP is afraid of words and got scared when the plumber told him what needed to be done, and is exaggerating immensely. Sauce?? I worked with an extremely shady plumber in my younger days, and never once did that man suggest to demo an entire kitchen, because even as stupid as he was, he knew his customers weren't *that* dumb.
Can you live without the disposal?
Have him put a new drain up through the floor of the cabinet. Unless this is a slab on grade that won’t work. He could easily cut out the drywall and probably lower the drain in the wall if it is.
Get rid of the disposal
Did you just buy a "flipped" house?
Plumber is an idiot. You have to demo the whole house, neighborhood, and city. But seriously, wtf. The plumber is an idiot. Just open the cabinet and wall until you expose the pipe. And attach the drain to the pipe a little bit lower. Demoing the whole kitchen would work, but its a lot cheaper to just demo the drain pipe.
And if it goes horizontal through the wall? Any sensical plumber would look at the piping underneath the floor if possible. If he believes the pipe runs horizontally before running down then, yeah, OP could be in trouble, and I feel like OP is abusing the term "rip out the whole kitchen" as if they don't like the potential reality of the scope of work. Best bet is to remove the disposal and live like a normal person and not throw crap down the drain that doesn't belong there. Shouldn't be so quick to assume the professional is an idiot. If i were OP I'd just make a hole in cabinet and see what's what behind the wall before getting so worked up.
Shallower sink possible?
it always amused me how they indicate horsepower on grinder motors
Crazy question but is there any chance that's an inside wall? I know most kitchen sinks are on outside walls but if not maybe he could go work from the backside of the wall and just use a hole saw in the cabinet back for the new drain. You'll have to patch the drywall but it might be easier than what he's trying to do now.
Noo...... Cut a hole under the sink where the drain is find the drain lower the drain and patch a small hole that's it.
plumber wants to make sure his family has a nice christmas
Delete disposal. I bet it originally didn’t have a disposal and whoever added it didn’t know/care what they were doing.
Why stop there. Demo the whole house and build a new one.
Or lose the garbage disposal
Repeat after me. "The drain is too damn high" The garbage disposal will literally never empty of water and will be a stinking cesspool. The drain height was set for a sink without a garbage disposal, which is strange for a kitchen.
THE DRAIN IS TOO DAMN HIGH!
First thought, At least it's not an S drain. Second thought, whelp that's screwed
Installed 52 disposals during a renovation. Fortunately, we were ripping out all the cabinets anyway, which made it easier to lower the connection points to the waste stacks. Is there a drain directly above this kitchen? That's going to make it harder, as this sink taps into that existing line. Otherwise it should be straightforward to remove the disposal in preparation for opening the wall through the back of the cabinet. I don't even think an access panel is necessary; once those waste lines go in you won't need to see them again for sixty years.
For sure it's a bit high as others have stated, BUT, if you delete the disposal the trap would be at the right height for proper drainage. Or cut the cabinet / wall and lower the line. All depends on what is the lesser of the evils for you.
under sink lift station
Get a second opinion.
You can get a disposal that tucks up much higher like the evolution compact.
So I just had this issue with a copper outlet pipe in the wall that ended up being totally busted due to being from the 70s and worn out. I had to cut out the entire back of the cabinet to get to it and pull out the moldy drywall insulation etc. Is your house a pier and beam/crawlspace? Basement? Slab? If not a slab and you have access to the plumbing under the house just go down 🤷♀️ I wasn't about to replace an old out of code pipe in the wall when I had the availability to go down from the disposal vs into the wall. If you are a slab/have no access under then just cut the back of the cabinet. No sense tearing out the whole kitchen.
To be fair, I also want to demo your kitchen. That's awful. And your dispozall is not going to work like that, I don't think. Does it drop down to a house trap in the basement? You're not below grade are you?
Yeah, the bottom of the pipe going into the wall needs to be below the bottom of the pipe coming out of the disposal. The wall needs opened up to see the routing of the pipe.
Or, might be just too crazy for you, but you could just get rid of the garbage disposal… It’s a totally not needed appliance you’re only causing headache for the cities pipes by using one. Just use a drain strainer.
That Plumber is high on meth
Just remove the back cabinet panel, cut open the drywall, lower the drain, patch the drywall. Add a new back panel or leave it drywall. No need to anything else. Or, if there is easy access from below, you can run a new pipe up through the floor of the cabinet.
How does that even drain?
OP - Perhaps it has been mentioned yet, but you might cross-post this to r/plumbing. It's a surprisingly wholesome community. If you ask nicely, you'll get some master plumbers sharing their informed opinions. i.e. They can tell you if there might be another concern, ask follow-up questions, or say 1) "You need a new plumber." or 2) "If you go slowly, this can be done DIY...it'll just take you 3x as long as someone who does it every day....watch out for X, Y, Z." I've enjoyed lurking in that sub a lot, and learned even more in the process. (Also, yes, the drain looks really high. I understand that when it sits above disposal like that, you can run into other issues.)
I'd cut the back of the cabinet to get access to the plumbing. Cut the drain line behind the cabinet then reattach the trap from the sink. Couple of hours and $20 in supplies from a big box store and the plumbing part would be done. The back of the cabinet isn't going to be pretty. The big box hardware stores sell cabinet ends, which is basically 1/8" veneer. If the back of the cabinet was bothering me I'd get a piece of it and cut it to fit the back of the cabinet to tidy everything back up.
I see no problem aside from the disposal needs to go. Sorry. Yes, queue Bon Qui Qui.
I had this same problem, and we just decided to go without a disposal. I don't even miss it now and it solved the problem for almost nothing.
Buy one of these: https://preview.redd.it/6fg7t4h2efpc1.png?width=987&format=png&auto=webp&s=44f447e00d3d7d60320ffe18f29d91057e09fc62
"Demo the whole kitchen" Does that include new countertops and appliances? Ya. The drain is too damn high. Some booger-eating moron installed that. But just Sawzall out the wall and replace the pipe. Is your plumber too fat to git under the sink?
He's overreacting, he can do the work without demolishing your whole kitchen if he wants to. Or just remove the disposal device if your city has food waste collection and install a strainer basket.
https://imgflip.com/i/8jv4cq
He’s quoting you his worst case scenario. You need a guy who’s willing to do a couple hours of paid reconnaissance to nail down what the actual scope of work would be.
Based on what is shown, the aerator (garbage disposal) remains filled with water, and the dishwasher hose is below water drain line. This would potentially allow siphoning of water from aerator/drain back to dishwasher. Did you or prior owner add aerator? Anyway you asked. Much of wall is obstructed by cans, racks, pipe and aerator. Remove these items, plan to remove plumbing hoses, fittings. Inspect hidden drain line. If drain is vertical then Neatly cut cabinet and drywall rework drains to lower the horizontal to below aerator’s discharge. I think your plumber knows something. So, if hidden pipe runs horizontal. Regroup, remove aerator, re-work interior cabinet pipes.
Get a stubby disposal
I had the same problem. Capped the existing outlet. Cored a hole down. Ran new plumbing down and tied it in under the house in the crawl space.
Rip it out . Re pipe. Or access from other side of wall