Unblocking A Sink

TheBlueWolf

Mine has had standing water since last weekend.

I've tried cleaning out the U bend, along with combinations of salt/water and caustic soda/vinegar but to no avail. Plunging it makes little difference. There's no obvious block, that I can find, but the water simply refuses to drain when I pull the plug.

I'm a council tenant so I'll be asking for a plumber dude to come round but in the meantime is there anything other than swearing loudly at the sink that might help?

Ta

Heartfeltdawn

Go down to the local corner store. Buy yourself a six pack of cider, two bags of pork scratchings, some chocolate, and some cigars. Sit down and enjoy this bounty until the plumber arrives. 

More seriously, what plunger have you got? If it's a little Dalek plunger, they're mostly crap. I bought a cracking one from Screwfix last year which proved to be excellent at unblocking the home sink and the sinks in my restaurant kitchen. 

VimFuego

I guess it depends where the blockage is, if it's in the pipes between the sink and the main sewer then a proper plunger should clear it (we have a turbo plunger, which utilises a flux capacitor to really ramp up the plunge powah) and when that fails, dry caustic soda, which clears up the fatty deposits.

If it's beyond the point where the sink drains to the mains, then you probably need to clear the main, that means using drain rods (lovely job, mmmm shit covered flexible pipes) or I believe you can get chemicals to clear it.

TheBlueWolf

A Dalek one I'll have a look on the Screwfix site over the weekend for a better one

TheBlueWolf

@VimFuego that sounds like a job for plumber dude

Heartfeltdawn

This is the one I bought. £3. Absolutely brilliant item. 

http://www.screwfix.com/p/sink-bath-unblocker/13894?_requestid=279504

Sporky

VimFuego said:

I believe you can get chemicals to clear it.

The chap in the plumbing shop told me not to pour the whole bottle of concentrated sulphuric acid down the drain in one go.

True, I nearly died, and both sets of neighbours have since moved out, but the drains run freely.

VimFuego

Sporky said:

VimFuego said:

I believe you can get chemicals to clear it.

The chap in the plumbing shop told me not to pour the whole bottle of concentrated sulphuric acid down the drain in one go.

True, I nearly died, and both sets of neighbours have since moved out, but the drains run freely.

it is possible that you were the teller/victim in the cautionary tale that warned me about using chemicals down sewer mains.

TheBlueWolf

Heartfeltdawn said:

This is the one I bought. £3. Absolutely brilliant item. 

http://www.screwfix.com/p/sink-bath-unblocker/13894?_requestid=279504

Ta, I'll get one

Dominic

One Shot is the best product - a bottle costs about £7
best unblocker .......leave in plughole for 3 minutes then run a glassful of water
a bad blockage may need to sit for a few hours
then flush through

Grunfeld

Sporky said:

VimFuego said:

I believe you can get chemicals to clear it.

The chap in the plumbing shop told me not to pour the whole bottle of concentrated sulphuric acid down the drain in one go.

True, I nearly died, and both sets of neighbours have since moved out, but the drains run freely.

Amen.  Someone on here, this very forum, said I could kill a plant really f*cking 100% dead with acetic acid.  I wanted to kill a lawn so I got 10 litres of 99% pure from an industrial supplier.  (I'm not sure scaling it up was advised and on hindsight it was a bit mental.)
OMFG
I put it in the watering can and started sprinkling... about 5 minutes in I couldn't breathe.  I kept going, like you do.
Never, ever, again.  Eyes went, throat went, I thought I'd done serious irreversible damage.  To me, not the lawn.
For a fortnight you could smell my lawn from a block away.  It was totally salt and vinegar.  I have no idea how I wasn't reported to the council.
Beware chemicals.

Evilmags

Drain rods are manky as fuck. It´s one of those things that you are better off getting someone else to do. 

TheBlueWolf

I've chucked enough chemicals down the sink already and nothing happened.

rlw

Boiling or very hot water can help too.

notanon

What's the distance from ubend to drain? Can you work backwards and try to clean with stiff wire from drain to sink?

TheBlueWolf

It's pretty close but in an awkward position. I'll have a look in the morning

notanon

Put a V shaped hook on the end, if you meet resistance it will help you pull the crap through don't do this with very stiff wire to you may damage a joint :-(

Emp_Fab

Can't you just get underneath it and unscrew the u-bend trap ?  It's probably just that, filled with crap.  (shove a bowl underneath before you unscrew it !)

Philly_Q

My bathroom sink is so badly blocked I had to stop using it ages ago.

I tried cleaning out the u-bend, used plungers till they broke, one of those flexible metal rod things....  I suspect I've poured so much Mr Muscle down the fucking pipe that it's totally solidified.

Probably the only way to sort it, I think, would be to take a ladder and go up to the point where it joins the outside drain, then rod out that part of the piping.  But I can't be arsed.

Bucket

I've had to do mine with a drain rod before, wasn't pleasant but chuck some Marigolds on and get on with it. Did the trick anyway, and my flatmates all thought I was thoroughly excellent

Sambostar