Sunday, September 2, 2012

my dad should be proud

not because of the upside down quilt picture, but because I got myself out of the clogged sink yesterday.  It only took about 8 hours, on and off working to get it clear.

I tried putting drain cleaner down, the plumber said not to put it in the garbage disposal side, so I put it on the other side of the sink and let it sit for an hour or so.  Nothing.

I opened the drain from outside and tons of water poured out.  Then, I used the snake and pushed it as far as it would go, which was about 3 feet before it hit the clog.  I had put way too much stuff down the garbage disposal on Friday and knew it might clog up, but thought since I had run a ton of water and there wasn't a problem on Friday I would be ok.  Nope :)

Then, after unclogging a bit and running the hose as far as it would go with water blasting, closed things up and tried again, nope, not fixed.  I let the hose run for about 30 minutes, thinking it might just loosen the clog.  Nothing doing.

Then, I ran the snake again, this time I was able to get it all 25 feet into the drain and was sure I had fixed things, but sure enough as soon as I put the plug in from outside the house, the drain clogged again.  I remembered that when the plumber was here, gunk came up out of the downstairs shower so thought I'd see if the clog was before or after that drain.  I ran the shower and sure enough, it clogged up.  I pried off the drain (ew, gross hair there) and then ran the snake in the shower and after a few good plunges, got the drain to go!  So exciting that my hard work paid off.  And I learned to scrape plates into the trash, not the sink :)  Just hope the dogs leave the trash alone, or we will have to take the trash out every night.  A much quicker fix than dealing with the drain again!

2 comments:

Ruth Ann said...

Good job on your plumbing job. We hardly ever put anything down our disposal because of the way the pipes are turned and make a couple of right angles, it stops up quiet easily. I bag smelly leftovers in plastic grocery bags and freeze them on a certain shelf until trash day. Empty out the leftovers the night before trash day.

Ruth Ann said...

quite, not quiet....Gracious me-I have a Master's degree and won our county spelling bee when I was 13!