I am the lone male in a house of women and the unpleasant job of unblocking clogged sinks and drains falls to me. Here are some of the lessons I have learned about this over the years:
First off let me apologise to any American readers of this blog and admit that I have very limited expertise in the unclogging of blocked toilet bowls. This is something I have almost never experienced in my Irish home although on the few visits I have made to the US this appears to be a fairly common problem over there. I have a notion that US toilets use a narrower throat than is common here which amplifies the siphon effect but is prone to clogging. Most European toilets in my experience have fairly wider bores which give a much poorer (and indeed sometimes inadequate) flush but which almost never clog. If a wide bore European toilet does clog you can often clear it with a heavy flush supported with an additional bucket of water. Take care of course not to overflow the bowl.
Anyway the problem I have to deal with on a regular basis is blocked sink and shower drains occasionally caused by kitchen waste but much more commonly caused by human hair.
It is sound advice to try and minimise the source of clogging by encouraging your family members to clear any solid debris and in particular any hairs out of the plughole after using a sink or a shower. This won’t eliminate the problem of material that has already gone down the plughole but it may extend the time required between decloggings.
It is possible to get drain inserts with a fine mesh that catch hairs for easy removal. I have had poor success with these unfortunately. If the mesh is fine enough to catch hairs then it will clog almost immediately making for a very unpleasant shower experience as the rising water laps around your ankles.
The simplest and in many cases the best approach to declogging is to use an old fashioned rubber plunger. This is a hemispherical rubber cup that will form an airtight seal over the drain hole and may be used to push and pull air and water in and out of the drain. I have had a lot of success with these but there are a few subtleties:
- Always block the sink overflow when using them. This overflow is a second entry to the drainpipe and if you don’t block it then your plunging action will simply push and pull air in and out of this hole greatly minimising your results.
- I advise filling the sink with enough water to fill the blocked drain and to overlap the base of the plunger. This means that the plunger is pushing water rather that air. Water has greater mass and greater impact for clearing that blockage.
- Once the plunger has formed a water tight seal around the plug hole I recommend a sequence of ten to twenty rapid compress/release cycles without breaking the seal. I find short repeated compressions work better than a smaller number of more flamboyant plunges.
- Try to avoid pulling the plunger forcefully away from the plug hole to break the seal. This will simply suck all the crap that is in the drain back up into your sink or bath. While this may seem like a good way to remove a blockage most of it is likely to go right back down the drain to clog up again.
You can buy a variety of products which claim to unclog blocked drains. While these may seem like an easier option my experience with them has been mixed. Many of them are based on Sodium Hydroxide (caustic soda). I have found that caustic soda used in conjunction with very hot water can be effective at removing fat and food based blockages but is far less effective in the bathroom where hair is the main problem. It is also very corrosive to both humans and to aluminium so please follow manufacturers instructions and safety advice to the letter. A less common formula uses concentrated (90%+) sulphuric acid. While this does work very well on human hair and just about anything else it is even more corrosive than caustic soda and will quickly destroy any part of you or any metal that it touches. It will destroy the chrome finish of your bathroom accessories if you accidentally spill it on them.
What about blockages outside of the house? In my experience these come in two varieties: The less serious is a blocked drain because a grate designed to collect rainwater has become clogged with leaves or other detritus. Simply clean the grate to clear the blockage. Always replace the grate or else the leaves and gunk will simply accumulate below to form a much more serious blockage. This could lead to the more serious blockage of an underground sewer pipe. You should know where the covers are that allow you access to the sewers under your home but you will generally need specialised equipment to deal with a blocked sewer. I have done it on occasion but at this point I would consider calling in an outside contractor. They aren’t cheap but they will have the equipment and expertise to clear the problem more quickly than you can and a house with a blocked sewer is not a happy house.
Final note: on very rare occasions I have actually dismantled the U shaped trap under a sink to manually remove a blockage. This is messy and awkward but is the final solution if all else fails.
Second Final note: I forgot about under sink waste disposal (Insinkerator), These are not at all common in Ireland but as it happens we have one and it clogs about once per year. The only solution in this case is to mechanically remove it from under the sink and physically remove any blockage. This is relatively easy to do: First unplug the waste disposal. There is a metal locking ring that forces a watertight seal with a rubber gasket under the sink. I usually have to take a hammer to it to unscrew the locking ring but once the unit is removed from under the sink it is easy to unclog. Just don’t make the rookie mistake of turning on the tap while the waste disposal is removed.
Advice to the Son I never Had 