Need some help here, guys.
My girlfriends bathroom sink has slowly been getting backed up over the last few months. It’s at the point now where if you let the water run for a minute, it’ll completely fill up and takes several minutes to clear it of water (meaning it’s not a complete blockage).
This is obviously not an emergency as it’s only a sink and a plumber is only a call away. But I’d like to fix this myself.
Should I a) try and dismantle the plastic part right under the sink (the part where you can collect jewelry etc that you’ve happened to drop in the sink) or should I b) use a drano like agent to clear it of the block?
The problem is that we don’t have drano here in sweden, and I’m not really keen on trying to find the equivalent. I’ve been thinking that bleach should work pretty good as well, since it’s a strong base.
.Over and out.
I’m a plumber and suggest taking the p-trap apart before you dump any chemicals into the drain. Your problem is probably caused by a glob of hair in the trap. If the trap is not blocked by anything I suggest running a small “snake” into the drainpipe coming out of the wall.
IANAPlumber, but I would recommend against using any chemicals that are not specifically labelled for use in clearing sink blockages. I’d call in the plumber long before I tried random household chemicals to see if they would work. If you do use some household chemical and end up having to call the plumber anyway, they’ll probably charge you extra.
Use a rubber plunger (“plumber’s helper”) first. First of all, use a sponge or towel to stuff up the overflow drain (if there is one – the hole that drains off water if the level gets too high). It’s also useful to remove the cap that covers the drain, if any.
Now run water. When it starts to back up a bit, put the plunger of the drain and press it down to blow out the air. Then pull it up. You should get a solid amount of suction. Repeat moving the plunger up and down a few times. Goop should come up into the sink. Scoop it out.
Stop plunging and see if the drain works better. If not, repeat.
You may not even need a plunger. My wife’s got long hair, which routinely forms a gobbed up ball in the bathroom sink every three or four months. All I have to do to fix it is unscrew the drainplug, reach in there with a needlenose, and pull the stuff out.
Yes, dismantle the p-trap. That is almost certainly the problem. First, put a bucket under it though. Then, remember, that you can not use this sink to clean the fittings from the p-trap. It very easy to just turn on the water in the sink, just like a person might turn on the lights when the power is off/out.
Also, do you have a drain that opens with a lever? And not a rubber stopper? If that’s the case there will be a rod in the back of the drain that connects to it. This is also a place for hair and gunk to build up. You should be able to remove, or losen the nut around the rod and pull it out a bit so you can remove the stopper/drain plug.
I’ll have to investigate… I know what the “p-trap” looks like, but can’t remember if there was indeed a rod at the back of the sink that one uses to block the drain… Will come back with more details!
But thanks for the info anyways. I’ll lay off the bleach for the moment. BTW, would bleach have worked had it been hair causing the blockage?
Previous thread on clogged sinks
I was the OP in that thread - the most helpful tip I got was just to boil a kettle of water and pour it down the sink. Often the clog is caused by a combination of soap and hair build-up. Pouring boiling water down dissolves the soap, and that in turn frees the hair, unless it’s a major hair ball.
I poured about three kettles of water down the drain over the course of a week-end, and it solved the problem - drain’s not been backing up since then (which was back in March, I see now from the previous thread.)
That was what clogged my drain, the hair got wrapped around the rod. It was much easier to take that apart than dismantling the p-trap, so I’d try that first.
Just remember not to run the water when the rod is removed, the water comes out the hole in the side of the pipe.
Yes, boiling water. Then, run very hot tap water down for a looooong time. If you want, you can then use a “build-up remover” which is an Enzyme based drain cleaner. Those are fairly safe. Don’t use caustic drain cleaners.
For a bathoorm sink, it could be hair. They make these damn fool things that are a flexible plastic strip around 2-3’ long, with backwards facing “hooks”- called “sink snake”. Insert strip, pull back- covered with the worlds grossest hair plug. Use often on the tub drain.
Bleach won’t help much with hair. In fact, most plugs are soap, grease or hair. With soap, bases won’t help much. With grease- a base with often just make soap! Sometimes a grease plug can be removed with Simple Green, etc.
Most drain problems can be solved by running clean very hot tap water down the drain every so often for a while. An occasional use of the “build-up remover” and you’re fine. There is never a need for caustic drain cleaners in the hands of non-professionals. Note that Professional Plumbers almost never use them either.
Both running hot water and an enzyme based “build-up remover” is about all that amateurs should try- or need to try. If you have very very hard water, then hot (not boiling) vinegar may be useful to help remove “scale”, and it’s pretty safe.
Removing the trap may well solve your problem. But, I hazard a guess you’re not a plumber. 
Thus although removing the trap might not be so hard*- putting it back on - so as it doesn’t leak- isn’t as easy as it looks.
*or it might, it could be “frozen” and thus break all to hell when you use too much muscle power.
Well, it turns out this bugged my gf enough that she dismantled the trap herself today and said that it was indeed “the biggest, most disgusting collection of hair and whatnot” that she had ever seen. But she also mentioned that she’d had a bit of a problem assembling the trap so that it wouldn’t leak. Why’s that? Don’t you just screw the bottom part back on? Or is there some sort of o-ring that has to sit just perfectly to prevent leakage?
Drain fittings are typically connected w/ compression fittings. They usually consist of a wedge shaped rubber, or composite, gasket (washer) backed by a thin metal washer. The metal washer is to prevent the rubber gasket from binding when the fitting nut is tightened. Overtightening can defeat this and is the most common cause of undersink leaks. Just hand tighten and the about one turn or less should seal the joint. Often you need to replace the rubber gasket and metal washer if they appear deteriorated.
There’s also this mysterious substance called “plumber’s tape”.
You use it in the grooves of the fittings.
Of course, keep in mind that your clog may have set up to be as hard as concrete, due to repeated past applications of chemicals and such. Like this thing which my plumber extracted from my master bath sink. The shit in here was rock-hard, and required tearing out about a foot of pipe and replacing it to clear.
Link: http://www.coalgoddess.net/files/Pictures/0609/WH_Arteries.jpg
I’m not a chemist or a hairdresser, but I doubt it would. Bleach could be dangerous if it didn’t clear the clog and stayed in the drain, and then some cleaning product with ammonia in it got into the drain.
That appears to be “lime”, and certainly it can be made worse by using lye-based “drain cleaners”. Hot vinegar will help clean it out, but not when it get’s that bad, of course.
It could have been lime, but a rough dissection of it seemed to give the appearance that it was years, maybe decades, of hair which had been chemically transformed into…something. It certainly had a smell reminiscient of burning hair when I was picking at it.
Thta’s possible also. Ecch.
Like I said- “sink snake”, hot water, and an occasional dose of vinegar or enzymatic “build-up remover” (not at the same time, follow directions on container).