About two weeks ago, my kitchen sink started impersonating the kid from The Exorcist and started heaving up this black decomposing gritty…stuff. I dunno what it’s composed of-doesn’t seem to be food-like, but it’s somewhat oily. It comes up about one or twice a week, up both sinks, and does not seem to be related to when I last ran a load through the dishwasher (which is once or twice a week). Total slime volume per puke session is about one half cups worth.
The bathroom sinks and shower are unaffected. I’m on the ground floor of a three storey 30 year old apartment building. Don’t want to bug the landlord, since it’s my dad and he knows little about plumbing and is going throught some nasty personal stuff. How can I kill the slime without calling in Ray and Egon?
This happened in the house I grew up in. Eventually, we were down to one toilet, one sink and one tube not spewing. And, no, they weren’t in the same bathroom. It was like living in the house from Amityville. As it turned out, a tree’s roots had grown through the sewer line from the house to the street. We had to get roto-rooter to fix it. The guy looked like this :o when he told us “well ma’am, it was made worse by those feminine products” (enunciated very clearly, as if we wouldn’t know what he was referring to).
I’ve had the same problem. This is what has worked for me, personally: I am not a plumber.
Get yourself a small plunger and some Drano (the foamy kind).
First, plunge the ever loving hell out of your sink. It will probably barf again and smell bad. Run hot water, or better yet boil a pot of water and dump it down the drain.
Then put the Drano in there, let it sit. Do the water thing again. See what happens. Repeat plunging if necessary.
Had some hair-clog goo on hand so used that; I’ll go get some of the foamy stuff tomorrow. Will hold off on the plungering for the time being, not wanting an acid bath at this time of night
Times like this I miss living in a corporate owned apartment. They had chemicals that could dissolve the top two strata of the earth’s crust, and not fuck up the PVC pipe.
Baking soda and vinegar work well. Just put the baking soda in first and then top with vinegar and the chemical reaction will cause a foam that will help loosen debris and grime.
In apartment buildings all sinks are stacked over eachother and drain into “sink stacks” which eventually merge with the main sewer lines. They’re usually 2 inches in diameter and are filthy as hell. The bottom floor of an apartment building gets the worst of it where this is concerned.
If you don’t get it professionally “snaked or cleaned” It’ll eventually end up overflowing out of your sink, onto the floor and into the carpet. I’m sure if you tell your dad now it’ll be a help.
Don’t plunge AFTER you’ve put DRANO in (or Liquid Plumr or anything else) unless you’re wearing safety goggles and a respirator. One decent splashback could have you wearing an eyepatch for life. Really. That stuff is nasty. Strong acid.
I’d personally avoid the baking soda and vinegar combination, too. We used to use that particular combination of ingredients to launch rockets from soda bottles. It fizzed up until it exploded (from a closed bottle).
The new generation of drain cleaners seems to be a gel-based goop that hangs around on the way down and eats up all the goo that’s in there. Good luck. Wear safety goggles.
Another thing I didn’t add (as an expert!) was that plunging will get you nowhere. That’s only good for local clogs. When you plunge, you’re using air to open a clogged passage but it’s like trying to inflate a popped baloon in some (most) circumstances.
If the water bounces up and down after plunging, don’t waste your time.
The OP said there was a kitchen sink paired with a dishwasher. That makes it a little tricky, so here’s how you cope: When the dishwasher is on a pumpout cycle, run the disposal with lots of water. If there’s a double sink, run the disposal in one side and plunge the other side. Remember, the pull stroke with a plunger is more effective than the push. Yanking up a lot of black stuff is a triumph. If it goes down, that is. :eek:
Every professional plumber I’ve talked to agrees: DO NOT USE CHEMICAL DRAIN OPENERS.
They don’t work very well, are extremely dangerous, and can eat your pipes. Plumbers hate seeing a sink fill of lye infested water, and will charge about three times as much to do the job.
Plunging after that stuff is added is too dangerous. DO NOT DO IT!
Buy a snake at a hardware store, or call a plumber or Roto Rooter and have the line snaked out.
A non-chemical way: Put a cup of salt and a cup of baking soda down the drain. Add a cup of heated vinegar (use the microwave). This makes a good, safe drain opener.
Aw,crap. I’ll probably have to go this route-if it were just my drain it would have puked a year’s worth of goo once, but I’m probably getting whatever Arnold the Viagra geezer upstairs has been washing down the drain since the 70’s.
Gloves and goggles, indeed Thanks for the help, everyone.
How can I kill the slime without calling in Ray and Egon?
