Is there a plumber in the house?

So my wife and I bought our first house last January. Fast forward to today and we have a very clogged kitchen sink.

Maybe a month ago it acted somewhat clogged, a little Drano and all was good. A few days ago it acted about the same. Drano made zero progress. Made a quick run to Home Stinko and came home with Zep commercial drain cleaner. Still no dice.

The water will run for close to a minute before it starts backing up into the sink.

What's my next step? Buy a snake and run it down from the roof vent or try to locate a clean out outside somewhere? Go ahead and pay the piper for a plumber to come out and look at it.

Will my Homeowners warranty cover any of this?

Help a newbie home owner out guys.

Thanks

Brandon

Try the blended sulfuric stuff from Roebic. But pour carefully cause that shyt will turn chrome into pewter. Coat the drain with vaseline to protect if needed.

Sounds like a slow draining plug in the main. Could be roots too but, if (you or) your wife has any length of hair it's prolly something you'll deal with often.

A pipe snake is something every homeowner should own. I am assuming your sink has a garbage disposal. Since that is likely the case, you need to disconnect the trap from the garbage disposal, and then stick the pipe snake in from there.

Oh Crap. Yeah. Regarding the disposal.


Don't pour the sulfur through that. Lest of course you just want a new disposal. Then video it.

Roots wouldn't surprise me. Wonder if the warranty would cover that.

Also my wife has quite the mane of hair, but I wouldn't a hair clog would effect the Kitchen sink this much.

So you are saying it's possibly something that the disposal moved down line?

Doubt the warranty will cover root in the mainline but they'll certainly include in the exclusions if they do.

To me, it sounds like the water has to back up the line to show itself and then slowly drains down. I suppose your disposal could be the culprit too.

BHowe said:

Roots wouldn't surprise me. Wonder if the warranty would cover that.

Also my wife has quite the mane of hair, but I wouldn't a hair clog would effect the Kitchen sink this much.

So you are saying it's possibly something that the disposal moved down line?

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I am not a plumber but unless you are having this problem in all sinks, tubs and toilets I doubt it is roots. The kitchen sink pipe meets up with the main long before it goes outside (in a normal house). Sounds like just a problem in the pipe between the sink and where it joins the other pipes in the house.

If it were all sinks/tubs/toilets and you have a septic tank that could be backed up too.

I can actually run the water down the left sink, effectively bypassing the disposal, and still get the same effect, so I don't believe there is anything in there.

Where does a guy get the sulfur stuff?

Nothing else in the house is giving any issues at all. Just the kitchen sink.

I'm not a plumber- but I do fix a lot of stuff around the house.
As has been said, and from my experience, it's probably the disposal.
Search the internet for instructions on how to disconnect it.
(It's not that difficult.)
Check it out and the adjacent pipes.
Be prepared... there's a lot of water that stays down there... and it's gonna get gross.

BHowe said:

IWhere does a guy get the sulfur stuff?

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Lowes/Home Depot/Ace

Have even seen it in grocer aisle. It's usually in a grey bottle in a bag. Blended Sulfuric.

You prolly have a plugged trap dpending on how your sinks are plumbed. Sometime they get plumbed together to a single trap. Sometimes each sink gets it's own trap.

the trap is the curvy thing that looks like a ? layed over. Most can be taken loose by hand but it's messy.

I'd try baking soda and vinegar first.

http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2007/03/21/naturally-unclog-drain-with-vinegar/

Just cuz it's easy and you probably have it on hand. We have a septic so I try to find ways of fixing these things without sending nasty stuff down into my tank and killing my stock of pooeaters in there.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Lowes/Home Depot/Ace

Have even seen it in grocer aisle. It's usually in a grey bottle in a bag. Blended Sulfuric.

You prolly have a plugged trap dpending on how your sinks are plumbed. Sometime they get plumbed together to a single trap. Sometimes each sink gets it's own trap.

the trap is the curvy thing that looks like a ? layed over. Most can be taken loose by hand but it's messy.

Click to expand...

Well then, if only the kitchen sink I agree to start with taking the trap apart that is usually under the sink. This should not require any soldering etc. (unless it is ancient) just maybe a wrench if the nuts are tight. Good thing is the trap can be put back together again assuming it is not rotted or cracked.

If it takes a while before backing up, it's not likely plugged at the P trap under the sink. It's probably further down the line. You should own a snake anyway. You should also find a cleanout plug down at the main before it leaves the house which is another good place to snake.

+1 to bobbym go buy a 20ft snake in a hand crank drum. run it down the side without the disposal, any time it seems to stop give the crank a few turns to jar anything looose or to negotiate the turn in the pipe.

Its 100% down deeper then the disposal or the trap, I've had that all apart. I believe I found the clean out just right outside under the kitchen sink window.

I'm going to go grab a snake.

I would imagine I can get something that I can just chuck into my big corded drill? The blended sulfur might not be bad just to clean everything up a bit too.

I was at your party last weekend and someone was already in the bathroom.

Sorry man, I had to go.

It's a tampon in the line between your kitchen and the curb.

lol, Zul'jin...always classy.

lowes sells a water snakeor ram. we use them at work to power clogs out of floor drains and urinals.Hook it to a garden house, shove end into drain or pipe, cover with garbage bag and have a helper turn water on full blast. if it works on a backed up urinal in a busy casino, it will work on your sink. oh, plug up drains in sinks.

This may or may not work but it's worth a shot. Plug both sink drains and fill the side with the disposal up with water. Hold the plug in the other side down tight with one hand, turn on the disposal and pull the plug on the side with the disposal. This will send water down the drain with a little power behind it and may dislodge the clog. The down side is if your plumbing is old and weak it may find the weak link. If you use chemicals and end up having to call a plumber tell him what you put down there, he will not be real happy but he need to know what you used for his own safety. Hope this helps.

Hi. Plumber here. Forget all those chemical drain cleaner ideas. Most are garbage. The active ingredient is hype. By the time it reaches the clog, the hype will be too diluted to do anything. If it doesn't work and you call a plumber, they may bill you extra for some chemical getting on their boots/pants.

Your best bet is to unclog it with a drill-powered auger like this:



Whether it's you or a professional plumber who does the unclogging.

The most likely culprit is food that went through the garbage disposal. No matter how powerful your disposal, no matter how much it cost, no matter how much it "should" work, there are plenty of things that should never go through it. Things like potatoes, celery, corn husks, rice, pasta of any type, all kinds of things. IMHO, disposals are largely useless. Homeowners think it's an electric trash can.

i've never had good luck running a 1/2" powersnake down roof vents. the sweep always goes the wrong way. get a 50 footer at the hardware and run it through. it sounds like some crap from the disposal. you gotta run the disposal for a few minutes after with good water flowing to let it grind up everything. could also be rice and or grease. commercially, the traps need weekly emptying for that reason.

Great feedback guys, I'm hitting it with a 50 foot snake this afternoon.

i inherited the disposal in this house five years ago. it is only a trip away from the hardware store before it gets yanked. but then i gotta redo the faucet, and if i'm ripping out all that i minus well put real shut off valves on there, and well **** all that. i just don't use the disposal any more. but + 1 for a snake, and don't pour the drano down there...

Speak of the clog and it shall appear. The drain pipe the washing machine discharges to got clogged yesterday. 50' of drain snake could just reach the tip of it. Used the Clog Buster. Clog busted. Careful though. You can bust pipes with this thing.