How To

How to Unclog a drain

Member
By Tsunami
User-Submitted Article
(7 Ratings)

This How To article will teach you to clear a clog in a kitchen or bathroom sink.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  • Channel Locks
  • Sewer Snake
  • teflon tape
  • liquid drain cleaner
  • bucket to catch water
  • a few towels just in case.
  1. Step 1

    Empty sink of any dishes or other items and put them well out of the way.

  2. Step 2

    Clear the drain catch of any food or any other contaminants.

  3. Step 3

    Start by trying a simple plunger to clear the blockage.

  4. Step 4

    If the Plunger does not do the job use an off the shelf drain cleaner and let sit for about 5-10 minutes and plunge if necessary

  5. Step 5

    if the previous steps did not resolve your problem, get a small bucket and put beneath the P-Trap on a towel. Undo the p-trap and drain water into the bucket (you may need a pair of channel locks if you can not get the p-trap lose).

  6. Step 6

    Now that you have the p-trap off use a plumbers sewer snake or even an electrical snake will work.

    a)Run the snake to the sink and clear that section.
    b)Run the snake through the p-trap to clean it out.
    c)Run the snake through to drain side of the line as far as you can

  7. Step 7

    Replace the p-trap (you may need teflon tape if it is prone to leak)

    test the drain for leaks with a small amout of water if it leaks make sure everything is tight and use teflon tape on the threads if you think you need to.

  8. Step 8

    Now that the leaks are gone fill the sink up and see if it drains.

    if the sink does not drain at this point it could be a more serious problem further down the drain pipe and a plumber may need to be called.

  9. Step 9

    empty bucket of excess water and clean up.

  10. Step 10

    Now do those dishes.

Tips & Warnings
  • use towels and buckets to keep water from getting all over
  • don't let water sit on wood as it will rot it.

Comments  

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on 9/18/2009 Great tips on how to unclog a drain! Rated 5!

biker9 said

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on 9/9/2009 A lot of times women's bathroom sink will slow because a lot of their hair goes down the drain. Something you'll see on tv lately is a simple drain snake called turbo snake http://www.turbosnake.biz which makes it easy to pull out all the goopy hair in the drain below the sink.

eemie said

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on 5/11/2009 THANK YOU!! My drain has been giving me trouble, 5*s and trying it out!

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