awesome14 Loc: UK

A few muses: I did apartment maintenance for five years. In that time I cleaned perhaps 300 plugged drains. Retail drain cleaner is worthless. If it doesn't clear the clog, it makes it harden up and even more difficult to remove.

Using a plunger more often packs the clog than clears it, making it more difficult to remove. A few tricks I've learned are: scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner is an incredible clog loosener. You just spray a whole can of it and let it go down the drain. Ounce per ounce it will dissolve more oil, grease and drain goo than anything. And, it's safe!

For difficult to access drains, Clobber is best. But you need to wear safety goggles. And it's not very good for metal pipes. But, it usually clears the clog quickly, and then washes down and is diluted. Lye, or sodium hydroxide, is extremely effective at clearing completely, or almost completely, clogged drains. But it's difficult to find instructions on it's use for drain cleaning.

For lye, you should wear safety goggles, not safety glasses, a respirator with organic-solvent/acid-gas filters, and rubber gloves! Lye does not attack metals. You dissolve a can of lye in a few quarts of piping hot water (boiling water is the best), and very slowly (over about 1/2 hour) pour it down the drain. Wait about five minutes, and pour the largest kettle of boiling water down the drain.

Lye cause blindness on contact with eyes, and the fumes are intolerably caustic! So, you need the safety equipment mentioned.

Hand powered snakes are not adequate to clear most clogs. It requires more arm strength and stamina than most people have. But power snakes can be rented. Once the drain is apart, a power snake will go through practically any clog in five minutes or less.

First I used the spiral head, to try to grab anything that could be grabbed. If I couldn't get through, I'd use the cutter head, for things like left-over tile grout than someone poured down the drain and let harden. To finish up I used a c-cutter, ot scrape the side of the pipe clean. I told the tenants to let cold water trickle down the drain for about 8 hours.

Water drains down the sides of the pipe, so a tiny trickle over an extended period will wash out anything that might be left.

Unions work well for certain occupations. For skilled trades, unions provide quality control through training, which is indispensable in insuring the quality of the final product. Trade unions also lobby government to maintain strict quality standards in codes. Sometimes this goes awry, as when electrical unions lobbied against the use of romex cable, favoring conduit and BX instead; and plumbing unions lobbied against PVC sewer pipe, favoring cast iron.

Both romex and PVC greatly reduced the amount of work available to electricians and plumbers, by making jobs easier and cheaper, and also by making it easier for non-union workers and DIYers to perform the work. But romex, because of it's better ground connections, and PVC, because of it's ease in cutting and joining, its light weight and its extreme durability; produced a superior end product. So the federal government stepped in and forced the use of those products.

Unions do not work well with unskilled labor, because there is no benefit to anyone but the union members and leaders. These unions simply skew the free market, and raise prices.

Government unions should be outlawed, because government workers have guaranteed job security, lavish pensions, easy schedules and earlier retirement!

On women in the workforce, I only have this to say, "What woman would prefer full days of back-breaking labor to caring for the family she loves, and the home and garden which are extensions of her creative flair."

The disciple Paul wrote, "The woman is perfected through child rearing and housework!" I contend that much of what women do nowadays is based on a faith-based belief system that counters common sense! If I was female, I wouldn't want to be a steamfitter of brick mason! I'd want to get married, have children, do charity work, and be available to care for those I love!

A woman's true beauty lies in her chastity, fertility and obedience.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I was with you (and appreciated) the drain cleaning tips, BUT ...obedience? Really?

And my son, the high school teacher and wrestling coach (an NC govt. employee), who will be paying off his educational loans for his masters degree for decades, could recalibrate you all about the guaranteed job security, easy schedules and lavish pensions that he receives. I hope that’s not the type of govt. job you had in mind.

truckincat

Better put your elbows back on, they are there for a reason, to keep sewer gases from coming into the house. Learned this from watching Mike Holmes.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I’m betting Jerry knows the difference between a trap and an elbow...

pendennis

We live in a relatively old house (built in 1926), and while there aren't lead pipes, we do have a mix of galvanized, copper, and plastic, that is until a couple of weeks ago. I noticed that we had very little cold water coming into our deep sink adjacent to the washer. My wife had complained that the washer only did hot water, and not cold. I checked the washer hose, and maintained the cold water feed valve in the sink. Nothing worked. I called our long-time journeyman plumber, telling him this wasn't an emergency, and could he come out as soon as possible, though.

Next day he was there, discovering that we had a growing clog in the cold water pipe. We had good pressure for everything in front of the sink and washer. He arrived at 1:30PM, went right to work, and was out the door at 2:30PM. He replaced 12 feet of galvanized with flex hose, along with new shutoff valves. The out-the-door cost was $100.

This guy grew up in the neighborhood, and has been doing plumbing around here for almost 40 years. He's done any number of jobs for us, including running a new kitchen drain to the main drain. His charge for that one, including all new plumbing under the kitchen sink, was a grand total of $225.

I don't know what I'll do if he ever retires.

B_meyer5.55NY

Well Said....
thanks for your input on both sides of the coin.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

All the washing machines I have owned have a coarse filter at the input. Sometimes it's just a washer with a conical screen on it but sometimes it's something just inside the connection to the hose. It's usually easy to get out and inspect. If crud builds up on the screen it can block the hot or cold water from the washing machine. If you check the hose, you should be able to see it but since washing machines are generally placed against a wall, you might have to move the washer out so you can look into the fitting.

I have never seen a buildup of crud in the pipes. Maybe I always had good water. But one time in the lab we had a vacuum system that had a water cooled pump. We had a filter in front of the pump because we didn't want crud in the pump, which was much more expensive than the filter. It worked fine for a couple years, then one spring it quit. The filter was completely jammed with something that looked like mosquito larvae. We didn't drink the water for a couple months after that.

pendennis

At least every six months, I always remove the intake hoses and inspect the filters just to prevent such an occurrence. I also replace the metal clad hoses every two years.

We live in Michigan, and we have a lot of minerals in the water. There are any number of companies which make, sell, and service various "soft water" systems. Our plumber advised that older galvanized pipes will garner mineral deposits over time, and that the newer flex pipes are engineered to keep that from happening.

Before we moved to Michigan, we lived in Kentucky, and the water was much softer. In fact when we stayed with my parents on visits, the shower water felt almost "oily", it was so much softer.

ThruTheLens Loc: Kingston NY

I think we're getting a little off topic here. Didn't the OP post about a drain issue and not about a water supply problem???
Jerry, I'm in Kingston NY. Love a repair challenge and I'm knowledgeable in all the building trades. Let me know if you want some help. The little women and I will take a day trip, with tools!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

off topic is not a bug, it's a feature

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Wow! That sounds like a disaster.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Problem solved! Running maybe 18' of my 20' snake through the pipe didn't help, so I bought a 50' snake. After a bit of measuring, I discovered that it was 20' from the drain to the septic tank, not counting a couple of turns in the pipe. I marked the 23' point on the new snake and ran that through. When it reached an obstruction, I began turning it, and I was slowly able to push it through so there was no more resistance. I ran it through to the 23' point on the snake. I withdrew the snake and ran water from the hose into the pipe for a full minute - no backups!

If I had called a plumber, and he failed with his 20' snake, I could have said to him, "You're gonna need a bigger snake." ("Jaws")

I decided to install a new sink, faucet, soap dispenser, and below-sink plumbing. That's in addition to refurbishing the cabinet under the sink. And they say that home ownership is "The American Dream."

The 50' snake didn't come in a convenient rotating case, so how do you deal with a filthy snake that's so long? When our well pump died a few months ago, and we had to buy water for nine days, my son brought home one of those huge water cooler bottles of water. That turned out to be perfect for the snake. I cleaned it, oiled it, and it's stored neatly in the garage.

I want to thank everyone for offering suggestions, especially the plumbing expert from CA who has been emailing me.

Day.Old.Pizza Loc: Maple Grove, MN

Glad it worked out. Now I wonder where the laundry water is going? :-) You said that had no drainage problems.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Congratulations Jerry on a straight flush (a local septic tank service has "a straight flush is better than a full house" on the truck) - I knew you could do it (and now you have a mother of a snake) 🙄