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From time to time, we all face a problem – blockages in the sewer. Either the drain in the sink stops working, then in the bath, sometimes water is generally everywhere. In this case, you can call a plumber, or you can clean the sewer with your own hands.
Where did the blockage occur?
To choose the right sewer cleaning method, you need to understand where the blockage has formed. To do this, alternately drain the water at all points. If the water does not go somewhere in one place, the siphon is most likely clogged. The second reason is a blockage in the pipe section, before connecting to the main sewer.
If the water does not leave at all, and even overflows from one device to another (you open the water in the sink, it appears in the bathroom or the level in the toilet bowl starts to rise), the common sewer outlet is clogged.
If we are talking about a private house, this is a tap to a septic tank or a cesspool, if about an apartment, this is a plot to a riser or even a sewer riser itself. In the case of a clogged riser in an apartment, there may be an unpleasant situation in general – when the upper floors drain water, due to a plug in the sewer, it is poured into yours, rises in the bathroom, toilet bowl. If the situation is like this – call the plumbers – you can’t do it on your own, you need powerful equipment.
If the sewerage system in a private house is clogged, the first thing to check is whether the pit or septic tank is overflowing. If the level is not above normal, the problem is in the pipes or drain devices.
How to remove pollution in the siphon
The simplest case of a clogged sewer is that only one sink does not drain water. Most often, this problem occurs in the kitchen, a little less often in the bathroom. In this case, cleaning the sewer is the easiest. It is necessary to unwind the siphon, remove the debris there, wash the insides with detergent, and put everything back in place. If this was the reason, the drain should work.
We disassemble
How to disassemble the siphon at the sink, see the photo. The lower part of the siphon is unscrewed – there is a regular thread. Before unscrewing, substitute some kind of container down – a certain amount of water will drain. Removing the lower part, you will see contamination. It is necessary to wash the removed part and clean the one that remained on the sink – there, between the walls, a decent amount of dirt accumulates. We delete everything, we clean it.
Under the bath, the siphon has a different shape. It is more difficult to disassemble, but if you do remove it, you will see a dense plug of hair and various plant residues there.
In order not to remove the siphon, they usually try to get by with mechanical influences. In the picture on the left, you can see what a clogged tub looks like. The main task when removing it is to push the plug further into the pipe so that it goes into the sewer. To do this, they usually use a plunger – this is a rubber nozzle on a wooden or plastic handle.
How to clean without removing
The plunger is pressed tightly against the drain hole, water is poured into the bath / sink. Next, you need to sharply press and lift up the plunger handle, creating water vibrations that break up deposits and push the remnants further. In this case, it is desirable that the rubber part of the plunger fits tightly, without cracks, to the surface of the bathtub or sink. Then, when it is detached from the surface (sharply press and pull towards you), a sharp push occurs, which breaks the plugs best of all. This operation must be repeated until the water leaves without problems, forming a funnel. But even in this case, it is also desirable – for prevention – to clean the sewers using any of the fat-dissolving agents described below.
If some members of the family have long hair, clogged tubs are most likely caused by them. Usually the hair clings to the grate, then dirt sticks to them and all this together blocks the flow of water. In this case, you can remove the grate, make a hook from a piece of wire and use it in the drain. Most likely, you will pull out something that looks like a dirty tow. Gradually, you will pull out everything that has accumulated there, it will be possible to wash off the remnants.
Clogging in the corrugation
There is another place in our sewer where blockages most often form. These are corrugated hoses. Their structure is such that it contributes to the accumulation of any debris. If the sink from which the corrugation comes from does not work, first check the siphon, then the corrugation. If everything is clean in them, but the water does not go away, the problem is somewhere further, in the pipes.
The corrugation is attractive because it easily adjusts to any length and is easy to mount / dismantle. So, take it off, clean it, put it in place (you can put a new one in order not to bother with cleaning).
If this “pleasure” does not attract you, you can try cleaning the sewer with chemical means. They cope well with almost all pollution, in any case, they are good until everything is completely clogged.
How to clear clogged pipes with home remedies
If it is more or less easy to deal with siphons, everything is much more complicated with pipes. To disassemble them is still a hassle, so few people agree to it. They try to use all available methods – both chemical and mechanical.
Here it must be said that the most reliable mechanical methods are the plunger and the cable. They can deal with a cork of any nature – both fatty and classic blockage due to hair or rags. Chemicals – both homemade and store-bought are more for prevention. If you only have suspicions that the water began to leave a little worse – use chemistry. It will work fine for a while.
If there is already a cork, then after using “fat solvents”, it will simply settle on it, turning it into a monolith. If the water used to somehow leave, then after applying the “chemistry” it can become tight. Removing such a clogged sewer is even more difficult. And then there is only one way out – to clean the sewer with a cable, maybe with special water equipment or “Karcher” if there is one on the farm.
Most often, water does not drain well from the kitchen sink due to the accumulation of fat on the walls of the pipe. It first fills the irregularities on the walls, and then grows, gradually closing all or almost the entire gap. In this case, cleaning the drain means dissolving the grease. If you do it right, the rest of the fragments will go along with it.
Since fat dissolves better when heated, it is advisable to heat the pipes. If the water leaves even a little, turn on the hot water and just pour it for a while. If the problem is fat, you will notice that the water began to drain better. But don’t stop there. If the pipes are not drastically cleaned, after a while the sewer will clog again. So let’s continue.
Remove clogs with baking soda and water
As you know, ordinary baking soda dissolves fat well. Therefore, it is logical to use this inexpensive tool. If there is a blockage in the siphon, and you don’t want to remove it, just pour soda into the drain hole (for starters, half a pack), pour boiling water over it. Pour boiling water in a thin stream, together with soda, it will gradually corrode the fatty plug, at the same time other deposits will become softer.
Pour soda deep into the pipe will not work. So this method is effective for plugs that are close to the drain hole. If the problem is further, it is advisable to prepare an aqueous solution of soda. To do this, soda is preheated in a pan.
To get a strong alkaline solution, you need 150 grams of soda (5 tablespoons with a slide) and 200 ml of water. Pour soda into a dry frying pan and heat on the stove for 10-15 minutes, stirring constantly. We continue heating until a light smoke rises above the pan – there is a reaction of converting sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) into sodium carbonate – soda ash. During the reaction, water and carbon dioxide are also formed. The gas escapes, and we observe the evaporation of water in the form of a haze over the pan.
When the soda has become more free-flowing and the release of steam has stopped, set aside the pan and wait about 10-15 minutes until the soda cools down. Then pour water into it (do not pour it right away – you will get a chemical burn) and dissolve the powder. Received a concentrated solution of soda ash. It is poured into the pipe, left for an hour and a half, then spilled with hot water. A fairly effective way to clean the sewer with home remedies.
Baking Soda and Vinegar for Drain Blockages
Everyone knows that if vinegar is poured into soda, a violent reaction begins, which is accompanied by abundant foam formation, the mass increases significantly in volume. The substances formed as a result of the reaction are practically neutral, but it is the reaction with the formation of foam that destroys the blockage. So in this way, you can also clean the sewer.
So, we pour dry soda into the drain hole (at least half a pack), pour vinegar – about 500 ml. To prevent soda from getting stuck on the grate from a piece of thick paper, build something like a funnel, pour soda into it.
When the reaction stops (the hissing in the pipe subsides), take a bucket of boiling water and pour it into the pipes. Should help. If the water is still not draining well enough (no funnel is formed), the treatment can be repeated.
Mechanical methods
We have already talked about the plunger. It can also be used for clogged sewer pipes. Preliminary, it is also desirable to warm up the contents of the pipes, pour at least the same soda solution, and then “pump” all this with a plunger. Such a comprehensive measure can clean the sewer even with a serious plug.
How to work with a rope
If a rag, a tuft of hair, or something similar is stuck in the pipe, none of the above methods will work. You will need a special plumbing cable. This is a cable (or flexible steel wire) with a handle on one end and a hook, brush or spiral on the other.
Some cables may have a replaceable nozzle, simpler ones end in one device. The handle is made in such a way that the handle remains stationary, and the cable inside turns.
Using a plumbing cable is not difficult, but it is better to work with an assistant. Put on gloves, dirty clothes and start cleaning the sewer. First, provide access to the sewer pipe. You can remove one of the siphons, and in a private house it is better to provide such a backup point for cleaning sewer pipes when planning a sewer.
The principle of “working with a cable” with a spiral or hook at the end is to hook the cork that clogged the pipe and pull it out. It is unlikely that it will be possible to pull out the whole thing at one time, but in parts it is real.
The cable is unwound, the end is launched into the pipe, they begin to rotate in one direction. The second person at this time pushes the cable through the pipe. If the cable is stuck in some area, you can pull it back a little, then try to push it again (we continue to rotate the handle). This is either another turn of the sewer, into which the end of the cable rested, or a blockage. A couple of times trying to push further, we pull out the cable. If there is a blockage at the end, it was a cork and you are on the right track. We clean the tip, run it into the pipe again and repeat the procedure until the pipe is clean. Not the most pleasant experience, but without this, some blockages simply cannot be removed.
There is another way – to make cable ends with rusty edges. They are able to get through the most difficult and dense blockages. Then the cork will not need to be removed in parts, but it will be possible to crush it and then wash it off. What tips can be made for a plumbing cable – in the video.
Cleaning the toilet with a plastic bottle
If you tried to clean the blockage in the toilet with a plunger, you noticed that this method is ineffective due to the fact that the rubber part does not fit snugly, so the water hardly moves, there is almost no result. There is a more effective, and moreover, cheaper tool – a plastic bottle with a cut off bottom. We take a larger vessel, cut off only the bottom, leave the lid closed.
We bring the cut bottle to the place of the inflection of the toilet bowl, lower it into the water, sharply move it up and down. The movement of water is quite active. In the place of the inflection, “waves” are formed, which break the gradually formed cork. This way to clean the sewer only works if the plug has formed in the kink of the toilet, if somewhere in the pipe, there is only one way out – cleaning with a cable.
First, you can try to break through the toilet drain hole, but if it doesn’t work out, you will need to dismantle the toilet bowl and free up access to the sewer outlet (this is if there is no revision hatch).