So you have a clogged drain, what do you do now? Do you attempt to clear it yourself or do you call in a professional? That could be expensive, so you watch a couple of YouTube videos and decide to give it a go! At the very least you could try the good old baking soda and vinegar trick or take a chance with some of the over counter drain cleaning products. Oh and don’t forget the old reliable plunger!
You keep working on it and after and hour or two you still have a clogged drain. Now what? I bet the clog is in the “P” trap under the sink so I’ll bail out the water, take the trap apart and clear the clog. You remove the trap only to find nothing, you reassemble the drain pipes turn the water on and guess what! Your drain is still clogged. It decision time, should I call the plumber or should try to snake out the drain myself?
This is where people get into trouble, they figure I’ll go out to the home center get an inexpensive drain snake and cable the line myself. You look under the sink at the drain pipe exiting the wall and start cabling away but soon come to realize you’re having trouble getting the snake to go down. What seemed like a simple task has now turned into hours, not the mention the mess and stink from pulling the cable in and out.
Your wife or significant other is begging you to call in a professional and stop the insanity, but you press on only to find out no matter what you do, you can’t clear this clogged drain. You’re not alone, fact is behind the wall there could be any number of piping arrangements that is preventing your snake from going down. In a perfect world there should be a basic “TY” connection facing forward and you should be able to direct your cable straight down the drain. But not being able to see behind the wall, you’re totally stumped!
In the following video I lay out the pitfalls of drain cleaning and point out some reasons you may want to call in a professional to take on a task like this. Speaking for myself, I very rarely dismantle the drain pipes to clear a stoppage. I do it from the top with a professional handheld drain cleaning machine which allows me to run the water and flush the line out once I clear the stoppage. I suggest you watch the video first before you get in over your head!
HAPPY PlUMBING!
Bob
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