This Could Happen To Anyone
If your sink suddenly decides that it’s not going to let any water down the plug hole, leaving you with a basin full of soap scum and hairs, the chances are that you’re going to look for the strongest stuff that your local DIY store has to offer, especially when you’ve got visitors coming (which is when most sinks decide to get blocked).
However, most drain cleaning products are pretty ferocious and it doesn’t pay to think about what they do to the waterways and the environment in general once it’s all gone down the sink and cleared out the blockage that bugged you. Is there a greener way to get your sink clear without resorting to these rather environmentally dubious cleaning products?
How To Unblock Your Drain Pipe Using Eco-Friendly Means
Thankfully, there are a number of options:
- Baking soda and vinegar: These two products react with each other, and the resulting fizz can often blast a blockage clear, especially if the blockage is made up from soap scum and general black ooze. Pour about half a cup of baking soda down the drain (once it’s cleared). Follow this with a cup of hot vinegar. Stand back and watch the fizzing reaction.
- Air. Just plain air pressure will unblock a sink. To do this, you can use the good old-fashioned plumber’s plunger, which can be picked up easily enough at your local hardware store, and you can find big ones and small ones. To use a plunger, place the rim of the plunger so that it touches the bottom of the sink and completely surrounds the plug hole. Pump it up and down without breaking the seal between the sink and the rubber plunger. Either the pushing down or the pulling up will break the blockage free. If you haven’t got a plunger handy, cut a tennis ball in half and use that, pushing it down with the heel of your hand.
- Brute force. Just get in there and remove the blockage. You’ll need a wrench to remove the S-bend in the pipe under the sink and a bucket to catch the filthy water that will gush out when you get that pipe off. The blockage is usually in the S-bend bit. You’ll need to poke and push out all the gunk in the pipe. Improvise a tool for doing this – a long stick and a robust paper towel or rag often works.
If the drain is still blocked after trying all these options, you probably have a blockage lower down in the system. This could be caused by anything from tree roots to ninja turtles (almost only joking there). This will probably require the services of a plumber or one of those water-blasting drain clearing companies.
Prevent This From Happening Again
Prevention is better than the cure, so keep your drains clear like this:
- Don’t use the sink as a garbage disposal unit (unless you have a proper grinding machine on your kitchen sink for this). This means no hairs, no cotton buds, no bits of paper and no plastic wrappers.
- Don’t pour hot fat down the drain, as it solidifies once it’s down there.
- Clean your sink frequently.