How to unclog sink pipes

Step 3 The fun bit

Now take the pliers and screwdriver and poke, pull, push and scrape alll the disgusting goo and hair out of the sink, and dump it right in that Bucket O' Happiness. Be sure to get the bottom pipe leading from the sink as well as all the stuff out of the top.

Comments

[Megawatt]

I discovered a handy device at the hardware store (Westlake in my area) for dealing with these issues.  It's a white slender plastic strip with a finger hole/tab on one end and it quickly narrows to about a 2 foot long barbed flexible strip.  You turn your water on and slip this down the drain and ream it back and forth both punching through any obstructions and also hanging the hair on the barbs and pulling it back out for disposal.  Beats coat hangers, disassembly, wet vac, air compressors, etc.  Cost about 3 or 4 bucks, I think.

[jeff-o]

My wife has long hair, and I have to do this all the time. I use a straightened coat hanger with a hook bent into one end. When it got really bad, I used my air compressor to blast it out...

[garth66]

I do the same about once every other month.

[endolith]

Seems like the coat hanger alone would be a pretty good alternative to taking the pipes apart

[jeff-o]

The coat hanger can pull out the clogs, but it doesn't clean out the slime (which eventually attracts more hairs to clog).

[endolith]

I mean a straightened coat hanger for scraping the sides of the pipe while water is running.

[carress]

Then it just clogs farther down in the pipe.. that's a great temporary patch, but methinks getting that nasty crap out is the only real solution.

[PKM]

The air compressor idea is... ingenious, but I'd be a little tiny bit worried that the blockage would resist pressure better than the pipes above it. Gunk in your pipes isn't as bad as high-pressure gunk being blasted under your floorboards >_< I used to live in a house with three girls, all with mid-back-length hair, and one shower. Clearing out that drain after a few months was like making contact with an alien civilisation. Initially fascinating, quickly degenerating into "Oh god the smell kill it kill it now"

[jeff-o]

I admit, I was worried about whether the compressor would blow out the pipes the first time I pushed that button. But, the pipes in my house are all thick copper or iron and they held up just fine. I'm not sure if plastic pipes would hold up as well. Of course, you don't have to hit the pipes with a full 100+ psi, either. Using the regulator on the compressor you could start at 50 psi and work your way up.

[crickle321]

Did you ever have any problems with water blow out of the other drains around the house?

[jeff-o]

Well, you have to block the other drains that are attached to the same branch, but not the whole house in most cases. When I went to unclog the bathtub drain, I had to block off the overflow, and the drain and overflow on the sink.

[Derek9Three]

I use the wet/dry vac to suck all the crud out but once I had a bad one in the tub and had to use the blower. Worked great. I don't know how much pressure a standard vacuum can generate but it's got to be less than the air compressor, no?

[Goodhart]

I've done that too, even a standard vac can do it, if you are careful or use a strainer to such through

[jeff-o]

Yeah, it'll be much less. I'd just be afraid of sucking "swamp gas" into my house along with all the crud...

[Lithium Rain]

Haha! Ya'll have really awesome ideas! I wouldn't have thought of an air compressor, either.

[jeff-o]

I ran out of "One Second Plumber," and all the stores were closed because it was a holiday. Necessity is the mother of all invention!