5 Tips On Clearing A Blocked Drain at Home

You’re in the middle of doing laundry and all of a sudden, your washing machine floods or worse, the bathroom sink has backed up with water and you can’t get it to drain away no matter how hard you try. That’s when you know you have a serious blocked drain situation.

Here are five handy tips on clearing a blocked drain at home if you want to try dealing with it yourself.  Our North Shore plumbers who clear drains on daily basis have put them together. If you didn’t find the tips useful or you find yourself going through these tips again and again, if means your blocked drain needs to be handled by an experienced North Shore blocked drain specialist.

1. Use a plunger

Before reaching for a chemical drain cleaner, give your clogged drain a good go with the old fashioned plunger. The plunger can work from time to time if the blockage is not too serious or far down the pipe. 

2. Pouring down hot water

There’s a good chance that a blocked drain is caused by food waste, oil or grease build-up. Pouring boiling water in the kitchen sink could solve some of the sticky blockages under the kitchen sink.

Boil 2-3 large pots of water and pour it down the drain and let it sit for about 15-20 minutes to loosen up any gunk or grease in there. Then use your plunger or another strong pipe cleaner to push everything down through your pipes until it comes out as clear as possible.

The last thing you need to do is to run hot water down your sink for a few more minutes.

One thing you need to be aware of is that excessive amounts of boiling water could potentially cause damage to PVC pipes. So if you are not sure whether you have PVC pipes at home, use hot water instead of boiling water, just to be safe.

3. Unclog it with a wire coat hanger

Blocked drains can be one of those irritating problems that seems to just keep coming back.

If the bathroom room drains get blocked, it might be that the hairs washed down during the showers are building up a blockage in the drains.

In this scenario, you can try using a wire coat hanger to pull out the hairs and unclog it. Just push the hook in and out a few times and you should start to see hairs being pulled out.

4. The baking soda and vinegar

Mixing baking soda, water and vinegar could also help clear out your blocked drain. Do some quick research online on how to mix them before trying it out.

5. Commercial drain cleaners

The hardware stores such as Bunning usually stock a range of commercial drain cleaners. Drain cleaners are strong chemicals that can potentially break down a lot of the drain blockage.

Usually you would need to pour the drain cleaner down the drain pipes and let it sit for 15-20 minutes, then pour water in. It is critical to read the instructions on the bottle thoroughly before you use the drain cleaner.

And it is always a good idea to wear gloves and even goggles while using the drain cleaning chemicals as they may cause damage to you skin.  

Although the drain cleaning chemicals could work for certain scenarios, we always recommend the consumers to call up a professional North Shore blocked drain specialist instead of applying the toxic chemicals themselves.

Ask help from a blocked drain plumber

If you have tried the above methods but still facing the blocked drain issues, it means your situation may be too serious.  It is time to get in touch with a professional plumber. One of our North Shore plumbers can quickly and efficiently determine what’s causing your blockage problem and fix it.