slow drain

19 years ago

Hi

I have two drains that are usable but slow and am wondering how best to deal with this (it happened in my previous house once and the plumber pulled out a tiny wad of hair and charged me 60 bucks).

It's a very small house. The toilet, sink, tub and kitchen sink (on the other side of the wall) are all within a few square feet.

The tub drain and sink join together before entering the main pipe (I can see this from below in the basement). Since the kitchen and toilet are fine, I can pretty much guess where the clog is.

I don't have a snake and am leery about plungers. Can plungers deal with this sort of thing? I'm hearing that chemical means aren't recommended.

Does this "One-second plumber" work or could it damage pipes?

All pipes, including the main sewer pipe (above ground, anyway) are plastic. The main sewer pipe was replaced just last year.

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Comments (3)

coolvt
19 years ago
You won't do any harm by plunging, but with a tub and a lavatory it's most probably a build up of soap and hair. Plunging might open them a little, but won't remove most of the mess.
It's quite likely that each of the fixtures has it't own little problem. If you have PVC piping in the basement...that stuff just doesn't plug up all that often.
Do you know how to clean the tub and the lav. drains? If you don't you will have to describe what the fixtures are like and then someone can give you advice. Do you remember what the plumber did the last time? If so, you might already know how to clean that fixture:-)
I wouldn't start using drain cleaner. It might help for a while and the problem will surely reoccur and then you will be working on pipes and fixtures that have lye in them...not pretty or fun.
rogerv_gw
19 years ago
There's also a simple, inexpensive tool called "Zip-it" I think, that is about a 3 foot long piece of nylon or similar material that has barbs on both sides. You push it down a drain, and then in the process of pulling it back up, it will snag hair balls, etc..

Between the above and using a plunger on drains, I most always can keep our drains working well.

-Roger
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chris_ont
Original Author
19 years ago
Well, big sloppy kisses to both of you.
Coolvt, you were right that I had two separate problems.
Roger, I looked up this Zip-it and it was shown as being available at Home Depot. So off I went.

While there I got some expert advice on how to properly use my new plunger, too.
Thusly empowered. I fished out a hair plug from the sink with Zip-it. (It's a small hand sink with a big faucet and it's not easy to plunge about in there). It was about the size that cost me $60 bucks the last time. Deduct the 3 bucks for Zip-it, and I've just saved 57 dollars.

The tub didn't yield any gross bits but, because of space issues in the basement, it has two bends in it, so maybe I couldn't reach far enough with Zip-it.
But using my newly acquired plunging skill, I had that thing cleaned out by the fourth try!

Considering that I was about to fork over $15 for a drain auger (before calling the plumber), I saved further bucks.

Thanks, guys!