Advice From
Your Local Plumbers (Croydon)
If a plunger is not able to eliminate a blockage, try and
get hold of a plumber's snake AKA spiral cleaner. They
are available in most hardware stores. Disconnect the
blocked drain pipe from the trap, and feed the wire into the
pipe. When contact is made with the obstruction, turn the
handle of the snake to rotate the spiral. Usually, the
spiral will break up the obstruction.
Sometimes, it is not possible to remove an obstruction from
the sink end. If the waste pipe discharges into a gully,
try pushing a garden hose up the pipe from outside. This
in itself might do the trick, but more often than not you will
need to turn the tap on to move the obstruction.
When you are unable to clear a blocked waste pipe from
either end, you will have to try and take the bottle trap
apart. Place a bucket under the trap before dismantling
it, and put a plug in the sink's plug-hole. When you have
removed the blockage from the trap, rinse it out and
reassemble.
If the drain pipe is blocked by fat or coagulated oil, a bit
of heat could melt the fat and send it on its way. You can use
a portable heater to warm a waste pipe just where it
bends. You should soon notice the blocked up sink begin
to go down. Eliminate all traces of fat by turning on the
hot water tap, and leave it running for a full minute.
Job done :-)
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