Urgent Blocked drain

[John Rumm]

Drain rods with a "worm" on the end, shoved up from the manhole ought to clean enough to get things flowing again. At which point the caustic ought to deal with the rest...

[The Natural Philosopher]

1kg of caustic PLUS a kettle of boiling water always works for me.

[The Natural Philosopher]

just dilute in in gallons of water once the drain is clear.

[The Natural Philosopher]

WHAT? You don't dilute it!

pour the crystas straight down the sink hole, and add a cupful of boiling water, and cover with something to stop it splashing.

[Exhausted]

Richard, you may have it there, both the dishwasher and washing machine both use the same gully

[Vass]

as others have said, hose pipe, using a rodding action

then bucket of water, thrown really hard down into the drain usually frees up the rest

[Vernon]

Yes but as you tip the hot water in it goes to the bottom where it is needed to melt the lard. Also it has a hydraulic effect on the blockage. I have used this method several times with success.

[YAPH]

How long has the caustic soda been down there? It may take many many hours to work: I'd leave it a while ...

[Theo Markettos]

For future reference, using washing liquid (and dishwasher liquid) rather than powder tends to get rid of this problem. Using shower gel rather than soap also removes another potential source of solids.

Theo

[Exhausted]

2 days now, trying the ips again about putting a hose up from the man hole and making rodding motions, still no luck :(

[The Medway Handyman]

Problem is keeping the caustic in contact with the blockage. I have a similar situation at home & have used a kids plastic football propped with a brick to block the pipe in the inspection chamber. That allows you to fill the u bend & pipe with the stuff & leave to work.

[The Medway Handyman]

Did you use a drain cleaning nozzle & hose? Or just the lance?

[The Medway Handyman]

[The Medway Handyman]

That is an excellent point. Same situation we have. Hmmmm.

[The Medway Handyman]

Why for does it say drain rods are expensive? Less than £20 a set & you can also use them for clearing gutters with the drop scraper.

My sink plunger works on the downstroke BTW. e.g. you pull the handle up to fill it with water & it sends it down into the sink. Works like a bike pump IYSWIM.

[Stuart Noble]

Two things to bear in mind about caustic soda. A kilo thrown into water tends to form a solid lump, which then dissolves quite slowly and doesn't generate much heat in the process. The mixture of caustic and fat results in soap, but the volume of solids is increased, initially perhaps making the blockage worse. A bar of soap is water soluble but only slowly. Plastic gloves are not affected by caustic, so a long pair of those would allow you to shove your arm down as before. Unless er indoors is running a Chinese takeaway I can't see fat being the main problem.

[Richard Savage]

Hi Theo

Unfortunately we already use liquid in both washing machine and dishwasher and experience the pseudo-fat problem in the U bends.

But thanks any.

Richard

PS hadn't thought about the shower, but that's a different drain circuit.

R

[Richard Savage]

I forgot to add that the drain bloke suggested that some of the pressure washer take a flexible extension hose that is perfect for jetting round corners.

Richard

[Exhausted]

i did it well almost

The rodding action with the hose pipe did nothing,

So i got an old sheet , tied a rope securely to the sheet , and the other end to a post in the garden (did not want to loose the sheet down the drain if it popped out unexpectedly). With the hose pushed up the blocked pipe from the man hole end i then blocked the exit to the man hole from the offending pipe with the sheet, and turned the water on. The pressure built up in the pipe and had to give some where (The sheet was securely in the hole), so that only left the pipe or the fat. Luckily the fat gave way. When i pulled the sheet out of the hole there was a gush of water ( plus caustic soda i was careful not to get splashed). along with this was lots of pieces of fat. I used the rodding action a little to remove all the loose fat, and then started to pour buckets of hot water (from as high as possible ) down the drain. unfortunately the drain blocked again after two buckets.

However repeating the above steps several time the water now flows freely, and i saw a lot of the fat running down the drain(with loads of water to helping it on its way). I think i will get some more caustic next week just to make sure any remaining fat is gone,and then use caustic ever so often,

Anyway way thanks for the response, much appreciated. Hopefully the sheet trick will help someone in the future

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well done.