Trying to locate a blockage in a 42mm plastic waste solv weld system. I assumed tapping it would reveal all but it isn't. Everything conspires to make each run sound different - different lengths, different support spacings, different angles at the ends & so on. And a fair bit just isn't accessible. I'm not making progress. Any ideas how to locate it? Getting any sort of plunger up there is impossible, over a dozen 90 degree bends ensure that won't work. Caustic & conc sulphuric have been tried without much progress. The plumbing is nowhere near meeting current guildeines in terms of fall etc.
If you can get to parts then perhaps cut into it and replace with a coupling, preferable non-solvent weld, to find where the blockage is? It would be useful for the next time.
There are auger-like pipe cleaners but not sure how they cope with corners.
Does this confirm TabbyPurr and Nick Cat are one and the same?
In message snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com, Nick Cat snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com writes
Any bits where the pipe has *sagged* allowing some dirty water to be retained? My daughter had this in a rented flat. Long run, tucked away behind a bed fitted on a platform. Insufficient fixings and hot waste had allowed sludge to collect where the pipe had distorted.
No, there is one bit that runs uphill slightly. Yes really. But that's not where it has ever blocked before, and the indication is that it's not blocked there now.
I find a pressure washer with a thin, flexible drain unblocking tube, that can be used with a forward facing or backward facing, nozzle very effective. If you do have to cut the pipe I suggest putting in swept (in the most appropriate direction) tees with the side arm plugged for for future use, or even low water loss current rodding. Something like the link below, but with suitable connectors for your machine.
yes, where room permits. The routing is just a pain.
If I can get access, no pressure wash needed. Getting access is a problem, figuring out where to go in is the big issue. One method I've used before is to drill 4mm holes & fill them after with an ss screw. Might have to resort to that again.
Why does some gunk just not respond to any chemical?
If you can connect mains pressure water downstream of the blockage (and the only opening in the pipes is upstream of the blockage) it should push back against the blockage which might be enough to dislodge it.
And spray caustic and sulphuric out of any openings.
Or drill little holes as you work along the pipe until you find the blockage. Patch the holes with solvent and shavings of an offcut of pipe.
Is it a complete blockage or does the water just trickle through it. If the latter let it completely drain and then fill the sink with boiling water from a kettle or from a pan of water boiled on a hob. Once released the pipe will be hot one side of the blockage and at ambient temperature the other side.
Why do you need to get a plunger to the blockage. You plunge the plug hole with the pipe full of water. The extra pressure from the plunger is transferred by the water to the blockage.
A standard way of clearing a blocked bog is to wrap a (traditional) mop in a plastic refuse sack and use that as a plunger in the toilet bowl.
Ive had some success in the past by back flushing, but with a pipe with an open end. Poke a hose up the arse end and seal around the hose with plastic carrier bags rammed up the pipe and held in place by hand whilst the water in the hose is running.
If its only a partial blockage then perhaps caustic/acid are not remaining in the vicinity of the blockage long enough to shift it. If the end of the pipe is open try blocking it off at the end before applying caustic/acid to the other end and let the waste pipe completely fill with your removal liquid and let it stand that way for a long period.
Flow is near zero, just dripping out. Boiling acid & boiling caustic haven't helped. Filling the pipe would take many litres. If the gunk were susceptible I'd expect at least some immediate effect, but there's nothing. It must be supergunk. Will try the boiling water detection method & cut the thing open. Cheers.
Well if it is the same pipe run I would start by removing those screws because sods laws says they have snagged hair strands and caused the new blockage. Personally I would just cut sections out of long runs and re-fix using slip connectors and ?solvent weld. Maybe fix the lack of access by installing strategic vertical access chambers with removable plugs.
Job done. A panful of hot water indicated the blockage was close to the sink at the start of the run. When I got access to as much as possible, which was a real pita, I realised I'd forgotten about the work I did on this one years ago. It had compressions added at strategic places for rodding. 2 hours of rodding & flushing later and it's all cleared out. Muck had accumulated in every area, with most of the 90 degree bends 99% blocked. It was all grey/black gloop with sand. Being split into many roddable sections made it slow but it happened. What that gloop actually was I don't know, boiling caustic, sulphuric & detergents had almost no effect. Very happy it's done! Thanks everyone.
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