The sink is blocked, it should be fixed straight away and you are thinking it’s time to get a plumber in to get it fixed.
Stop!
Try these 5 tips first and save your dollars.
Off-the-Shelf Products
There are plenty to choose form but, a word of caution. Check the ingredients as many chemicals used are highly toxic and will affect the local water supply – this said, they usually unblock a sink in a few minutes.
Plunger
A couple of dollars will buy you a plunger and you should always have one – if you don’t borrow one from your neighbor. Applying a plunger and some elbow grease will usually shift all but the most stubborn blockages – make sure you have a round-shaped plunger to do this job and not the oval-shaped ones.
Plunge three times then check the water level to see if you are getting anywhere. Repeat this for no more than 4 times – if you haven’t shifted the blockage by that point, you need to look at some other strategy.
Vinegar
Try this instead of the plunger – put a quarter-cup of vinegar into the sink, or you can take a quarter-cup of baking powder and add this to the vinegar and then apply to the blockage. This will create foam so beware of spillage, but leave it until the foaming has finished and then get your plunger again and repeat.
Snake
This will tackle really bad blockages and is a flexed cable for threading through the pipes. Be careful in how you use a snake as you can damage the pipes and you need a degree of experience to become proficient at clearing a blockage. If you have frequent blockages in your home it will be better to buy one, but if you only need one occasionally it will be cheaper to rent them.
Remove & Clean the Trap
The U-bend is where a lot of debris accumulates and this ends up clogging the sink. Remove the trap by unscrewing the pipes here, which is usually a simple job. IMPORTANT: make sure there is a bucket underneath the trap when you are unscrewing it as there will be an outpouring of water and debris when you unscrew it.
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