When you’ve got a blocked drain, who are you going to call? You might not have to call anyone if you can get one of these DIY tricks to work for clearing your drain. Check out these top tips offered by an expert Fairy Meadow plumber to see if you can get your drain cleared on your own.
The Best DIY Methods for Clearing Drains
Type “how to clear a clogged drain” into Google and you’ll get a plethora of helpful and not-so-helpful tips and tricks for clearing a clogged drain. Instead of having to wade through all the information, we went straight to the experts and asked for the best DIY techniques that actually work. Here’s what we got.
A Plunger
Most homeowners will already have one of these lying around. If you don’t have a plunger, you can find one easily at any hardware store. To unclog the drain, simply fit the device over the drain opening, ensuring it creates a solid seal.
Then you push and pull it up and down, creating suction that is sometimes enough to dislodge the blockage. If you have any overflow spouts, be sure to cover those up first or you won’t be able to get a good seal.
Boiling Water
Particularly if your clog is caused by grease or food blockages, hot water may work to dissolve it. To try it out, boil a big pot of water and dump the roiling hot water down your drain. Wait a few minutes to see what happens.
The DIY Drain Snake
Coat hangers are great for this trick, although you can use any type of long metal wire. Simply straighten out your wire and create a small hook on one end.
Insert the hook into the drain until you run into the clog. Now, you can either poke at the clog until it breaks up or catch it with the hook and pull the muck out of the drain. You can also try combining techniques and pour some boiling water down the drain while you are poking at the clog.
Vinegar and Baking Soda
Have you ever mixed vinegar and baking soda together? They make quite an exciting impression! The fizzing and bubbling action they make can work to dissolve or dislodge clogs in your drain. Keep in mind you might have to dump the mixture down the drain a few times to get the desired results.
Call for Professional Plumbing Help
Try as you might, DIY methods won’t work for all types of blockages. For example, if you have tree roots growing into your pipe, that’s going to require some expert knowledge and tools to fix. For that type of job, you need to call in the experts at Curran Plumbing in Fairy Meadow.
However, if you have just a wad of hair or grease and bits of food stuck in the drain, you should be able to clear the blockage following one of these tips.