Fix a Clog in a Drain or Toilet
First of all, let’s look at small particles trapped in a sink drain. The easiest way to fix this is to begin with boiling a pot of water. Pour around a half a cup of ammonia down the drain, and pour the boiling water down after it. After that, rinse the ammonia out with around 5 minutes of cold water. This will clean the junk out 9 times out of 10. However, if it does not, there are several other ways around it. First, if you don’t want to buy an actual drain cleaner, pour a tablespoon of baking soda into the drain. Chase this down the drain with some vinegar. The reaction will sometimes blow enough of the clog out to try the ammonia trick again. Another, possible the hardest way to do it is to take the pipe out. This is also particularly helpful if you have lost something in the drain, like a ring. Underneath the sink, there will be a U-shaped pipe. This will, 99 percent of the time, be where the clog or precious item is. First, you have to shut off the water. There should be a knob near the sink to do this. Turn it all the way to the right, and the water will be off. Then, use a pipe wrench to loosen the pipe and remove it. Doing this, you can fish out the thing you are looking for. The final way to do it (before removing the pipe) is to run a snake down the drain. However, most non-plumbers do not have a snake, so the above three ways are the best to use.
Now, we look at another very common problem. The stopped-up toilet is the mythical chimera of a house. Whether you live with a roommate, or are using the bathroom at your significant other’s house, you really don’t want to get stuck in this situation. For those of you who do not know, here’s how to use a plunger. First, put it in the toilet, and make the cup-shaped section completely cover the hole in the bottom of the toilet. This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised at the people who do not know. Now, pushing down on the plunger makes the cup-shaped section push water down and force the clog through. Now that you know what it does, it should be a little easier to do. Now, for stubborn clogs, this may not work. Remember that water shutoff valve you turned to stop the water flow in the sink? You can use it again here. There should be one next to the toilet. By turning it off, the toilet will not overflow. You can keep plunging away at the clog without fear of it overflowing now. There are some other ways to do it. First, use a snake. Since, again, we probably don’t have one, let’s look at the other method. Just a little bit of dish soap put into the bowl will actually lubricate the clog enough to shoot it on through. The only thing to beware of here is downstairs neighbors. It actually can bubble up enough to bubble through their bathtub or toilet. Now, if you don’t like your neighbors, this could be a pretty good prank, and a pretty good home repair tip.
As you can see, fixing drains isn’t as hard as people might think. It is all incredibly easy and doesn’t take much time at all. Hopefully, by reading this, next time you’ll be prepared.
