DIY Methods To Unblock Drains

Blocked drains are an issue that no homeowner wants to come across. It creates nuisance and disrupts the normal work routine. Before the occurrence of complete blockage, you can notice few warning signs indicating that there are some problems in your sewage. For instance, sink pipe is taking longer time to drain out the water; water begins to pool around while taking shower; unpleasant odors coming out from the toilet. All these signs indicate that you are soon going to come across the issue of blocked drains.

How Would You Unblock Your Drains?

The best way to resolve this issue is to call in plumbing experts or hire water removal Denver specialists in case there is major water damage, but if the complete blockage has not occurred yet then you can try some other DIY methods to unblock drains. Here, in this blog we have mentioned few handy methods that you can try on your part to unblock drains.

• Unblock drains with wire hanger – This is the simplest yet effective method to unblock drains. For this you need to take a regular wire hanger and straighten it. Then, bent its one end to form a hook like structure. Now push this hooked end into the drain and try to collect the deposited debris from the drain. Make sure that while fishing you don’t push the nasty stuff further deeper into the drain. After fishing out the chunks of hair and other nasty stuff, run hot water through the drain for clearing the passage.

• Baking Soda and Vinegar – These are the two easily available items in every kitchen. For making a drain cleanser out of them, you need to take equal parts of both ingredients. Suggested quantity is 1/3rd cup of baking soda and 1/3rd cup of vinegar. As you mix them, the mixture will start to fizz. You need to pour this fizzing mixture immediately down the drain. Let it work for an hour or overnight for effective results. This fizzing mixture will remove the oil and grease from your drain. Next morning, just flush out your drain with hot water.

• Use Plunger – This is one of the oldest methods that is used to unblock drains. Plungers are designed with an intelligent mechanism that helps to suck out any blockage in the drains. Position the plunger over the mouth of the drain and create the tightest seal. Plunger creates a vacuum that helps to unclog the drains. Repeat it few times and your household drains will be unblocked.

• Boiling water –Hot water helps to get rid of any grease or slime, so pouring boiling water down into the drain will help to remove any dirt, grime, leftover food particles or hair strands from the drains.

• Caustic Soda – For this you need rubber gloves, eye protection and caustic soda. You can buy all these from any hardware shop. Add 3 cups of caustic soda into 3 liters of cold water. Mix with a wooden spoon. The mixture will start to fizz and heat up. Pour this heated fizzing mixture down the drain and let it work for 30 minutes. Then flush out the drain with boiling water. But, you should not try this method to clean PVC pipes.

• Chemical Cleansers – Supermarket is full of variety of chemical drain cleansers that give best results to unblock drains, if above mentioned methods don’t work out. These chemical cleansers are stronger than baking soda and vinegar, and they can remove the stubborn grime that is blocking your drains. Make your sink dry before using them. Then, pour the chemical cleanser down the drain and let it work overnight. Next morning, finish the cleaning process by pouring hot boiling water down the drain.

So, these are some of the simple yet effective methods that can be used to unblock drains before calling in plumbing experts.