Sunday, September 18, 2005

Russ plays plumber

Since we moved into our first home, we've had problems with drainage from our bathroom sink. It seemed to drain just fine if the water was run only a little bit at a time, but after running the water for 30 seconds or a minute, the basin would begin to fill up, and then drain very slowly, taking 5-10 minutes or more.

First, we tried a bottle of Drano, but that seemed to be a very temporary fix. Then, on Friday, the drainage problem became so slow, that water would remain in the sink for hours before the basin was empty.

So this weekend it was Russ's project to play plumber. He took apart the sink trap, found no clog there. Then he made several attempts to snake the system. Six feet... eight feet... ten feet... nothing! Still the sink would not drain. Finally this morning, he was able to insert the entire length of the snake, which took it all the way into the cellar! And when he took the snake out, it was all covered in icky yucky disgusting gunk. Ewwww.

To finish up, after pulling all the gunky snake back out of the pipes, we flushed the system with a little more Drano, and then with a couple pots of scalding hot water. Seems to be working fine now. :)

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