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Author:
sblatter (UT)
Hello,
Last week while doing our laundry we noticed that water was backing up into a nearby sink. A couple days later while doing dishes in our kitchen (also nearby) the water would drain for the first five minutes but then stop draining, and attempts to unclog it would be heard in the sink next to the washer previously mentioned. Between the laundry sink and the kitchen sink we also have an (old, crappy, unused) dishwasher that has been accumulating water.
I've tried using some draino we had, and when that didn't solve it I searched online and saw something about blocking the other sinks and plunging the remaining sink, which didn't seem to work (water came spilling out of our dishwasher because I couldn't find the pipe to clamp first). I did unscrew the grease trap and see if there was a block there but nothing. Other research tells me that it might be a venting issue(?) but I'm not sure. Is this something we could fix ourselves or do we need to call a plumber? We are just starting out and I'd like to save us the money if at all possible.
I've provided a link to a picture of the layout of our sinks if that helps.
[docs.google.com]
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Author:
packy (MA)
if it takes 5 minutes for the water to start backing up then the stoppage has to be pretty far away. more than likely in a bigger size main pipe.
so, if my guess is correct, you will not be able to clear this yourself. you will need a pro with a large sewer cleaning machine.
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Author:
cl412879 (DC)
rent a medium size drain cleaner and save yourself some $$.
Edited 1 times.
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Author:
sblatter (UT)
Thanks for your help. We did end up calling a plumber who said that we had a very long flat drain and so all the sludge was building up in there. He advised us to dump some very cheap basic cleaner (like pine sol or the like) down our kitchen sink every month to help keep it from building up and that would help, but it still sounded like we'd be needing to call him again every several months (or as one of the posts suggested rent a tool and do it ourselves). Thanks for your advice guys!
Edited 1 times.
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