Very Hard Clog in Kitchen/Bathroom sink

[cyrildk]

My kitchen and bathroom sinks are connected and both are blocked......

My landlord tried a plunger first and then a hand controlled snake from my bathroom sink but it did not work........

The clog is very deep down in the drain, the snake went into the drain about 7-8 feet. The snake hit the clog, but we could not pull it out, the sink started to shake when we tried to do that........We finally had to unsnake it back......

I did not try any acid or draino.

Can anybody help me with this problem ?

Thanks,
Cyril

[Phelps]

Does the common drain of these two sinks travel over to intercept with he main stack, like where the toilet is?

I work on 4-plexes that have this very configuration and the horizontal drain line after the sinks, that heads to the stack, is galvanized, and has arterio- sclerosis, basically, and I have literally had to open up the wall under the sink and change out the galvanized to pvc, to fix this problem.

You could try repeated snaking and try using one of those garden hose rubber bulb attachments, where you hook up the hose with this 1 1/2 inch said device at the end of it, in the 1/2 inch drain pipe under the kitchen sink, after you remove the p-trap, and try to blast through the obstruction.
...and hope. While doing this, you can tell your progress if you have a water meter, by looking at the spin dial to see if it starts spinning faster. (CAUTION: (this is experience talking) NEVER let one of these devices run but for a few seconds at first to find out if the water is going up the vent pipe because if you turn off the water and pull out the inflating rubber piece you could flood your kitchen floor! Thishas happened to me. If you get no such back flow, then do the procedure again and do it for a few seconds longer..etc., until you know that the water is not just going up a vent pipe.Put a pail under the drain for catching water in case.)

[I have already successfully used a shop vac, but have been warned by another poster that this could lead to an explosion from methane gas. So this would be a risk you would have to decide on.IF one were to attempt this, it wouldn't be recommended to do it longer than seconds at a time, because of this.]

You could try an acid product meant for drains (not for toilets!), like Clobber, that gets really hot and even can smoke. They only sell such potent drain cleaners at plumbing shops. Any Drano/Liquid Plumber...even if they say the word "max", are useless. I have submerged my hand in "max" already! You wouldn't get me doing that with Clobber, though!

The final option would be to bite it and hire a roto-rooter company to try to clear it...if it CAN b e cleared and you don't have a restriction in the pipe due to corrosion. But obviously, you re posting here to save that $75-100 these guys can charge.

[cyrildk]

Thanks

Thanks a lot for the reply. I showed your reply to my landlord, but he thought otherwise and called in the roto-rooter guys......They've charged $250.....and ended up finding a truck load of junk in there......

Thanks again,
Cyril

[Phelps]

$250, eh? What part of the world are you in, out of curiousity?

[wak]

Phelps,

Is $250 High, Average or Low?

[Phelps]

I live in the Eau Claire, Wisconsin area. We have very fair prices here with everything. Roto Rooter charges around $75-100 to clear roots out main sewer lines. You will get that bill whether he is there for 15 minutes or an hour.

But if you live in some area where everyone makes big bucks...then they too are going to want a piece of the pie.

Frankly, I find $100 for a few minutes work, in many cases, quite annoying. But, a person has to be reasonable about assessing their charges and realize that they are insured and disasterous things can go wrong when snaking lines, like having the snake get stuck in the pipe, or break off. So, you are paying for that type of stuff, besides their truck, tools, gas, doing paper work, and needing to set aside money for retirement, health insurance, etc.