In Your Face, Clog
Please excuse me if this post comes off as hyper or deranged or a little bit of both, but yesterday at exactly 5:41pm I told that drain who was boss and cleared the clog. Victory is mine! And yes I did have my hands up in the hallelujah pose for at least five minutes while I stared at the euphorically-empty-tub before breaking into a full body happy dance (think Elaine from Seinfeld). The funny thing is that I did it all by myself while John was on his way home from work (gotta love girl power) and without spending a dime or using a drop or Drain-o, Liquid Plumr, or anything else that could put hair on my chest (or singe any off of John’s). Woo to the hoo.
But before we get to the drain-clearing miracle that occurred less than 24 hours ago, we have to say THANK YOU to all of the amazing guys and gals who weighed in with tons of helpful suggestions on yesterday morning’s post about our clogged drain (all 175 of you!). If anyone reading this is having a drainage issue, definitely read through all of the amazingly helpful and diverse comments (at the end of this post) for more ideas than you’ll know what to do with! We even had some plumbers (and wives/daughters of plumbers) weigh in with direct advice from the experts themselves and for that we’re eternally grateful.
For anyone dealing with a backed up sink, let’s take a look back at the initial things we did to try to solve the clog that wouldn’t quit (seriously, not an inch of water would drain in a 24 hour period):
- Fishing around with our fingers (gross, we know) dislodged a decent-sized hairball (or what John affectionately called a Sherr-ball) but didn’t open the floodgates.
- Plunging released a few more items we’d rather not have seen again, but still no change in water level.
- Even our 25 foot-long drain snake (i.e. auger) was a waste of time (though we had low expectations for it anyways).
- So then we broke out the boiling water trick that had saved our kitchen sink last year. After five attempts we had only succeeded in adding more water to our tub.
- That’s when we turned to a natural remedy: a half-cup of baking soda followed by a cup of white vinegar. We did that, watched our little drain volcano fizz, let it sit for five minutes, then flushed it with a gallon of boiling water. Still no luck. Even our second attempt provided no relief, just more science project flashbacks.
- I also tried this $3 As Seen On TV quality Zip-It tool referred to us by a friend on Facebook. It didn’t yield anywhere close to the über disgusting results shown in this video about it, which we were half grateful for and half frustrated by.
So after sharing those attempts in our last post where we begged for help, many readers piped up with these additional ideas (and this is just a sampling so be sure to check out all of their comments for even more):
- Pour a bottle of Dawn dish detergent down the drain and let it sit to break up grease
- Use a wire hanger to fish around for the clog
- Shoot CLR Plumber right into the drain (it’s a can of pressurized air or gas that can blast out the clog)
- Try Drain-o, Thrift, Liquid Plumr, Paqua, or Instant Power Hair Relief products with varying levels of chemicals to dissolve it
- Dump Nair into the drain to eat up the hairball
- Pour a two-liter bottle of Coke down the drain so it erodes the clog
- Try the Kleer Drain from Home Depot to blast out the blockage
- Use a drain balloon along with a garden hose to get things moving again
- Remove the trap in the basement/crawl space to get rid of the clog & snake the drain from that angle
- Check the vent pipe on the roof to be sure it’s not clogged with debris (air flow helps water flow)
- Ensure that the stopper valve didn’t fall closed deep inside the pipe, thereby blocking the water from draining
- Remove the overflow cover (on the side of the tub under the faucet) and pull out the spring and clean it of any hair/junk
Obligatory warning: of course we’re not plumbers so we can’t vouch for all of the suggested remedies above, and you should always take the types of pipes that you have- and their conditions- into consideration when trying to clear them (we have galvanized metal ones but have heard that some of the harsher solvents and chemicals can melt newer PVC pipes and even rust metal ones, so we wouldn’t go crazy with ten of these remedies at once for example). And maybe try starting off with the milder options like the wire hanger, Dawn detergent, pressurized treatments, etc before breaking out the super crazy acid-based solutions).
Second obligatory warning: if you have tried one of the more chemical fixes above (like Drain-O, Nair, Liquid Plumbr, etc, and eventually do end up calling in a plumber, PLEASE tell the plumber which chemicals you’ve already tried to help them avoid nasty chemical burns!
But back to business. Let’s get to the exact method that did the job (paired with some pretty insane determination):
Step 1: Talk some smack to the drain, just so it knows you’re not messing around this time. I think I said something to the effect of “Ok, enough of the namby pamby stuff, I’m serious. Dead serious.”
Step 2: If there’s any standing water in the tub (which was always the case with ours since it wasn’t draining at all) use a bucket and a large sponge to empty the tub as much as possible (I dumped the water into the nearby toilet and it periodically flushed itself- fun).
Step 3: Use a screwdriver to remove the overflow cover on the side of the tub under the faucet and pull out the metal coil to inspect it for any hair or junk (if you don’t have an overflow valve skip to step 5).
Step 4: If the coil is completely clean (like ours- not one single hair to be found) do not be deterred. Shove a wet washcloth into the opening under the faucet where the overflow cover had been to keep any pressure that you’re about to apply to the drain from escaping.
Step 5: Plunge the drain like it’s your job. Every ten times in a row or so the washcloth would come loose and need to be shoved tightly back into the hole to keep the air from escaping with every plunge (a tight seal is everything). If you have a spare person around they can help by holding the washcloth in place to keep the seal nice and tight, although I’m thrilled to say that I didn’t even need John (but would’ve appreciated the eye candy).
Step 6: After about three or four ten-second attempts (a total of about forty plunges) if nothing is happening don’t give up. I almost did, but the idea of another shower spent standing in five inches of stagnant water was enough to spur me on. “No. More. Wrinkly. Feet.” I chanted (screamed?) as I plunged.
Step 7: Cue the beautiful music. No it won’t be Beyoncé’s Put A Ring On It, it’ll be the glorious sound of the drain gurgling and furiously draining right before your very eyes. At least that’s what happened in my case. And I may or may not have gotten misty-eyed at the sight of the swirling water.
Step 7: Screw the overflow cover back into place and call your husband/friend/parole officer to brag about your newfound plumbing skills. In my case I called John to gloat. I also debated greeting him at the door bent over with my butt crack out (we’re married, it’s ok) but decided against it.
Step 8. As a precautionary method, to clear things out even further, pour half a cup of baking soda and a cup of white vinegar down the drain (we actually used 50% rice wine vinegar and 50% apple cider vinegar because we had it on hand and it worked like a charm). Let it sit for five minutes and then flush everything down with a gallon of boiling hot water. This time everything should be whisked right down the drain like a flume ride at an amusement park. It might be the best moment of your life.
And that’s all it took. Zero dollars, zero chemicals, and zero manpower (lady power all the way). So that’s the story of me + 1 plunger +1 dishcloth + sheer desperation. Take that clog. Who’s your daddy? And it sure beat paying a pro to come work some magic in five minutes and bill me $80-$150 for his time. Which is not to say that we don’t highly encourage hiring a professional if you just can’t crack something on your own. For example, if this had been a clog in the main line or if exterior tree roots or pipe corrosion had been involved we definitely would have been happy to pay someone to swoop in and save the day.
And now I’ll enthusiastically end this drain discussion with even more bullets, in the form of what precautions we’ll be taking to make sure this never ever happens again (many of which were suggested by our lovely readers):
- We’ll be snagging a better drain trap with mesh that blocks a heckova lot more hair than our current metal plug (seen above)
- I’ll be brushing my hair before each shower so more comes out before I step into the tub
- We’ll be using our little baking soda and vinegar science project as maintenance every month from here on out
What about you guys? Any stories of home improvement triumph following a few frustrating attempts at something? Sometimes it takes a challenge to truly make you feel victorious!
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Comments
You are my hero!
I’m embarrassed to admit no wonderful home triumphs at our house unless you count removing four layers of wallpaper or turning a closet that was once a kitchen for renters back into a closet.
Go Sherry!! I LOVE that you guys managed to pull this off sans chemicals and on your own. I’m also thinking we should do some monthly baking soda maintenance on our drain. Thanks for all the tips!
Congrats on conquering your clog!
I used to have the same problem with my shower drain, and I came up with a simple but kinda gross way to avoid a foot-bath while showering. When I’m sudsing up or rinsing conditioner out and hair comes off on my finges, I put the hair on the shower wall. I let it collect there through my shower then I gather it all before I step out and throw it away. Not the prettiest solution, I’ll admit, but it’s worked for me.
Victory!!! Glad that you got it! My husband swears by flushes of super hot water. Fill a bucket and spontaneous dump, as we too hate the chemical thing. Most of the time it works after several attempts.
ROCK ON SISTER! That’s awesome! I have a dumb question: does it matter what kind of vinegar you use with the baking soda?
Yay, I see my advice is on the list of preventative measures! Trust me, brushing your hair BEFORE the shower will make a world of difference. Not only will your drain be less hairy, but it helps break up all of the products that may be in your hair, allowing your shampoo to work better (cue the music: “so fresh and so clean, clean”). In case you need a good brush recommendation: Google “Spornette 21″, I’ve used this brush style for the last 12 years and will never use another kind of brush again.
Carrie- I love the wall of hair idea. Totally adding it to my list of things to do to avoid the dreaded clog resurgence.
Christin- Good question! The answer is probably not since we didn’t have white vinegar on hand (which is suggested) so we used 50% rice wine vinegar and 50% apple cider vinegar. It still fizzed like a champ and got right to work. As long as it’s not red vinegar you’re probably ok (just for stain reasons you might want to avoid that). Hope it helps!
Megan- Thanks for the brush recommendation! I’ll definitely be checking it out…
A Southern Accent- You’re so right. All I needed was a little boom boom pow. And man did it feel good.
xo,
s
Your comments and writing style crack me up!! I love it. Good Job Sherry! I am also lovin’ Burgers Bachelor comments on his ladies.
Aw thanks Tara. I can’t take any credit for Burger’s comments over on Hamburger’s House (that’s all his thing, we promised not to interfere) but as for this post I must admit I did try to keep things fun, because let’s face is, a post about a clogged drain isn’t usually very entertaining stuff. Glad you’re amused!
xo,
s
Just one more comment. As an owner of rental property I know that not all plungers are created equal. My renter called and said that her toilet was clogged despite her efforts with 2 different plungers to open the drain. After buying many different plungers, the best one we have found is the old fashioned heavy duty plunger (not the cheapest one at the hardware store) It this case it pays to spend more to get results. We have tried new and improved models (one that looks like an accordian)but the old fashioned one works best.
Whenever it is time to change the baking soda in the fridge and freezer, I use the old boxes in all of my drains (with the vinegar and boiling water). Not only am I recycling, but it reminds me to clean my drains.
AWESOME!! I know that happy dance…we do it around here a LOT being new homeowners saying “I didn’t think we could do that!!”
Rockin’ job, Sherry! FYI: Oxo has a new drain cover that would fit over yours now and do the job catching any future hair. It is removable, which may be handy for cleaning and any future plunging. Check it out at oxo.com. Hope this helps!
Patricia- Great tip about snagging a quality plunger. We have had one of the heavy duty thick black ones for the past few years and really love what it has accomplished!
Teresa- We love that idea! It’s a great way to “recycle” old baking soda from the fridge and the freezer!
Cathryn- Thanks so much for the Oxo drain cover recommendation. We’ll definitely be checking it out asap.
You guys are all so smart and sweet to chime in with even more ideas. Smooches to every last one of ya!
xo,
s
this is my favorite post. I know others have said it already but your writing is so hilarious.
You’re completely my hero! It was good to have the info about how to do it and all…but I LOVED your ability to be fueled by pure stubbornness. That’s what makes a project really kick into gear, people!
SCHWEEEEET! You go girl! Glad you took care of things and saved the moola not needing the plumber.
Woo to the hoo, indeed!!!
Probably the biggest reason I keep coming back here is to read the funny spins and honest reactions that you share. I love them! And it makes me so happy to see that you don’t take yourselves too seriously (though you do take your work seriously), and are cool enough to take a funny “take that!” picture in the shower with your pup. We all do those sorts of nerdy things in the privacy of our homes, but I wish more and more people would lead the way and, gosh darnit, just be real!!!
P.S. By the way, I am very proud of you for taking the higher road and NOT bending over and showing off your crack to your hubby as he walked through the door as your victory dance. Ha ha ha.
So happy to read your clog is gone….I know how AWFUL standing in that water can be :(
As I told you we tried everything even the plunging (big strong hubby) so it was DrainO for us and it did work….
I like the baking soda tip….I use that in so many ways…tried and true product huh ???
Kathy :)
Hilarious Post!!! Not that the issue was funny but the story telling was great hahaha
Great job! I was going to ask why your water is brown but after reading the comments I realized you used cider vinegar rather than white vinegar in one of the pics above. I was sitting here thinking you had bigger issues than your clogged drain if your water was that brownish color!
Hey Heather S,
Oh yeah! The scary brownish color was totally the apple cider vinegar! Pretty gross but it did the trick…
xo,
s
This drain saga has been awesome! We live in an older house, and every couple of months our drain slows or stops all together. Our solution has been Drain-O and lots of other chemicals, but I hate using them and they are so expensive! It’s like throwing $$ down our drain! (literally, haha) I’m going to try all your tips and see if I can’t rid us of our Drain-O dependency! :)
We have to pour muratic acid in our toilets a couple of times a year to keep deposits from causing backups. Have a septic tank so we then have to pour bacteria in to recharge what was killed by the acid.
Wow. I loved all your plumber references throughout the post…some subtle, some not so much! Glad you opened a can of WA on that drain.
Also, the whole baking soda and vinegar thing…other than valcanoes, never heard of that technique, but I am so glad that you guys have given me a reason to create a science experiment in my drains! Now I can tell my wife that I’m doing home maintenance and she won’t roll her eyes at me thinking her husband is so childish! Woo to the hoo indeed!
Had to comment on Stephanie’s comment. My aunt does the same thing with her hair. So one day her daughter comes out of the bathroom and says to her mom, “I need to complain to housekeeping” (she was 9)…she flashes her mom and has a huge glob of hair on her stomach! She had thrown her towel over the top of the shower and ended up with the ginormous hairball on her. So just remember to throw the hair away!! :)
Great job S!!! I wish I had something wrong here so I could conquer it and feel the same rush of adrenaline. Girl Power!
Hey, I’ve got that same shower curtain in my guest bathroom. Target, right? Congrats on the clog and thanks for posting a solution should/when we ever face that problem.
I got a little misty-eyed myself while reading this. But I cry at everything- including the preview I saw last night for the movie the Blind Side. Oh, man. Anyway, I bet your shower this morning was especially blissful :)
Katie- I totally get all teary when I see the trailers for the Blind Side! My aunt’s a teacher in a pretty rough part of NJ and actually took in a homeless student of hers who went on to play in the NFL… so it really hits close to home for me!
Chloe and Company- Yup, it’s from Target but since it’s an extra long curtain (95″- all the way to the ceiling) we snagged in on amazon.com because for some reason they didn’t have the extra long version on target.com. It definitely arrived in a Target box though. Strange, huh?
xo,
s
Laughed about the plumber’s crack comment. Yes, it’s totally okay to greet your spouse that way after a plumbing triumph! And calling to gloat is way okay, too!
I’ve learned so much about drain maintenance after reading these threads. I especially love blogs that foster a collective wisdom among their readers by discussing problems and seeking solutions. Have you thought of making this into a regular feature?
Hey Annapolitan,
Yup, we definitely have decided to make the “let’s solve it together” idea into a regular feature. We have too many smart and helpful readers not to! Stay tuned for that…
xo,
s
Sherry, I love your writing… you are so entertaining! Our new home but very old house has a major toilet clogging problem… We have to plunge a few times a week and it takes forever to unclog.I feel like it just needs one good strong cleaning out and it won’t clog as often. Does anyone know if all these tricks mentioned will work for clearing out a toilet clog too?
Hey Sierra,
Good question! Other than plunging and snaking the toilet, we’re not sure what other methods would work in that scenario. Great question! Anyone have any ideas?
xo,
s
Yay, Sherry! But I am a bit confused. What was the point of the washcloth? You had determined there was nothing behind the overflow cover, so if you were trying to prevent pressure from escaping from there when you plunged, wouldn’t screwing the cover back on have been more effective? Was taking the cover off part of your solution? It didn’t seem to be. This seemed to be more of an ode to the power of the good old plunger.
I do a hair blob on the wall too, to keep it out of the drain, but had never thought of a previous poster’s tip to brush first–great idea!
Also, I think the baking soda & vinegar trick is very helpful, but my understanding is that it’s more of a maintenance thing (as you’re planning) or maybe for very slight clogs–I don’t think it has the power to dislodge a big clog.
Hey Nancy,
Good question! The cover has a hole under it to suck up the water in the event of the tub overflowing (which thereby would let a lot of pressure escape), so I just found it easier to plug the entire hole with a washcloth than try to hold up a cloth to cover the underside of the cover to keep the pressure from escaping since I needed both hands to plunge. Hope that makes sense!
xo,
s
Main line plugs are horrible! When we bought our fixer 3 years ago not one full week had gone by before we had a massive backup in our (unfinished) basement. My husband is still the hero for his dedication to snaking that pipe on his own while standing on joint compound buckets. I wish I’d taken pictures, but I was so grossed out by sewer water in our new house that I didn’t think of it at the time. He beat that clog and we’ve been resigned to yearly snaking jobs to keep the water going into the sewer and not our basement. Old cast iron pipes and large old trees don’t mix well. Every spring for the last two years we get a teaser backup and Dave beats those roots back. I’m sure his diligence has saved us a ton of money in plumber fees.
Thanks for the explanation, Sherry. Now I get it. :-)
And so fast. We’re practically talking in real time. Woo hoo!
Not only does this blog give tips for solving a blocked drain, but it also has marriage advice.
I might try the “greet him at the door with your butt-crack out” just to spice things up.
LOL! You crack me up!! I admire how you can keep a positive attitude and a semi-level head through a “sticky” situation :o)
Greet him with you butt-crack out….ROFLOL!! I like it that all your comments are so open and honest.
I have the exact same drain problem at home. We are going to try the snake thing first and after that I may be back to check the comments for some more advice!
Yay Sherry! Whoo to the Hoo!!!