Thursday, April 5, 2012

Fixing the Kitchen Sink

When you’re training to be a real man, little jobs suddenly become major accomplishments, especially when they involve tools, dirt, sweat and scum. We were having some issues with our kitchen sink, it was draining properly. This is the same sink that JH and his magic bag of tools installed, replacing the pre-existing garbage disposal. It was quite a feat. The new drain, however, was beginning to clog. It drained really slowly, and when we ran the dishwasher, the water would back up and come up the sink hole. Completely disgusting.

Finally I decided to take action. My first thought was to simply try to clear the obstruction through the top, i.e., the easy way. It’s not easy to clear out plumbing slime, however, so I was going to have to remove pipes and clear them manually. I do this on a regular basis in the bathroom, so I had some sense of what to expect, and of course, it wasn’t pretty. It turns out that the connecting pipe had loosened and descended and was no longer at the proper angle to maximize the flow of water. After I fixed that, I reamed the pipe and cleaned the grate, and lo and behold, we had flow. I love when that happens.

I think we need to regularly run water down that drain to keep things moving along. Until the next time, thanks for reading.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

First of all, when you have a clogged drain, always see to it that you have the draincock turned on. If that doesn’t work, you can use a drain snake for removing the clog. If both don't work, then you should disassemble the sink pipe or have a plumber do the job for you.
~ Gayle Manning ~

Unknown said...

Sounds like you had a very busy day. But you seem to know plumbing really well. So I guess you passed your training and you can now consider yourself a real man. :)

Levi Eslinger @ CapitalPlumbing.ca

Unknown said...

Great job on your sink repairs! Actually, we should be proud of our little accomplishments since they're stepping stones to our bigger ones. Heheh! A year passed already and I assume you can work on bigger plumbing problems now. Will you help me with my bathroom pipe problems too? Just kidding! :)

Paddy Wright @ Harris Plumbing