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No more calling Roto-Rooter or your local drain cleaning plumbers. You can do almost all of this drain unclogging yourself. There are a few tips and tricks for some simple DIY drain unclogging jobs. There are a series of simple steps I take, starting with the easiest, less invasive. Whether it's a sink drain or shower drain, I always start by grabbing some hemostats and attempting to fish out or clean out the debris that is causing the drain to become clogged. Hemostats are my #1 go to tool for cleaning out drains. Here's a link to order some on amazon: https://amzn.to/2LGAX4b. I use hemostats for many other things as well, that's why I always keep multiple pairs laying around.
Shower drains are notorious for becoming clogged with hair, hair scrunchies, hair ties, conditioner, and sometimes small kids toys. You will need to figure out how to get the top off or remove the drain plug from your shower drain. Man of them twist off and others just pop out. Either way, you'll need to get them removed so you can get to the root of the problem. The video below shows the twist out style shower drain and the video above shows the kind that you pop off. Once you have them open you will hopefully be able to retrieve the item or debris that is wreaking the havoc.
Now that you have removed the drain plug from either the sink or the shower drain and retrieved the large hair plug or other item, you should be able to either see the water level go down if you have standing water or maybe be able to see some water drain down. If not, it's time for the next step. I usually like to use the water pressure method. I go grab the garden hose and run it into the house. I will have someone else be in yelling distance posted up at the hose's valve to either turn it off or turn it on really fast. Once you run the hose down into the drain, take a rag and shove it in around the threaded head of the hose with a flathead screwdriver packing it into the sink or shower drain. This will create a barrier for when you turn on the hose. Now, have someone turn on the hose full blast. This will hopefully push whatever else is blocking the drain down on through the system.
A couple words of caution when using the hose blast water pressure trick. Using this method can cause a loose pipe connection to burst and water will get everywhere. The other thing that could happen is that the hose can come back out at you so be sure you have a good handle on it when you give the order to crank it on. Also have your helper at the hose valve be at the ready in case there is a mishap and the water needs to be shut off ASAP.
As a modern day home dweller the chance of you having a clogged up drain are pretty good. The odds of having a clogged up drain go up the more people in the house you have. Once you have a clogged up drain and have procrastinated unclogging it long enough, you''ll be faced with two choices, DIY or all a professional. My thought is try to unclog it yourself and if you have no luck then it's time to call the pros and fork out some $$$. Follow along with me while I go through the process of a DIY How to Unclog a Bathroom Sink in Singapore. There are many ways to do this with household items but in many cases my trusty old pair of hemostats will do the trick. If you don't have them there are a number of household items that will do. Some of those are: A Wire Hanger. Baking Soda and Vinegar. Mix baking soda with vinegar in a measuring cup, a Wet & Dry shop vacuum, Boiling Water, Cleaning the pipe, or caustic soda. Another method commonly used is to use a clean plunger to plunge on the sink. The plunger method, however, will not serve you very well if there is a bunch of hair trapped around the drain. This works better if it's some debris caught down farther in the pipe. If the hemostat method doesn't work well for you from topside then it's a good idea to take apart your P-trap area.
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