Drain Unclogging Tips
A clog can happen anywhere in your Irvine home’s drainage system.
Food and grease buildup can block your kitchen sink. A non-flushable item thrown into your toilet cause overflow. Hair can collect in the shower and slow drainage, while tree roots in the main drain can flood your basement floor with dirty water.
Plumbing clogs are inconvenient, messy, and disruptive to your Southern California home. If you do not mind hands-on work and have time, patience, and the appropriate tools, you may want to try fixing a drain clog yourself. Some clogs are easy to eliminate. Others require professional skills.
Whenever you need help with your drain and sewer system, you can rely on our master plumbers at Parzival Plumbing to offer affordable solutions. No problem is too small or too complicated for us to handle. We maintain, repair, and install drains, sewers, water heaters, water treatment systems, leak detection devices, fixtures, and radiant floor heating.
Drain cleaning is essential for maintaining drainage in your home, especially if you have large trees on your property. We currently are offering $25 off on drain cleaning and $25 off on a drain shield. Check our specials for details.
Clogs are no match for our plumbing pros. We work quickly and carefully, keeping disruption to a minimum and cleaning up before we leave your Irvine home.
If you want to try unclogging a drain without professional assistance, we suggest you refrain from using a liquid clog buster and instead reach for a plunger. Over time, chemical drain cleaners may damage pipes and cause them to leak.
If you plunge after you pour a liquid clog remover into your drain, you risk being splashed by caustic chemicals. Strong chemical drain cleaners can also harm the environment if not used properly.
Plunge the Kitchen Sink
Use a standard plunger for your sink. It consists of a handle and a rubber cup-shaped piece on one end. A toilet plunger has a flange that extends below the rubber cup.
Place a stopper over the drain on the unclogged side of a double sink before plunging. Remove as much of the standing water in the clogged sink as possible. Position the plunger over the clogged drain, creating a tight seal, and pump up and down energetically about five times. Pull the plunger off and run a little water to see if it drains. If it does not, the problem could be in the p-trap.
Clean the Kitchen Sink P-Trap
The p-trap is a U-shaped pipe beneath your sink that blocks sewer gas from traveling through the plumbing and out of your sink. Place a bucket under the p-trap to catch the water it contains when you disconnect it from surrounding pipes. You may need a wrench to remove it.
Clean any debris out of the p-trap before reattaching it to adjoining pipes. Test it to see if water drains from the sink.
Try a Drain Snake
If the plunger and p-trap methods do not work, the clog may be deeper inside the plumbing. Use the drain snake in the drainpipe. Typically, this pipe is embedded in the wall or runs through the floor. Disconnect the piping attached to it and use the hand crank on the snake to send its flexible metal cable through the drainpipe.
A corkscrew component at the end of the drain snake grabs the clog. Pull the cable out and throw away the debris it has snagged. Reassemble the pipes and run a little water to be sure it drains.
Other Drain Clearing Tips
- Wear protective gear such as gloves and safety glasses. Clogs are messy and can expose you to bacteria from the drain.
- Standard plungers, P-trap cleaning and drain snaking also work on bathroom sinks and shower drains.
- When plunging a bathroom sink, block the sink overflow hole with a rag to help the plunger effectively seal the drain.
- If more than one sink has backed up in your Irvine home, a clog in the main drain may be the problem. The solution entails opening the clean-out plug on the drain and snaking with powerful equipment. We suggest you leave this drain cleaning to our experts at Parzival Plumbing. We will unclog your main drain and clean up too.
Call the Clog-Busting Experts
Drains are our business. Our qualified professionals at Parzival Plumbing can bust any clog and restore drainage in your Irvine, CA, home. Call us at 949-229-7550 or request service online.