The string in this case is actually a 100-foot long 3/8" wire spring sewer snake. It is part of a General Wire Spring Co. 1/3HP MINI-ROOTER that we had at work. Somewhere over half of it went down my house kitchen sink drain.

I had my Darling Wife pour some hot soapy water down the drain when we got the snake out. I was pretty sure it was still clogged but I was beat from wrestling w/ the wire. The water was draining a little, though. The trickle I could see in the sewer cleanout was black goop. She kept putting more, and the trickle got bigger. Heating water on the stove & adding lots of dish soap to it, then pouring it down the drain, kept helping.

Pouring several gallons at a time into the sink produces a torrent with the occasional big chunk of nasty in it now. Currently have about 7 gallons set to boil on the stove, gonna REALLY wash that old grease out of that 1.5" line! Also our neighbor said they used to have the same problem, and it's kept at bay by running some boiling water down the drain every once in a while. Ok then.

The local plumbers start around $150 to push their snakes. Digging more than 15 minutes is $50/hr. Cameras start at $350 just to bring them out to your house. So . . .

Thanks Jesus!

Some of you have noticed by now my glass tends toward 1/2-fullness wink1.gif

 

In my parents house we were having complete drain blockage, we had the plummer come out a couple of times, the flow would get better than little by little it would start clogging again. Two different plummer could not figure out. So they wanted to charge us $400 for a camera. One day I was mowing the grass and noticed that we had two large palmetto palm trees right next to the service return. I decided to dig around and realize that the palm tree hair thing roots got into the service T, the T was completely clogged with roots. $8 dollars later a new T and some PVC cement, problem fixed.

 

I already spent some quality time with the plumbing, a tree root, and a chainsaw, on the supply side (opposite side of the house).

Fun fact: my drain pipes are buried in/under the slab foundation. That's a little more hassle than I like, digging up!

Anyhow, one of the brothers @ my church, his house (before it was his) had a root intrusion problem. 40% of the effluent was reaching the sewer. The rest was making a cistern under the house, one flush @ a time. Eeeeeewwwww

 

Try adding some industrial degreaser to the water as you pour it down. If you have tree roots though you may be in for a long ride though.

 

Thanks, but it's good now. When I pulled the drain stoppers on 7 gal. of boiling water, it went down like it was supposed to do. Both sides of the sink had strong vortices ('whirlpools!') right from the start, they drained in record time, and there was a sucking sound when the last of the water disappeared. fing02.gif

 

i just mix powdered bleach baking soda and about half the water the bleach calls for... (so its pastey) degreaser of any kind will always help... i always put this in first
then dump like half a bottle of vinager in; real quick.
wait like 1 minute and dump a big pot of really hot water in and boom, fixed!


it expands the the drano shit, but its free if u take all yo momma's stuff!


anyway we have never have a plumber here! cool.gif

 

Did it sound at all like the border crossing in Texas?

 

More like Nevada, actually, since you mention it. wink1.gif