How to clean the blockage in the bathroom with improvised means and household chemicals at home

If water does not drain in the tub or sink, this means that a plug has formed in the pipe or siphon. Most often, it is formed by hair, particles of rags, animal hair, construction debris. If the blockage is not too deep in the pipe, it is successfully cleaned at home: with a plunger, cable, brush, improvised means. Strong congestions are corroded by household chemicals, and only in extreme cases do you have to contact a plumber.

Important
In an apartment building, the entire sewer can be clogged. It will not be possible to cope with the problem without the help of a specialist in such a situation.

How to determine the degree and location of the blockage. You need to check how the water leaves in other plumbing, connected to the same riser as the bathtub. If it is equally bad, then the main pipe is clogged. If there is no drain only in the bathtub, then the drain is clogged, and it is easy to clean it with your own hands.

First mate - plunger

The device and the principle of operation are extremely simple:

1. The rim of the rubber part is lubricated with petroleum jelly for tightness of the joint.
2. Pour water into the bath so that it rises to a quarter of the rubber bowl.
3. The water overflow hole is plugged with a stopper or other plunger - this is necessary to create a vacuum at the cleaning site.
4. Cover the drain hole with a plunger bowl, ensuring a snug fit.
5. Several times, they press hard and sharply on the handle, acting as a piston and creating hydraulic pressure in the pipe.
6. Then the plunger is jerked off, forcing the broken plug to come out in parts or fall further down the pipe.

Advice
Active, with jerks, the work of the plunger makes the water move in the plumbing, connected by a water conduit. To exclude splashes, and not always clean, you need to cover all drain holes.

To remove the blockage, it takes from one to 10 cycles, if there is no result or it is insignificant, you need to switch to another method. Otherwise, there is a high risk of damaging communications.

Effective mechanical cable cleaning

If it was not possible to clean the pipe with a plunger, you will have to use a more effective device - a plumbing cable. To pierce the resulting plug, the end with the tip is inserted into the drain hole, and the cable is immersed by rotating the handle.

When he hits a lump of dirt, a back and forth movement is performed. So it turns out to loosen a dense lump and pick it up - the main part of the blockage is pulled out along with the cable. To consolidate the result, it will not hurt to push the dirt remaining in the pipe with a plunger, rinse the drain system with hot water from a tap or shower.

This work cannot be called clean - along with the rope, sewer dirt is pulled out. You need to be prepared for unpleasant odors and for the fact that the cable should be cleaned , removing dirt from it. You need to work with gloves and a mask, such measures will help to avoid infection.

Advice
Plumbing cable requires skills, so experts advise beginners to work with someone who will help rotate and guide the cable.

We use improvised means

The composition of folk remedies is selected according to the basic principle of the action of chemical preparations - so that the remedy has the property of dissolving clogging.

Practice has shown that it is quite effective to remove the blockage from the pipe with soda... Half a pack of soda is poured into the hole for draining the water, wait up to 10 minutes and fill it with hot water. For mild congestion, baking soda is sufficient, for stronger congestions, take linen, in difficult cases, caustic.

Important
Caustic soda (caustic soda) is a toxic and flammable substance, they need to work strictly with gloves and a respirator.

Another quite effective, but gentle way is to use soda and salt.:

1. Pour 125 g of soda and salt into the drain hole.
2. Pour boiling water over (3 glasses).
3. Until 7 o'clock, do not use plumbing (while everyone is at work or at night), so that the composition will corrode the congestion.
4. Flush the drain with hot water.

A more aggressive method is the acid-base reaction of soda and vinegar:

1. Pour 4 tbsp into the hole. l. baking soda.
2. Pour a glass of vinegar.
3. To make the mixture more effective, close the hole.
4. After waiting 10 minutes, pour 1 liter of boiling water.
5. After a while, rinse with a stream of hot water.

Lemon can handle mild congestion... The method is truly effective for removing unpleasant sewer odor:

1. Squeeze the juice from 3 medium lemons.
2. Poured into the drain hole.
3. Give up to an hour for the acidic liquid to dissolve the mud lump.
4. Spill over with hot water or boiling water.

Unlike kitchen blockages, in the formation of which fat is involved, and it dissolves well in an acidic and hot environment, blockages in the bathroom are more related to hair, textile debris and animal lint. Means from improvised substances do not always allow you to get rid of lumps with such a composition - they dissolve poorly or do not dissolve hair and lint at all.

We eliminate the blockage with chemistry

Store-bought products are concentrated alkali or acid that will eat away at the blockage. You can use different classes of cleaners, but you need to wash off the previous product with water and wait about an hour. Otherwise, an active reaction will damage communication.

The main advantage of household chemicals is that it quickly dissolves the cork and additionally removes growths from the pipe walls (salt deposits from water and soap). They have store-bought products and disadvantages:

• you need to work with an aggressive drug with extreme caution so as not to harm your health;
• the components of the selected agent can act destructively on the pipeline, therefore, when purchasing and before using, it is necessary to take into account the material of the water pipes in the house, and when using it, strictly observe the concentration.

To remove blockages:

1. The agent in the required amount is poured (poured) into the hole to drain the water.
2. A little water is added to the dry cleaner.
3. They give the reaction to end (the time is usually indicated on the package, on average - 2 hours, for preventive cleaning less, for severe blockages - more).
4. Rinse with water from an open tap.

Advice
Prevention of blockages is sufficient to carry out once a month.

• liquid "Mole" of domestic production at a budget price;
• gel Deboucher(Russia) with an optimal price-quality ratio;
• Sanox Clean Runoff;
• granular cleaner "Clean gutters" of the English brand Chirton with a wide production network, including in Russia;
• the drug "Bagi Pothan", recognized as the fastest-acting remedy;
• effective and inexpensive packaged granular powder "Selena Antisasor".

Is there some more Tiret, "Mister Muscle", other means, but they are not so popular with housewives.

Brushes and hooks

These tools, one from the kitchen and one from the knitting basket, are used to clean the drain. If the jam is visible through the grate, it is gently picked up or cleaned. You don't need to make any special efforts, you should be careful not to damage the drain grate and not to let the tool into the pipe - it is even recommended to tie a thread or fishing line as a safety net.

A hook (knitting or simply bent from wire) is indispensable to remove coiled hair, threads, etc. from the grill. The tool is especially useful for double grids, which are typical for modern drainage systems. The same tool sometimes succeeds in pulling out a small plug formed close to the hole. However, it is useless if the pipe is clogged with paper or other decaying debris, and if the congestion is deep.

Prophylaxis

You will have to deal with blockages much less often if you follow a few simple rules:

• do not wash building utensils and tools over the bathroom, as well as pour glue, paints, etc into the drain pipe;
• it is not advisable to empty the bucket into the bath or wash shoes over it - this quickly spoils the enamel and clogs communications, it is better to send dirty water to the toilet (if the house has a good water pressure) or to the street (for example, in a private house);
• when taking a shower, washing your head or bathing your pet, you should close the drain hole with a special mesh that will catch most of the hair and wool that has fallen into the bath;
• when washing by hand, you also need to either install the grate on the drain, or pour dirty water into the toilet, so that the smallest threads, lint and fluff from the fabric do not clog the relatively thin pipe under the bathroom;
• the trap on the drain must be regularly cleaned of accumulated debris, otherwise the effectiveness of the device will decrease to zero: the grate will float up and let hair, fluff, etc.

If the pipe is clogged, don't panic. Turn off the water, get the brush, plunger and cable. Try each one in turn. If the water still won't go away, use folk or store-bought blockage remedies. Most likely, the problem will be solved within two to four hours, and you will not have to call a plumber. And in order to rarely or not at all encounter congestion, adopt extremely simple, but effective preventive measures.