Blocked Drain Cleaning

[naammanow]

Kitchen drain pretty bogged up! Have tried all kind of "environment friendly" and not so friendly chemicals (sodium hydroxide) to no avail. Drain pipe pretty large, going from 2" into a 4" drain. The bends under the sink all clear, so problem lays further in the drain. As the run of drain is about 15 mtrs and not knowing where the blockage is, difficult! Have looked at Global, they have a 3 mtr spring that I can feed into the drain, however surely far too short for this job. Somebody, somewhere has any ideas as how to take this further? I'm in Chiang Mai.

[JAS21]

I bought a 10M spring from HomePro some while ago, so they are available here. After months of messing I gave up ran a new pipe. I teed the sink into the washing drain m/c line and no problems since.

And yes the builder had put the washing m/c drain through the fat trap and the sink straight into the road drains. TIT

If the pipe is straight you could try joining some 4M lengths of pipe together (securely) and rodding. If its a reasonably new pipe then the builder has left something in it, if older it could be a root or fat. Pretty unlucky if a rat has died in the pipe.

Have you tried trying force flush. Make up a fitting for two or three hoses, to connect to and attach it to the 2" pipe.

[Pib]

Not knowing what type residence you live in (i.e., house, condo, etc), if you live in a house the drain pipe may terminate in a concrete box drainage line running around the perimeter of your home's yard fence. That's the way my drainage lines terminate, except the commode lines that go to the septic tanks. And this line running around my home connects to the soi drainage lines. Some of the house drainage lines enter the concrete boxes "at the very bottom" where dirt/crap builts up after a while and can block the drainage line output. Take a hoe-type tool and scoop the dirt/crap out of the box. Unless the box covers have been landscaped over with gravel or something they are easily removed. Once a year I take the covers off the these concrete boxes around my home/fence, clean the dirt out of the bottom and make sure no pipe entering the boxes are blocked on the end.

Actually for all of these type drains from my sinks, bathroom floors, washing machine drain, etc., entering the concrete boxes, I have built and put U-traps on the end of the drainage pipes to keep that drainage line aroma from entering the house. The water in the U-trap keeps the smell out and can also raise the drain pipe output up an inch or two from the bottom of the box helping to prevent dirt/crap from blocking it. I just bought PVC right angle joints of the same size as the PVC pipe (usually 2 inch) leading into the concrete boxes, glued 3 or 4 right angle joints together with some short pieces of pipe in a U shape depending on my concrete box available space--and no more smells. I "use" to have smell problem in my downstairs bathroom during heavy rains when smell found its way up through the water drain in the corner/floor...a drain that lead to one of those concrete drainage boxes. Even when I kept water in the little U-trap-type tray "in the bathroom floor drain," it was so easy for that little bit of water to evaporate and then there is nothing to block smells....but putting those U-traps made of 2 inch PVC joints at the concrete drain boxes always maintain water which keeps the smell out.

[lopburi3]

As said drain is often near bottom of pit and gets covered with muck. Another option is use of high pressure air tank to blow it clean. Can be rather messy if there are other pipes connected however.

[David006]

a bit off topic ....had a blockage in my 4" grey water drain pipe that just drains out onto the farm below house...found that at an elbow ( luckily about 20 metres from house and not glued..forethought in case of such an event! ) it was blocked by what seemed to be soap powder? It would not lather much so assume it is some sort of filler added to washing powder? Seem to remember my science teacher a 100 years ago gave us an experiment to show how much filler was in some washing powders ( bit of a Ralph Nader guy...lol)..quite a lot really...