Badly blocked sink / drains

[GrendelsMum]

I wondered whether anyone has any advice on how to deal with a badly blocked kitchen sink and drain?

Water is very slow to drain from any appliances in our kitchen, including the sink and the washing machine. The problem seems to be somewhere once the pipes have gone outside, as the U-bend's all fine. Various drain cleaners have had absolutely no effect on the long term problem, although a plunger temporarily sorts out any blockages.

On the exterior, the pipe from the sink runs straight down and is then cemented into the drain, IYSWIM.

Are there any DIY solutions, and if not, who ought I to call out to deal with it?

Any help very much appreciated!

[PigletJohn]

does anybody pour fat down the sink?

Do "disposables" go down the WC?

are there any man-holes?

How old is the house?

[GrendelsMum]

Nope, we're pretty rigorous on what goes down the sink / WC - my best guess for what's causing the blockage is porridge!

The house is ancient, but that particular bit is 1950s and probably not built by professional builders, so potentially pretty dodgy.

There is a manhole a little further down, so I guess we could take that up and take a look?

[Happypiglet]

Take up the man hole and have a look to see if it is blocked there. However if your downstairs loo etc are working fine (not over filling in the bowl when flushed) it's probably not your sewer pipe. The only way to be sure is to have a look.
If the sewer is blocked then you need to ascertain if the sewer is shared with any other houses once the soil pipe from the sink reaches the sewer? If it is then the responsibility lies with your water company. If not then the responsibility until it reaches any shared sewer pipes is yours.
In terms of who to call if it is your responsibility I have always found dynarod very good but they are not cheap. There will be local companies listed in yellow pages etc.
If it is the pipe between kit hen and sewer then Dynarod can still help. Do you have boiler cover? Sometimes it includes plumbing cover.

[Happypiglet]

Ps when my pipe from kitchen to sewer blocked it was because of clothes 'fluff' which you cannot do much about!

[GrendelsMum]

Thanks very much, folks. I'll take up the manhole [she said bravely] and see what I find.

[Rattitude]

Grendel, I hope you are able to sort out your problem.

I got this drain cleaner a few months ago.

Having said that, I have not used it yet because by the time I received it from Amazon, I had addressed my drains issue. Still, I am likely to use it in the future as it would prove much cheaper than getting a plumber out.

[Moominsarehippos]

Fibres from the washing machines clog pipes if the fluff-catchy-filter thing isnt cleaned out. 'One Shot' cleaner is very good but very caustic.

[jalopy]

Is it worth trying to use caustic soda and leaving it overnight to see if it dissolves the gunk further down the drain?

[hanahsaunt]

We had a similar issue. Ended up taking the pipe immediately below the sink plughole apart and found ... a dead mouse. A recently dead but beginning to bloat dead mouse hence the slowing down then stopping of the water draining over a 24-48h period. Didn't smell (yet) but the caustic stuff we had poured down had started to strip the flesh from the bones.

Good luck !

[GrendelsMum]

Gosh. I don't know whether to hope for a dead mouse or not, now!

[CointreauVersial]

Ew ew ew, Hanah!

We have a mouse problem at the moment, but I'm hoping I won't be finding any wedged down the plughole any time soon.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

We had this problem and it turned out that a lot of the pipe had lumps of concrete in it, probably from when we had a lazy builder putting a patio in. It had made the pipe much smaller and it had got gunked up with fat and grease.

We got a local firm to come and they jetwashed the drains, and pulled out the lumps of concrete. It took ages and was quite expensive, so now I am ultra careful what I put down the sink.

[GrendelsMum]

Hmmmm - down the manhole I go.

[Happypiglet]

Let us know how you get on!

[Moominsarehippos]

Did she get out again?

[Yfronts]

cheap sugar filled coke. Shake it up and chuck 4L down