Sink & Plughole Unblocker OS Style

Mojisola

If the soda doesn't work, you will probably need a chemical that dissolves hair - there will be a variety on the supermarket shelves.

lizzyb1812

s-glover - are you in a hard water area? If so your pipe may well be very heavily limescaled and you will need a descaler.

I hope you don't have the problem I had years ago. The bathroom is downstairs and the blockage turned out to be a mole that had crawled and drowned poor thing

lostinrates

or, and this would be the worst possibilty, my parents drain pipe had collapsed when this was a problem there. If you are on mains this might not be a water company issue though.

MancMillyMolly

Sometimes if my water is running slowly, I drop some bicarb down followed by a good glug of white vinegar. Relatively inexpensive, but has worked for me!

s_glover

Thanks for all the replies everyone.

We're not in a particularly hard water area so I don't think it's limescale. It's happened before so I think it probably just hair / soap scum etc that doesn't drain well in the pipe.

I certainly hope it's not a mole (poor thing!).

Will try the bicarb and vinegar suggestion as I have those and if that doesn't work the soda crystals, if not might have to resort to buying something specifically to dissolve hair.

ariba10

It is probably hair.

Have to go to the Daughters house (Two GDs) and remove the trap under the bath to clean it out.

PixieDust

If you go to a cheapy shop - where they sell things for a pound, or slightly less (iyswim ) and buy the biggest tube of hair removal cream (for legs etc), squirt that down and leave it for an hour or so, then rinse. Then try the soda/bicarb & cheapbrown vinegar thing. That should clear most blockages:D

If not, nil desperandum! In said cheap shops above it is possible sometimes to buy a flexible piece of plastic (I thnk) with velcro on the end of it.....(or you can use a netcurtain wire with the hook on)....feed it down and twist as you pull it back......t'is grimly satisfying I got DS to do it last time...he found a long piece of K'Nex which was clogged with hair and goodness knows what.....problem solved!

s_glover

Thanks Pixiedust I would never of thought of the hair removal cream what a great idea :rotfl:

FrugalFranny

Have you unscrewed (if possible) the draining bit of plug hole? I had a problem with slow emptying from the bath so unscrewed the plug hole drain (big screw in the middle) and found half a ton of hair/grot on the under side of it! I cleared that away and gave the drain hole a bit of a clean with an old tooth brush but still had a problem, so put 2oz Baking soda mix with one table spoon of salt down the drain, then poured in the open drain hole 4fl oz of brown vinegar and quickly slammed a rag over the hole so the 'fizzing' would be forced down the drain and not spew out into the bath tub.
I waited for the fizzing to die down and then went off to boil the kettle, when it boiled I poured it down the drain and SHAZZAM! back to normal draining speed.
Might need a couple of goes but cheap as chips compaired to expensive de-clogging brands.

I do this once a month now just to avoid having the joy of matted hair and general grot to clean off the thing, once was enough :X

Was taught this one by my Nan, good for if you have a problem with regular 'smelly drains' too.

wanchai_2

I have tried various OS methods for this, caved the other week and bought Domestos drain/plughole unblocker for £3. It worked a treat! Not very OS but **very** effective.