Sunday, March 4, 2012

Never Again, Please

Because I'm single, because I live alone, because I have a friend who can do about anything, and because I like to think of myself as a diy-er, yesterday I decided to tackle my very slow draining drain in the bathroom sink. I had been told to take the trap off which I was able to do. Yes, I remembered to have something underneath it to catch the water. No, I was not prepared for the gunk or stench of the gunk. I cleaned out the trap and the pipe going into the sink as much as possible and put everything back together. The drain was still going very slowly so I thought I would need to "snake" the drain.

My friend brought a snake over later and I tried to get it down the pipe, but it went pretty much straight through so apparently the problem was further down and I needed a longer snake.

Then she asked, "Did you take out the stopper?" I don't know how to do that so I hadn't. Despite her instructions it doesn't just screw out. She fiddled around underneath and got it loose. Yep, we found the problem, and it was gross.

I cleaned the stopper, she put it back, and now I run the water just to see it go down the drain!!!

I then cleaned out the tub drain as well although it wasn't that bad.

Two observations:

1. Taking apart the trap, etc. to clean a clog at the stopper is like remodeling the kitchen when you just need a new microwave. A bit of overkill although I will say the trap is very clean.

2. At various times in life I've done things thinking God must have given me the experience to use again, but I really don't want to ever have to do that again. One of those is roofing, and now another is cleaning out a drain.

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