Yorkshire Plumbers

Unblocking Blockages — Sinks, Toilets, Drains, Pipes, etc.

Pipes blocked by hair, soap scum or oils and fats can be smelly, unsanitary and make everyday life just too painful for words.

Our Leeds-Bradford, Yorkshire-based plumbers can unblock any kind of:

  • Blocked sink
  • Blocked toilet
  • Blocked shower outlet
  • Blocked bath outlet or overflow
  • Blocked drain
  • Blocked waste water pipe
  • Blocked soil pipe (sewer/sewerage)

Unblock it Yourself? — DIY

Many minor sink, toilet and pipe blockages can be cleared quickly and simply by a knowledgable D.I.Y enthusiast. And we provide some rudimentary guidance below, for those who want to 'have a go'

Let a Qualified Plumber do it for you

However there are times when you really need a fully-qualified professional plumber to do the job, e.g. when:

  • You have old-fashioned (DIY-unfriendly) plumbing
  • DIY mechanical and/or chemical solutions could damage your plumbing
  • You don't have the time to to research plumbing techniques and technologies
  • You don't have the tools to do the specialist plumbing jobs
  • You can't afford the disruption to your home life
  • You really don't know where to start
  • You have already tried and failed using DIY plumbing methods
  • You don't have the knowledge to select replacement parts

The rest of this page outlines steps and tips on:

  • How to unblock a sink
  • How to unblock a toilet
  • How to unblock a drain

How to Unblock a Blocked Sink

Minor sink blockages can be cleared with chemical drain cleaners. But watch out: what the enticing adverts for those products typically fail to mention is the chemicals can be harmful to the environment and harmful to your plumbing.

More often than not, a simple plunger and or an auger will do the job just as well, just as quickly, with no harmful side-effects.

Here's a simple, step-by-step, guide to how to unblock a sink using traditional mechanical methods.

1. Expose the pipes under your sink

Remove the sink pedestal from the sink (it will typically slide out) so you can access the pipes.

Usually you will find a U-shaped or T-shaped trap under the sink, where blocking material can accumulate.

Old bathroom and kitchen sinks, will probably have what's known as a u-bend trap under the sink.

Modern sinks (certainly those less than ten years old) will probably have a bottleneck trap instead.

Both types of sink trap do essentially the same job, and can be cleaned out in similar ways.

2. Unblock Minor Sink Blockages — Using an Auger

Minor blockages caused by the build-up of materials in the sink u-bend trap, can often be cleared simply by poking and scraping with an auger.

Professional augurs typically consist of a rotating wire with a handle at the top and some kind of catch, hook, or screw at the bottom.

Push the bottom of the auger down the plug hole. Keep pushing until it's gone as far as it will go. Then turn the handle to wind to rotate the wire, so that the mechanism at the bottom catches and breaks up the blocking material. It should then flow down into the sewer.

3. Unblock Minor Sink Blockages — Using a Sink Plunger

Place the sink plunger over the plug hole.

Push down until the suction cup holds in place.

Agitate the plunger up and down a few times.

Suction on the upward pull, and pressure on the downward push, should detatch the blockage from the sides of the pipes.

Finally, run the cold tap to clear away any remains.

4. Unblock Minor Sink Blockages — Using a Pump Plunger

A pump plunger looks a bit like a bicycle pump with a sunction cup on the bottom.

A plumber's pump plunger will typically extert greater suction on the blockage than a simple hand plunger, but fewer households are likely to have one lying around.

Place the bottom of the pump plunger over the plug hole.

Pull the pump plungers handle up — once only.

Run the cold tap to flush away any gunk.

5. Unblock Tougher Sink Blockages — Removing a U-bend Trap

If poking, pulling and pushing don't clear the block, you'll need to remove the u-bend or bottleneck trap.

Put a bucket or bowl under the trap.

Unscrew the fastenings at either end of the u-bend and pull out the trap.

Pour any water still in the u-bend into your bucket.

Clean out the pipe with a brush and some ecologically-friendly disinfectant.

Screw the u-bend back into place.

6. Unblock Tougher Sink Blockages — Removing a Bottleneck Trap

Place a bucket under the sink.

Unscrew the bottom half of the bottleneck — considerable effort may be required to get it unstuck.

Clean out the bottleneck with a brush and some ecologically-friendly disinfectant.

7. Replace the Sink Trap

Before replacing the trap, check that the plastic seal fits tightly. If the seal is worn, torn or cracked, replace it to prevent future leaks.

Screw the trap back on.

Squirt some ecologically-friendly disinfectant down the plug hole and flush through with cold water.

If none of the above allow the waste water to flow cleanly away, call NJS pofessional plumbers

How to Unblock a Blocked Toilet

1. Bail Out the Toilet Bowl

Bail out as much water as possible from the toilet pan into a bucket.

If nothing else, this will give you more room to manipulate an auger or plunger to dislodge the blockage.

2. Check the Toilet / Soil Pipe Drain

Remove the drain cover nearest to the toilet outflow to see if the chamber has standing water in it.

If their is standing water in the drain, the blockage must further along the soil pipe.

If the chamber is clear, the blockage must be in the soil pipe between the loo and the chamber, or in the toilet pan itself.

If the blockage is in the toilet pan, you should be able to clear it using the auger and plunger methods described below.

If the blockage is in the soil pipes, you'll probably need a set of drain cleaning rods (draining rods) to clear it.

It may not be cost effective to buy a set of draining rods unless you envisage having to clear soil pipes regularly. In which case, give NJS qualified plumbers a call.

3. Use a Toilet Plunger (Hand-operated or Pump Action)

Toilet plungers work just the same way as sink plunbers, but they are larger and the head is shaped to fit a toilet pan.

Alternatively, you could hire a toilet pump plunger to give yourself a bit more clearing pressure.

4. Use a Toilet Auger

As with sinks, the simplest way of removing compacted blockages from a toilet is to use an auger.

Push the bottom of the auger down the toilet the wire meets the obstruction. Then turn the handle to wind to rotate the wire, so that the mechanism at the bottom catches the blocking material.

If the blockage has obviously broken up into small pieces, you may be able to flush the toilet to clear the bits, but do not do this unless the pieces are really tiny.

The last thing you want is to find that the pieces have recombined to form a compacted blockage further down the soil pipe, where only professional drain rods can reach it.

In most cases, the best thing to do is put on some rubber gloves and remove the pieces by hand. Yes, it is yucky and unpleasant, but the alternative is just as yucky and is likely to cost you much more in time and money.

Disinfect the loo, flush several times, then disinfect again.

If neither the plungers nor an auger work, call NJS pofessional plumbers

How to Unblock Blocked Drains and Soil Pipes

You’ll probably need a set of drain rods, rubber gloves, and a garden hose for this job. The drain clearing rods can be hired.

1. Lift the Inspection Chamber Cover and Check Inside

Find the drain inspection cover nearest to the house.

Lift the lid and look inside to see if it is full of water

Tip: if there are no handles or if you don’t have keys for the cover, try using a spade lever up the edge

If the inspection chamber is empty, the blockage is somewhere in the soil pipe somewhere between the toilet and the chamber.

If there's water in the chamber, the blockage is further down the pipework, towards the mains sewer.

If the blockage is towards the mains sewer, find the next chamber or chambers until you have isolated the blocked section of the pipe — i.e. between full and empty inspection chambers.

2. Insert the Drain Rods (Drain Cleaning Rods)

Screw together a few of the drain rods and the plunger head — 2 or 3 rods to begin with.

Push the plunger head into the pipe opening, towards the blockage.

Slowly turn the rods clockwise to make it easier to push them forward. Do not twist the drain rods anti-clockwise — that will unscrew the rod connectors, leaving rods and the plunger in the drain.

3. Dislodge the Blockage

Screw on extra drain rod sections until you feel resistance down the pipe.

Agitate the plunger quickly backwards and forwards to try and dislodge the blocking material.

If this doesn't do the job, extract the rods and replace the plunger with the screw attachment.

Keep pushing and turning the rods (anti-clockwise) until water flows through.

Try to remove out any loosened bits of the blocking material as it comes hrough the lower inspection chamber.

4. Run The Taps

Run your hot taps, adding detergent to dislodge any fat, and clean through the pipes.

Let the taps run for at least five minutes, checking that the water flows away normally.

Replace the inspection chamber cover, clean the drain rods with plenty of fresh water, and let them dry before packing away.

If the water still doesn't flush away, call NJS’s professional plumbers.