Hmm, plumbing problems at my home is cleared up with a little white vinegar, baking soda and boiling hot water. First put the baking soda 3-4 table spoons in the clogged sink top side, then pour vinegar like half a cup and then the boiling hot water over the whole thing and watch the sink bubble up with the mixture and it unclogs it all. Or you can use this tool that this video shows about. Good luck in unclogging your sink. Baking soda, white vinegar and boiling hot water method.
I HATE plumbing, and have discovered over the years that you never do plumbing if the nearest hardware store or plumbing supply place is closed or is near closing time.
Yup. Plumbing is one project where the apparent repair is merely the first in a line of dominoes you wish you had never touched.
Hah. The better half is quite handy with plumbing, electrical, woodwork, etc. He has saved us a bundle over the years by DIY. Of course, he has already made 2 trips to the hardware store this afternoon to get different connections for the "standard installation; replacement will drop right in!" disposal. (Muttering something about "hack saw" under his breath. ) When he gets done I will finally clean out the horror show of junk and assorted cleaning products from 1995 down there. I got some fresh shelf paper and I'm going to tidy that crap up.
I do not like plumbing but I do it for the simple reason that @Beth Gallagher has already mentioned. $$$. Just the combination of the two plumber’s mottos:, “Crap rolls down hill” and “Your crap is my bread and butter” should tell everyone that one’s #2 can be expensive stuff. . From galvanized pipe I got very proficient sweating copper then things changed to PVC then out of nowhere came CPVC and just when I knew that I knew everything to know here comes PEX. Gotta buy an adapter and an elbow from Copper to PVC and a connector from that CPVC to PEX and where the HECK is a salesperson to show me what I’m supposed to be buying!!!
A local plumbing supplier here used to have a woman plumber who was a reference person for the whole industry in this part of Alaska. She could talk you through many problems over the phone. Even many professional plumbers called her when they ran into a issue they had never encountered before. She is no longer around and no one seems to know what happened to her, but we all miss her.
@Bobby Cole I sweat my first copper joints when I was 9 years old. I was the oldest one small enough to get under the crawlspace when the pipes froze & burst. Fast forward to just a few years ago and I had my first experience with PEX. My current home had the plumbing redone in PEX, and I installed a water softener. I think I did over (45) PEX connections when it was all done. Not a single one leaked. No way you could do that with copper. The only leak I had was one 3/4" NPT-to-PEX adapter (Inlet and Outlet of each filter housing.) There was the slowest of slow seeps where the NPT adapter went into one of the filter housings...maybe one drop every few minutes. I took it apart and redid it. I'll tell you one thing I learned you might wish to ask about: I thought I was going "high end" when I used brass PEX fittings rather than plastic, but subsequently found out that water sometimes corroded the zinc out of the brass, causing the fitting to leak (I believe this is in "aggressive water.") On the other hand, you cannot use plastic if it is exposed to UV light or if it is within a certain distance of a water heating device.
Some of the things we do are worthy of an Animal Planet episode. I long ago stopped judging ravens for picking up random bits of worthless shiny crap...I've done worse. Far worse. Now I nod in understanding and camaraderie.
I was never handy. My father in law fixed everything himself. He had rent houses and kept them all up and workings to everyone's satisfaction. If he didn't have any dope for his pipe threads he'd use string. On the other hand his son in law has turned many a minor plumbing jobs into major emergencies. I can do less with more than anyone you know. I have turnd minor leaks into major blowouts. I think I was fifty years old when I finally decided the hardware store was not my friend but indeed, my enemy. That's when I realized it really did cost good money to live well, at least well enough to pay plumber.
I have always done my own plumbing. Several years ago I had to hire a plumber to replace my house shut-off valve because it required crawling under the house. It cost me $370 for 15 minutes of work. I had taken a solemn oath never to crawl under my house again. A few years before I had replaced my refrigerator water line with copper tubing and trying to crawl out I got my jeans snagged on something crawling through the narrow passage where the huge heat/cool duct divides my house. I couldn't turn around so I had to unfasten my jeans and pull myself out of them. Lucky I had on my slip-on sneakers and they were easily pushed off. I exited all dirt covered with a couple of bloody scrapes on my bare legs. Foul language was involved even before the snagging and after the snagging it increased to depts of profanity that even made the black widows back up in fear. Out in the lawn, I angrily pulled off my filthy long-sleeve teeshirt and grabbed the garden hose, and soaked myself clean. I sat on my patio in bra and panties drying off and trying to see some humor in this money-saving expedition. "Are you ok over there," Zek says loudly? "Do I look ok Ezekiel," I say? "Stunning," He replies, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Do you need anything?" "Yes, Zeekie I need a beer." In a few short minutes, he came through my gate with a growler of local craft beer. But that wasn't the story I had in mind after following the discussion here. The offender was that dad blamed garbage disposal that I had replaced twice in 10 years. The Badger they call it. I replaced it with a real small but more powerful unit that has twice the RPMs and can be mounted to be vibration-free. It was a task that required 4 trips to the specialty plumbing store to make the trap fit. I was proud despite my aching neck and sick feeling dizzy head from all those under sink poses. It ran smooth and quiet. I filled the sink with hot water for the final leak test. Sweet mother of Beelzebub if that new super-duper industrial trap didn't leak. After 3 attempts to stop the leaks and several abusive words and my channel locks beating the new impossible to align trap as if that solved anything, I took it apart and used RectorSeal #5. Yes, that is right guys don't push old Faye over the edge unless you are ready for extreme action. After a liberal application on all joints, I tightened it all up and once again the full sink hot water test. Nary a drop. Dry as my humor and bank account. The only issue with this method is any removal will be with a hacksaw, but not in my hands. I will sell this house of horrors before I relace anything under a sink again. Ok, guys feast your eyes on some girl work. Note how all the pipes are sealed to the cabinet. No rodents or insects crawling in.
I was once a janitor at a school. We had a "professional" version of that for the women's bathrooms, as they insisted on flushing some of that sanitary stuff that should not be flushed. It would either clear the clog or burst the pipe, but I never had a pipe burst, and it cleared the clog every time.