Bathroom Sink Drain Cleaning

When a bathroom sink stops draining properly, it can turn into a bit of a mess.  Properly clearing them can become a bit of a challenge to the casual “do-it-yourselfer” as well.  This is usually due to the little contraption known as the pop-up assembly.

As for bathroom sink drain cleaning, there are basically three approaches, depending on the type of blockage you are facing.

Pop-up Blockages

The pop-up is pretty much what you would think it is.  It is stopper for your bathroom sink that is actuated by a little lever at the back of the faucet.  It is also the most common cause of bathroom sink backups.

If your backup is cause by hair that has accumulated in your pop-up, clearing it is fairly simple.  It usually requires no more than removing the actuator lever (which is held in place by a round nut under the sink, at the rear of the pop-up assembly), lifting the stopper out of the way and getting in there with something that will collect the hair (a wire coat hanger works well, if you are careful).

The difficultly can be in doing all of this without breaking something, or worse yet, getting it all back together.  The nut that secures the level is very easy to cross thread.  If that happens you will have a leak.

P-Trap Blockages

These most usually occur on older sinks that do not have a pop-up, or in cases where hair and sludge somehow made it past the pop-up.  More common still is the cases where something was dropped down the drain, never recovered and has had the chance to sit there and collect debris.  You would be surprised at the list of things people have recovered from the kitchen drain.

Clearing p-trap blockages is usually just a matter of disassembling the piping under the sink, cleaning it out, and replacing it.  Here again, this is pretty simple, until it comes to the “replacing” part.  It can be very tricky to put a p-trap assembly back together without any leaks.  This is especially true in cases where the parts are old or corroded.  Many times they will fall apart in your hands while trying to remove them.  In that case, it is best to get new parts and replace everything under the sink.

Do not try to “patch” it together.  You may waste hours trying and still have leaks.

Drain Line Blockages

As far as bathroom sink drain cleaning is concerned, this is the most challenging.  Thankfully, in residential buildings, it is the least common.  The only proper way to clean a blockage somewhere in the drain line is to first remove the entire p-tap, and run the appropriately sized cable down the line, to attempt to clear it.

Some people will try to run a small cable (like a ¼”) straight down the drain.  This can be a problem if the pipes under the sink are old, or if there is another fixture on the other side of the wall (very popular for bathroom sinks).

It is usually best to have an experienced drain cleaning expert deal with your bathroom sink backups.  They can check your pop-up, remove the p-trap, and then run the drain line if needed, all in one go.  This will save you time and money.

When you need an expert for your bathroom sink drain cleaning, call Gogo Rooter Plumbing.  We will get there fast, give you a free, no obligation estimate, and leave you with a smoothly draining bathroom sink… with a full warranty to back up our work

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