Do you know how to unclog a kitchen sink? In this video I'm gonna show you how and
we're gonna do it in 10 seconds. I'm Roger Wakefield, LEED AP, The Expert
Plumber. Welcome back to another great video. If you've not been here before and
you want to learn all things plumbing as a homeowner, a real estate agent, or a
buyer, start now by clicking the subscribe button and ringing the bell so
you don't miss out on anything. So in this video we're gonna show you how to
unclog a sink. What I like about this open piping that we have is I can
actually show you why it's important to know which side of your sink is clogged
up or if both of them are. If you are clogged up just from the disposal side,
that's gonna tell you that your clog is either right here in the disposal or
right down here in this J bend above this T. Because if it was down any lower,
that line would be clogged too, and both sides of your sink would be backing up.
Now let's say it's the other way around. Say that you've got a clog on this side,
but your disposal drains fine. Now that's going to tell you that everything here
is fine, but you've got a stoppage somewhere in here. So now I'm going to
show you what we're gonna take apart to do, in order to fix it. So say the clogs
on your disposal side, first thing you want to do is get a big enough bucket
under there that if you've got water in the sink and you pull this p-trap apart,
it's gonna catch all that water. Now like we've done before, you want to loosen it
up so the p-trap starts draining down. That way you can go slow. Because what I
can do, is if it starts filling up my bucket, I can actually tighten this slip
nut back up to stop the water. That way I can pull my bucket out and go drain it.
Now we know that there's no water in this, so I'm gonna go ahead and take it
apart now. If it's just one side, I know that my clog is up here or I know that
my clog is over here. Now if both sides were clogged, what we would be doing
is taking apart the p-trap and taking apart the backside. And like I said will
drain out as much water as you can, but the very first thing that you're gonna
look at is the inside of the p-trap. There's a lot of times that we'll go out
and both sides of the sink will be clogged up, and what it will be is the
bottom of the p-trap will have debris in it that's stopping it up and not letting
it drain. So we always check the inside of the p-trap first. Now back to where we
were. If it's just the garbage disposal side, not the other side, you're still
going to take everything apart and you've already drained everything down
from here, so you know that there's not much water in here. But what you may do,
is you may try to stick like a wood handle of a wooden spoon up in here, to
see if the clog is right above here. Now if we know it's in this T, we can take
this T off. And as you can see from the inside of it it's got a baffle right
there to make this drain down here and to make this drain down there. And that's
why you can see, as small as that hole is, it would be very easy for the clog to be
right here to clog up one side or the other. But if we know it's up in here and
we now take that wooden spoon and either push it up in here, or you can reach down
inside and see what you can find out on the inside, to see what's clogging it up.
Now if the clog is over on this side, what you're going to want to do is
loosen this up to where you can turn it and look in here and see if this is
clogged. You want to make sure that you get your bucket either under the opening
here, or under it here. If this is not clogged up and it's clogged here, you want
to open this up and take that down. You're gonna be very careful taking this
down. I've seen straws in here ,I've seen all kinds of things and once you pull this
off it may be just enough to push it out and you want to make sure again, you've
got a big enough bucket to catch the clog or any of the water that may still
be on this side of the sink. Now if you undo everything here and you realize
there is no clog up here, everything's fine. What you're going to go to, where
this goes back into the wall and hopefully there's a slip joint nut that
you undo and pull this out. Again, be very careful because your clog may be here,
your clog may be behind it, but you want to make sure that you've got your bucket
to where you're trying to catch as much water as you can. If you realize the clog
is back in the wall, you're gonna need either get a small sewer machine or a
handheld sewer machine to run through there to get the clog out.
Chances are it's in your arm, but remember it may be time to call a
plumber because the clog could be in your arm, it could be in your riser, or it
could actually be in the line under your house going over to where it ties into
the sewer main. If the problem is one side or the other here, chances are you
can get it taken care of very easy, and get it put back together. And one thing I
always recommend if it is here and once you put it back together,
run plenty of hot water through it to help rinse everything down. Now one thing
you may try if it's one side or the other, is using a plunger. And I've done a
video before, if you need to go look at it go ahead and find out which plunger
to use. But if it's - say it's this side of your sink. You can actually put your cap
in the other to help make sure that there's no pressure coming up in it, use
the plunger on this side and if it's in the lower section of your pipe on that
side, you might be able to unclog it that way. Same thing if it's the other way
around put your basket strainer in, make sure
your rubber goes all the way into where it seals it off and use the plunger on
this side. Hold it in there so that the basket strainer doesn't get pushed up,
but sometimes the plunger, if your clogs in the pipe right here below it a
plunger may be enough to push it down that way you don't have to call a
plumber. I hope this helps you at home if you have problem with a stopped-up sink.
if not, check out some of the other videos and let's see what we do in them
and maybe that'll help you take care of your problem. Thank you for watching, if
you want to learn more about plumbing check out some of the other great videos
we've done on The Expert Plumber and remember to hit the subscribe button now
and ring the bell so you don't miss out on anything. And we'll see you on the
next video if you don't get flushed.