The Best Way to Unclog a Sink Drain

Uh-oh, that is a really slow draining sink right there. Hi, I'm Mike with House on the Men, and we're here in an awesome little boy's bathroom themed in Batman versus Superman. But there's an issue, and it's the sink. It drains very slow. The homeowner let me in on a little secret. This wasn't always a little boy's bathroom. It was once a little girl's bathroom, and she's moved to a bigger room now that she's a tween. So I'm thinking down that sink there's going to be quite a bit of hair and other gook that just naturally collects down the sink. So we're going to take care of that today. Now to do this job, it doesn't take many tools. At most, you may need a pair of channel lock pliers like these. If you can't get the fitting for the p-trap loose or much smaller, the drain plug fitting loose, you may need a pair of pliers. We're going to use a pair of gloves, of course, because it could get pretty nasty. We'll have a bucket to take some of the slop out, some paper towels and things to clean the p-trap, which is this little arc in the sink. And that's necessary because it pools water and it keeps the gases from past the sink from coming back and flowing into the bathroom, causing a smell. Well, in that p-trap, you get a buildup of gook that collects as well as the drain plug that goes up and down. That gets a lot of hair and other nasty stuff that collects on it. As I looked under the sink, I could see a bottle of something that they've tried to use to clear the drain issue. And in my experience, that doesn't work very well. I like to get in there, remove the p-trap, remove the little plug that runs the drain stopper, and I like to clean all that out by hand. It works really well and it's pretty quick. So let's zoom in and get started. All right, so now we're down under the sink and here's the p-trap that we're going to be removing. And it's just two simple hand-tight fittings. I've got a bowl underneath that's a little more shallow than a bucket, makes it easier to work around. And I'm just simply going to loosen both fittings with our water. I'll move that fitting out of the way. This one as well. You can see that we're able to just slip this out. Now take a look in there. There's definitely some goop that we can clean out, but where the goop really is, is above it. Look at this gunk that's coming out of there. We're using a liquid drain clog substance. Keep in mind it's going to come down, it's going to sit in this p-trap. And that may explain why when we look in here, we really don't see that much buildup. There's a little bit, but the issue usually that I find is above that area. And that liquid drain clog substance isn't going to have any effect on the stuff because it just, there's no way to keep it trapped there so it sits long enough to dissolve all the stuff above the p-trap. So after removing that p-trap, I'm going to clean it out. But I also want to get in here and remove all the gook up to here and in the drain. So let's go a step farther than any liquid plumber type substance could do and remove this piece, which you can see is just nasty. We're going to take that, put it in our bucket to clean. And then we're also going to come back here and we're going to unscrew the fitting that actuates the lever on the faucet for the drain. And we need to move that out of the way so that we can remove the actual drain plug. And look at that, that's really full of gook. All right, let's put this in our bucket to clean too and then we'll get to work on this drain pipe and I'll show you down that drain where I think most of the issue is. All right, take a look at this goop coming out of here. That is hair and soap scum and toothpaste. That's what's slowing your drain down. Thankfully this is a disposable plastic knife. All right, we're going to clean the rest out of this and we're going to wash out all the drain pipe pieces and we'll come back and put it all back together. All right, as I'm scrubbing all these parts, I want to give you a quick public safety notice. Endeavor to never let this gook come in contact with electricity because it will immediately become a living entity and take over the world. And if you don't believe me, check out the 1950s documentary The Blob. All right, all our parts are clean so now let's reassemble the sink drain and the p-trap. This drain plug is all nice and cleaned off from all that gook that was in these baffles. So all we have to do is line up this little catch straight against the back wall and set it into place. Then we can go underneath the sink and reconnect that fitting. All right, let's reassemble this drain pipe. So I put these two fittings right back together. Now let's slip this one up this way and into this little flange and get him right into the position on the other end of the p-trap and just hand tighten it down again. Then we'll bring down this ring, do the same thing, hand tight. All right, now back here is a little piece that we pulled out that connects with the drain plug. So let's slide that right back in there. Boom, and then get this fitting on there. Hand tight again and then let's do a test. Take a look at this bar right here and let's make sure it's actuating with the drain plug. Oh yeah, working perfect. All right, let's do a drain test up here with the faucet running. Okay, let's see how we did. No buildup of water at all. Next we'll just close the drain, make sure it's holding. I'm looking around the line where the water is. I don't hear anything and I don't see any movement, so I think we're holding water pretty good. Now let's give it a bulk test of water. Nice. All right, I think the next project for this bathroom might be a new aerator. I'm stuck on there pretty good. Well, that's another project. So now you know the steps that it takes to clean out your drain if it's not functioning properly. This is not a difficult task. It's just kind of messy. But if you feel that disconnecting pipe fittings down below your sink is a bit too daunting for you, I understand. And if you're in the Las Vegas area, please consider giving me a call. I'd be happy to come fix your drain problems. Until next time, thank you for watching.