Home DIY

Took the scews off but what's underneath is sealed in place, so it is not a maintainable system.

Fucking joys, no hot water, no central heating, no working drainage.

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I feel your pain. To clear our wetroom trap you have to remove a cupboard in the kitchen. Thankfully we both have short hair, so it’s not blocked yet.

Sounds pretty terrible. What does/would the unblocking entail? I can't see any way that the current system I have here could be unblocked without ripping it out.

That's completely different to my wet room shower drain. Presumably the bit you screwed off is some sort of fine filter to stop crud going down that tiny flattened hole?

If it's a galvanised tank, you'll need a grinder and there's a huge chance with the sparks from the grinder you set something on fire. We leave them always now!

I think ours has a push up/twist removable trap about 20mm deep. Well the box of crap I found in the loft that seems to be to do with the wetroom had a box with instructions for a trap like that, so???
If ours does block my first try is going to be taping a small tube on the our wet vac and sticking it down the drain hole, can’t hurt can it?

Could a nibbler work?

Edited to make sense

If it's a galvanised tank, you'll need a grinder and there's a huge chance with the sparks from the grinder you set something on fire.

Can't you use a reciprocating saw to eliminate the sparky funtimes with the angry grinder?

Looking at that the grey bit in the centre probably contains the anti odour flap and that is I’m guessing gummed up and not letting the water out due to scuzz and hair. You could try putting some dishwasher soap down it and leaving overnight. It eats scuzz very well. If that doesn’t work I’d drill a small hole (small enough that a self tapper with a rubber washer will seal the hole in case it’s the bottom of the trap) in the grey bit and have a poke around with a pick. If that fails it’s a hole in the ceiling underneath it I’m afraid. Possible easier and cheaper than touching the shower floor.

Cheers. Dish soap better than drain unblocking chemical doom stuff would you reckon? Or just a better first attempt with less toxic goo?

hole in the ceiling underneath it

I'm pretty much up the creek then, as it's a ground floor flat!

Presumably the bit you screwed off is some sort of fine filter

Nope, just seemed to be a cap.

Yeah I don’t like all those toxic things.
Maybe attacking it from below isn’t really the best option then.

Dish soap better than drain unblocking chemical doom stuff would you reckon?

No - you need something caustic. Soap based stuff just produces scum that binds hair and shit together that blocks stuff up.

It looks like there's a parting line around the edge. I bet the inner plate rotates slightly to unlock it. There's at least 2 but probably 3 holes which may locate springy bits to stop it coming unlocked.

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Excellent use of the 'Enhance' function, Officer Deckard.

Slow reply, but I used clutch head screws when I rebuilt our gate and move the hinges to the front/outside to make the gate open more widely for cargo bike access reasons.

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I asked the site team today and apparently this is the shit! https://www.fulcare.co.uk/product/one-shot-drain-cleaner-1ltr/ they claim it never fails.

As long as it does the job. If it stays in the pipes it's awful. It's also possible to get heat build up with the stronger chemicals as they react with water producing heat. That can be enough to cause a problem with plastic fittings.
Just a word of warning about the strong stuff. I do have a bottle of one shot but it's lasted 15 years so far.

Something like this a great starting point for any unblocking. You can suck and blow with it making it way more versatile than a plunger. Also useful if you are dealing with pipes full of acid!!

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drain-Unblocker-Powerful-Blockages-Chemicals/dp/B08H5LZPBG?

Try boiling water before you try chemicals, sometimes it's a build up of soap which can be broken down by a combination of simple methods. Worth trying to get access to the trap though as mechanical removal is by far the best method.

Yeah, I've had results with those mechanical things too.

We had a blocked waste pipe last year and had to get a plumber out. Sink wouldn't empty. Waste pipe went sink -> trap -> outflow from washing machine -> main waste pipe.

First tried the device above and that made a very slight improvement (water level started to drop but very very slowly).

Plumber then removed the trap and used a wet-vac on the pipe. Got a few big solid chunks that he said was most likely due to fabric softener use. But even with those out it was still not flowing anywhere near properly.

In the end he used the HG equivalent of that One-Shot stuff. It's generally just ~91% Sulfuric Acid. Also not straight forward to get hold of if not a tradie. Very nasty stuff if mishandled.

Indeed, he ended up having to suck some of it out with his wet-vac and although he said the wet-vac could handle it, the hose couldn't and he ended up melting some of the hose. Luckily he noticed and was able to quickly get the hose onto an old towel and into the wet-vac itself. Fuck knows how he disposed of that in the end. Not my problem.

I guess he didn't give it long enough to work because a few minutes later the blockage was all but gone and everything was flowing freely.

The waste pipe had a slight horizontal section where it went through an internal wall and then through the exterior wall to a vertical soil pipe. (This is an Edwardian house that's been converted into flats so this was unlikely to be an original kitchen location.) If we ever get to do a new kitchen then I'll hopefully remember that the waste pipes need sorting.

Plumber also recommended a 6-month application of the generally available drain unblocker, which should keep things in check. This was the first time we'd had a problem with a blocked waste pipe in the 16 years we'd lived there.

I've worked with another multi trades guy on a similar issue in a neighbours house. It had got past the point where I could handle it on my own and he loves this kind of thing. He eventually got it moving but he was blowing and sucking pipes full of one shot at one point!

Last week I managed to sort a blocked toilet in a loft space. Something was stopping the waste falling over the edge into the soil pipe.

Managed to create some pressure by sucking water from the bowl and plunging it back in. Was enough to tip whatever was stuck on the edge. Like an arcade penny pusher 🤪

pressure washers - talk to me. are the £60 bosch/karcher ones crap or do i need to be spending >£100. occasional use only for cleaning patio etc.

Basic Karcher stuff is OK in my experience. You should fork out for the patio attachment though as the wand is strong enough to destroy grout and leave stripes on stones and wood.

(At the strongest setting it's powerful enough to strip paint from wood).

Spend as much as you can afford if you plan to keep it for a long time. The large patio cleaning heads are great for keeping the overspray down but I think they need the larger models to power them.

Quality is a bit hit and miss until you get to the pro models. The domestic stuff has lots of crappy plastic parts that although replaceable are annoying. Also be careful about storing it above freezing.