A clogged drain in the bathroom sink can be a real headache for most homeowners, but it happens to everyone. I am the proud mother of two little girls who managed to survive their teenage years. Throughout these years I’ve seen and dealt with a lot of things, especially with many objects plugging up the bathroom sink – from pencils to toilet paper and hair stuck onto the drain. After our last home restoration, we decided to install a non-removable stopper for the bathroom sink, thinking that those crazy sink clogging years are gone. Well, this was until we saw the water draining agonizingly slow in the girl’s bathroom.
Since unclogging the bathroom sink is not a job for the professionals, David and I put on the plumber gloves and started to unclog the drain.
First and most important steps to unclog a non-removable stepper bathroom sink:
- Turn off the water, clean out everything underneath the sink, take a bucket for excess water, and close the stopper completely.
- The next thing you need to do is removing the stopper from the sink. To do this, get under the sink and release the stopper by squeezing the spring clip to remove the pivot rod from the clevis strap. Once the pivot rod is removed from the clevis strap, the stopper should pop right up and out of your sink.
- This is where is gets gross, so make sure you have your rubber gloves on. With the stopper loosened, you can pull it out of the drain. This is where you need to clean the stopper mechanism of all dirt, hair, and debris. DO NOT turn on the water to do this! If you need some, use a different sink to clean the stopper. Bleach and rubbing alcohol should help.
- After cleaning the stop-up mechanism, you will want to grab your wire hanger and bend it into a shape that will help you hook globs of hair and gunk. Think the shape of a backscratcher or a fishing hook. Once you have the right shape, lower the hook into the drain and once you feel a blockage, start twisting and moving the hanger to catch as much gunk as you can.
- Try to remove as much gunk as you can with the wire hanger. You can also use an old toothbrush to help clean the inside of the pipe. Some hair and gunk may also be able to be pulled out through the opening where the pivot rod was removed.
- If you think that there is a big clog in the P-bend of the pipe, where you can’t get to using the hanger, then you may need to unscrew the P-bend section of the pipe. This may or may not be necessary, depending on the seriousness of the clog.
- Put everything back together again. Run some hot water down the drain to test the results of all your hard work. After reassembling all of the pieces, while you are down there, inspect everything for leaks and corrosion.
After all this chaos, just grab the following supplies to make sure your bathroom sink drain is completely unclogged:
You Need:
- white vinegar
- baking soda
How-to:
- Pour a pot of boiling hot water down your drain.
- Dump in about 1/2 cup of baking soda. Let that sit for a few minutes.
- Then, pour a mixture of 1 cup of vinegar and 1 cup of very hot water down on top of the baking soda.
- Close the stopper immediately (to keep the reaction down below the drain surface) and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Release the stopper and flush one more time with a pot of boiling water.
