02-13-2021, 07:08 AM
We've had a bit of a cold snap here. Around -10 degrees outside. Came home from shopping to find the dishwasher overflowed into the sink and made quite the mess.
At first I thought it was just clogged. Emptied the water from the sink into buckets and dumped them down the toilet. Put a big bucket under the sink and pulled the P trap and it was all good. Ran the water on both sides of the sink and it drained through to the bucket so that part is good. Had to run to Walmart (only place still open) and pick up a snake because I couldn't find mine anywhere. Probably lent it to someone ages ago as we haven't had a clogged pipe since we moved into this house 4 or 5 years ago.
Came back and got about 3 feet down and hit something. Went at it for 5 minutes trying to grab or break through the blockage with no luck. Pulled out the snake and it was ice cold. DOH! Realized I was dealing with a frozen drain, not a clog at that point. The drain pipe is in an exterior wall, so that made some sense. Put the drain back together and boiled a huge pot of water full of salt(works great for melting ice). Dumped it down the drain and let it sit for an hour. No luck. Drained the pipes and repeated. No luck.
I have a hose hooked up to the hot water heater for resurfacing the backyard ice rink so I hauled the hose upstairs and tried spraying into the pipe to melt it with the hot water. Tried for 15 minutes and probably emptied the bucket a dozen times with no luck.
At this point it was midnight and I have had it with the pipe. Went down to the basement and ripped off the wood trim covering the drain from upstairs and pulled out all the insulation and sheet rock from around the drain pipe. There was a cleanout at the end of the pipe, pulled that out(gross inside) but snaked it to the main drain and it was good. Snaked up the pipe towards the sink and hit the blockage about 3 feet up right in the middle of the wall. Cut a hole into the cavity and grabbed the heat gun and temp probe to make sure I didn't melt the pipe or burn the house down. 10 minutes at 95 degrees later and I hear a wooosh over the sound of the heat gun. Mission accomplished.
Time to get some sleep. Little one has 2 hockey games tomorrow and I have to put a new bottom in the sink cabinet and replace the sheetrock and wood trim in the basement ceiling.
On the plus side, I probably saved myself several hundred bucks over calling a plumber on a Friday night.
At first I thought it was just clogged. Emptied the water from the sink into buckets and dumped them down the toilet. Put a big bucket under the sink and pulled the P trap and it was all good. Ran the water on both sides of the sink and it drained through to the bucket so that part is good. Had to run to Walmart (only place still open) and pick up a snake because I couldn't find mine anywhere. Probably lent it to someone ages ago as we haven't had a clogged pipe since we moved into this house 4 or 5 years ago.
Came back and got about 3 feet down and hit something. Went at it for 5 minutes trying to grab or break through the blockage with no luck. Pulled out the snake and it was ice cold. DOH! Realized I was dealing with a frozen drain, not a clog at that point. The drain pipe is in an exterior wall, so that made some sense. Put the drain back together and boiled a huge pot of water full of salt(works great for melting ice). Dumped it down the drain and let it sit for an hour. No luck. Drained the pipes and repeated. No luck.
I have a hose hooked up to the hot water heater for resurfacing the backyard ice rink so I hauled the hose upstairs and tried spraying into the pipe to melt it with the hot water. Tried for 15 minutes and probably emptied the bucket a dozen times with no luck.
At this point it was midnight and I have had it with the pipe. Went down to the basement and ripped off the wood trim covering the drain from upstairs and pulled out all the insulation and sheet rock from around the drain pipe. There was a cleanout at the end of the pipe, pulled that out(gross inside) but snaked it to the main drain and it was good. Snaked up the pipe towards the sink and hit the blockage about 3 feet up right in the middle of the wall. Cut a hole into the cavity and grabbed the heat gun and temp probe to make sure I didn't melt the pipe or burn the house down. 10 minutes at 95 degrees later and I hear a wooosh over the sound of the heat gun. Mission accomplished.
Time to get some sleep. Little one has 2 hockey games tomorrow and I have to put a new bottom in the sink cabinet and replace the sheetrock and wood trim in the basement ceiling.
On the plus side, I probably saved myself several hundred bucks over calling a plumber on a Friday night.