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Blocked Drains
Dealing with blocked drains has always been a bit trickier than unblocking a sink or a toilet, but even when you consider buying the specialist tools and unblocking them yourself, you'll still save money when compared with calling a plumber. With a set of drain rods costing around £20 and rubber gloves costing pennies, you really can save a small fortune if you do it yourself.
Drain rods really are the ultimate tool for fixing blocked drains. They're effectively a collection of short rods which screw together to form one big pole which can be anything from 1 meter long up to 5 or 6 meters long. The great thing about them is that they can punch a hole through the worst of blockages, allowing you to get water flowing past blocked drains.
It has to be said, using drain rods is a messy job, but it's better than resorting to chemicals first and then having to take extra precaution because you're dealing with corrosives. Drain rods cost next to nothing and you can fix blocked drains in just a few minutes with them.
Using Drain Rods to Fix Blocked Drains
The first and most important thing to do with blocked drains is to ensure that the problem is on your property – if it's not then you'll need to call the council to help you fix it. If you're a council tenant or rent your property, chances are you can just call the landlord and they'll send a plumber to fix the problem for you.
If however blocked drains are your responsibility, the first thing to do is to locate the blocked drain. Usually it's a problem between the home and the sewer, so you'll need to start by finding the wastewater pipe and looking for the inspection manhole nearest your home. Opening it up will reveal either a flooded manhole which means the problem is further down, or an empty manhole which means the problem is further up the line (nearer your home).
Hopefully, your home has more than one wastewater inspection cover, check them all and find the flooded manhole and the nearest un-flooded manhole. Using drain rods it's always best to work towards the blockage from clear side, because if you work from the flooded section, you'll be covered in dirty wastewater.
Using the drain tools, attach the auger or the corkscrew bit, and twist two or three of the rods together tightly. Note the direction they tighten in – usually clockwise! After you've put the rods together, insert them into the drain and while you're inserting continue to rotate them clockwise. If you accidentally rotate them the other way, you'll simply unscrew your tools whilst they're in the drain pipe!
After a while of poking and prodding at the blockage, you should be able to free things up a little. It's very rare that drain tools can't fix a blockage – blocked drains free up pretty quickly.
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