Home Improvement Stack Exchange
Home Improvement Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [blockage]

An object, usually unwanted, lodged in a water- or waste-carrying channel that severely impedes flow.

29 questions
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How can I clear a blockage caused by the previous owner flushing grout down the toilet?

The previous owner of our house tiled the main bathroom before selling the house and flushed the grouting down the toilet. This caused the pipes to become blocked. We've had to break down some of the wall downstairs, cut open the pipes and try to…
Tina
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How can I remove a clog in a central vacuum system?

We have a central vacuum system in our house: Somewhere along the line, something got stuck so various rooms do not have suction. How can I unblock it? Should I try fishing it out, or will that just jam it in further (I don't know what it is in…
vcsjones
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How to unblock a blocked toilet?

I have a toilet which drains out quite slowly and water rises to the brim when the flush is exercised. I have already used the plunger multiple times to try to see if it makes a difference, but it has not helped much. The water level still takes…
vivekian2
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How do I snake this dual-sink configuration?

The sink drains have become blocked in a duplex apartment. There is a bathroom on either side of a shared wall, with each sink belonging to a different living space in the duplex. There is a straight pipe between the sink drains: if I remove both…
bitsmack
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What is the white, crusty, crumbly stuff I find in my kitcken sink drain pipes?

From time to time my kitchen sink needs to be unplugged, and each time I invariably find accumulations of a crusty, crumbly white material in the pipes. It looks a lot like old cheese, has no particular odor of note, is often in ring shapes (so I…
Drew
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What steps should I take when cabling a drain?

We have a drain that backs up when a few gallons of water are put down it over time. The back pressure forces the water out through the toilet drain seal, leaving the water pouring into our basement. We have a plumber coming to fix this under our…
Jeff Yates
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What is the "warm water method" of clearing a clogged toilet?

In this question the OP mentioned that, when having problems with blocked toilet, as his first attempt he tried warm water method. I would like to ask: What is warm water method? For which purposes and in what situations can it be used?
Martin
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What are good methods of locating plumbing blockages?

In medicine if you want to know about the flow of food through the intestinal tract you feed the patient a Barium Meal and X-ray them. Is there any way to achieve a similar sort of result in domestic pipework? I have a blockage in some drains and I…
Brondahl
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How can I remove the stopper from my sink?

As you can see in the picture, in my infinite wisdom, I managed to block the kitchen sink with the stopper by placing it upside down in the sink, now I can't take the stopper out... Oops. Any suggestions on how I could take the stopper out, so I…
The Vivandiere
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My toilet backed up with no water

I live in an old condo apartment. My toilet just backed up. It backed up several times before and I managed to unclog it every time, but it's nothing like I've seen before this time because I don't see anything in the toilet and water is clean. It…
Tom Tucker
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How do I diagnose and fix a toilet blockage

I have a toilet that makes a gurgling noise IF it flushes down. However, at times it will fill up when I flush the toilet and I will see something come up from the bathroom drain. I have tried putting septic tank cleanser through the toilet because…
Alecia Hopkins
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Backed up kitchen sink drain that gets worse when I run garbage disposal

I have a kitchen sink that is recently backing up when I run the sink. I ran the garbage disposal thinking this would solve the problem but once I turn off water (lots) bubbled up into the sink. If I just leave it, the water does drain out. And…
Dave
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Bathroom drainage: bath's water flooding shower

I have a drainage problem in the bathroom. So, after a bath, I drain the bath water into the bath sinkhole. But most of the bath water comes out of the shower sinkhole, flooding the shower and onto the bathroom floor! Moreover, when I have a shower,…
bjfletcher
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Toilet, sink and shower blocked

I live in a block of flats in China. I had a lot of friends over a couple of days ago and since the toilet, sink and shower are all blocked. The water on all those items does go down, but really, really slowly. The day after, the water was going…
rhughes
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Clearing a blockage on the other side of the u-bend of an outside drain?

We have a blocked drain in our garden. I've had my arm down it and part way round the u-bend, pulling out a ton of crap, but it's still blocked. It looks like this in cross section (forgive the amateur art!). The gap at the bottom is only big…
Max Williams
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