Day of Productivity

We don’t have much going on around the house today so I’m going to take advantage of the lull and try and unplug a slow flowing drain in the upstairs bathroom.

The non toxic home remedy I am using is baking soda and vinegar. I’m going to recreate one of those school science project volcanos in the drain.

I begin by pouring a pot of boiling water down the drain.

After five minutes, I poured a cup of baking soda down the drain and let it be for 10 minutes.

While waiting, I am sitting on the balcony typing this and enjoying what looks like will be another hot August day.

Here’s what my view looks like.

Okay, it’s been 10 minutes which means it’s time to create a chemical reaction by pouring the vinegar (1 cup) down the drain.

Here comes the volcano!

I see some bubbling and effervescing but it does not look like the solution is draining at all.

I have ten minutes to let it work and then I’ll pour more boiling water into the sink.

It appears I have only made it worse. By the way, the little flakes you see floating around in the stagnant water are chili flakes. This was not part of the recipe but they were in the vinegar I used. Susan used the vinegar last week for pickling green beans and she had some left over.

Since this process has worked so poorly, I’m going with my original plan to run a snake down the drain.

I’m going to give the pipes a half hour to drain and then I shall take it all apart and run the snake. It’s a good thing I have half an hour because I have to figure out what I did with the snake.

6:05PM: Well, it turns out that the plug in the drain was right at the top where the drain is attached to the sink. I removed all the pipes and was able to clean them out. Then I used a length of electrical wire I had to ream out the drain. I was not able to find my snake. That will happen at a future date when I’m looking for something else. 

There was a lot of hair and goo that was reluctant to be removed. But I got it and now the drain runs like it’s supposed to.

I finished in time to go across the street to the pool and refresh myself. I also patched a small hole in Susan’s floatation device I got her for her birthday.

I’m calling it a productive day.