How to unclog sink/tub pipes?
Real Estate Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2009 · 308 posts · 61 votes
A tenant just called and said all her pipes are clogged and drain slow. I know to take the U shaped pipe off the sinks and clean them.
I did this before she moved in.
What do I do if it drains slow after I clean these pipes again?
How do I clear the tub pipe that is not accessible? Only the tub drain its self is.
I was told before do never use Drain-no
Any tips for me when I go there tomorrow and try to fix these drain issues?
Thanks.
Somewhere in your system you will have cleanouts. These may exist in several different places. The basic idea is to find the cleanouts, and run a snake (aka auger) into them.
The best kind of snake is the powered one with knives. The knives are a set of three or four curved, spring-loaded knives that expand to fill the pipe. They're on the end of a cable. The cable is fed into the cleanout. A motor spins the base which turns the cable.
There are smaller, hand or drill powered versions.
If all the drains in the house are slow, you'll need to find the main cleanout or cleanouts. This could be inside the basement or out in the yard. It's likely to be near the lowest toilet. It might be a cap in a wall or in a pipe that sticks up out of the floor. Out in the yard, it will be a caped pipe. There may be one or two. The current favored approach is two capped pipes, each with a sanitary tee into the main line. They're like a U, with the one away from the house tee-ing back toward the house and the one near the house teeing away from the house. That way you run the auger into the far one to clean the portion of the line back to the house. Then you auger into the near one to clean the line from that point to the city.
An older version uses a single capped pipe with two tees, one in each direction. That's tricker to hit the one you want.
If there are no cleanouts (I have a house like this), you pull the last toilet and auger through the hole.
You might want to get a drain person to come do this, since they will have that big auger. You can rent those, too.
If you have old clay pipe, or cast iron that's separated, this will be an ongoing problem. Used to be in my principal residence I had to have it augered about once a year because it was clay pipe and the pipes were unlevel and had roots coming in the cracks. $4000 later and I have a new PVC pipe up to the street. For another $6000 I could have new pipe that last 15' from the street to the city line.
Enjoy!
Somewhere in your system you will have cleanouts. These may exist in several different places. The basic idea is to find the cleanouts, and run a snake (aka auger) into them.
The best kind of snake is the powered one with knives. The knives are a set of three or four curved, spring-loaded knives that expand to fill the pipe. They're on the end of a cable. The cable is fed into the cleanout. A motor spins the base which turns the cable.
There are smaller, hand or drill powered versions.
If all the drains in the house are slow, you'll need to find the main cleanout or cleanouts. This could be inside the basement or out in the yard. It's likely to be near the lowest toilet. It might be a cap in a wall or in a pipe that sticks up out of the floor. Out in the yard, it will be a caped pipe. There may be one or two. The current favored approach is two capped pipes, each with a sanitary tee into the main line. They're like a U, with the one away from the house tee-ing back toward the house and the one near the house teeing away from the house. That way you run the auger into the far one to clean the portion of the line back to the house. Then you auger into the near one to clean the line from that point to the city.
An older version uses a single capped pipe with two tees, one in each direction. That's tricker to hit the one you want.
If there are no cleanouts (I have a house like this), you pull the last toilet and auger through the hole.
You might want to get a drain person to come do this, since they will have that big auger. You can rent those, too.
If you have old clay pipe, or cast iron that's separated, this will be an ongoing problem. Used to be in my principal residence I had to have it augered about once a year because it was clay pipe and the pipes were unlevel and had roots coming in the cracks. $4000 later and I have a new PVC pipe up to the street. For another $6000 I could have new pipe that last 15' from the street to the city line.
Enjoy!
I would suggest that you include a clause, in your lease, that tenants are responsible for clogged pipes. Obviously, if you have issues with the main line, such as roots it should be taken care of by the owner. But having this in the lease may prevent tenants from dumping food/grease in the kitchen sink or unwanted items (toys, etc) from the toilet.
Shawn is mighty right about a lease clause concerning drains.
When my tenants have problems I call a plumber and tell the tenants that if it is their fault I will bill them.
Of course, as Jon pointed out, if you have old pipes that are infested with roots YOU will end up paying, and usually paying plenty!
Thanks for the replies.
No roots, Late 80s construction.
I do have something in there about the drains. It is in the Rules/obligations addendum. Basically they are responsible.
If I tell her to call the plumber she will try to fix it herself with drain-o or just leave it. I do not want that.
Of course the tenant says it was not her or her kid.
I will go by tomorrow to see what is up.
Before you start with the auger, go by the big box store and pay $2 for a "zip-it". That's a plastic do-dad with barbs. You run that down the bathtub drain, twirl it around a little bit, and pull it out. It will bring up all the hair in the drain. That will 99% of the time solve the problem with the bathtub.
Show the hair to the tenant, show her how to use the zip-it, and leave the zip-it with her.
Now, almost always the stopper in the bathroom sink will unscrew. Unscrew that and it will pull the hair up with it when you pull it out. Show the hair to the tenant, and show her how to unscrew the stopper and remove the hair.
Next, you tell the tenant that if you have to come back out to remove any hair from the drains, you will charge her $50.
I've had a bathroom sink run slowly becasue the U trap was full of little rocks. Apparently the tenant hade been gardening and rinsing or watering palnts in the bathroom sink. Simply unscrew the trap and clean it out.
I've also has a kitchen drain clogged with gravel that looked just like the gravel in the tenant's fish tank. They swore it wasn't them.
A kitchen drain can be cleared with a water bladder. You can buy those at the big box store. About $20 if I remember correctly. It takes two people. One goes up on the roof with the garden hose and the bladder. The other has to block the sink drains, tightly. That does a really efficient job of unblocking the drain. The guy inside listens and can hear the clog break loose and also, if you pay attention, you can hear when it is all the way out of the house.
The trouble with making the tenant responsible for drains is that they will pour drain cleaner down your drains. I would prefer that they didn't do that.
I get rid of nuisance tenants. So if I had one who clogged the drains on a regular basis, I'd give them notice. I don't expect to tell them more than once that they aren't allowed to pour bacon grease down the kithen sink.
Just a coincidence.
Half of today was spent unfreezing pipes ( minus 16 degrees last night), but there was also a slow moving bathroom sink drain.
The stopper was removed and I could see something down in the pipe. The trap was removed and it contained 1 toothbrush, 1 pen, 1 eyeliner pencil, 1 AA battery, and 2 hair bands. No wonder it was draining slow.
Geeze and I though it was bad spending last Thursday, Friday, and Sunday nights getting the tenant's heat working in zero degree weather. At least they had no complaints about the drains. This time.
One other possible problem would be with a septic (if any). If you do not have city services then you may have a drain to the septic tank that is partially clogged by washing detergent.
I had a house with slow drains everywhere and finally traced it to the septic drain. The septic system had not been "serviced" in 30 years but was in great shape. The problem was that the powder laundry detergent (such as Tide) did not disolve completely and had actually cemented together at that exit point to form a partial blockage that interrupted the flow of the water but did not stop it. It had to be chisled out of the pipe it was so hard.
Suggest to your renters that they always use liquid detergents, especially in hard water areas where the powder detergents do no dissolve as well.
Hi Mark and others,
Thanks for caring (:
I just got home from the unit.
I am not very happy and very frustrated.
The place was disgusting! Dirty clothes and toys everywhere and she knew I was coming so disrespectful not to clean up some!! But I see she does not care.
I opened a hall closet and it was full of blankets and it smelt like piss (no animals prob from her kid). Can I say something to her to clean up? She is section 8 so can I call the housing auth and have them inspect it? Luckily the floors are all laminate tile like in the big box stores and not carpet so it should be easier to clean.
Three walls were being used as a drawing board for her 2yr old kid.
I see several places where I will have to repaint already. (new paint last year)
The tenant broke the pipe under the bathroom sink by trying to take it off her self. It took some force to break off.
I went to the hardware store twice and am still not done. I have to make another trip up tomorrow to the unit.
The pipe connecting directly to underneath the sink broke at the bottom and the pipe length I need means cutting the new pipe and a new 1/2inch connector to fit. I did not have a saw with me. So I will have to go back tomorrow with a saw.
She cleaned the pipe herself after it magically broke and said there was fish tank rocks (she owns no fish tank) and nail clippers in the pipe. I told her I cleaned it right before she moved in and of course she said it was not her. What can I do about her breaking the pipe and denying this since I have no hard evidence that I cleaned it and she did in fact break it off? She said she came home from work one day and it was apart. Ya right is what I said.
The tub and the kitchen sink drained fine! I filled them up and let them drain twice. I asked her what the issue was. I never received a clear answer.
I bought the "Zip it" and it would not even fit in the tub drain. There are a few grills that would not allow this to fit which is good. This means less crap down my drain.
She had a broken window frame in the front window. I was there two weeks ago and it was fine. Just the frame is broke at the bottom, the part of the window that lifts up. The glass is fine besides all the tape she used to try to tape it up with.
Need less to say I am headed back tomorrow to fix the window frame and the pipe.
I am very frustrated since she lives like a pig sty. I do get rent on time so far the past 8 months. Of course she only pays 1/4 and the rest is section 8.
A few misc. things.
-Old car oil filter on the porch (she has no car)
-Old car battery by the trash
-Broken glass table I told her to pick up two weeks ago its right off the porch. dangerous! (I hauled it today)
How should I handle these issues? Fine her, give her a letter warning? Start weekly inspections?
My dad went with me and we both discussed that if I charge her for these things I will not get the money from her.
I am afraid she might just up and leave who knows in this economy??
I decided to rent to this section 8 tenant since the economy is down. She had good references and I am guaranteed most the rent from section 8. My unit was vacant for a few months could of been more. The area rentals were hit hard. New construction is renting $600 off - Same rent price I am getting for this unit. I talked to a few other landlords in the area this week and they are challenged with evictions currently. I rather have a broken $30 pipe and some random trash than empty unit..
Appreciate some feedback.
You mention 8 months of rent is on time. Advise her that when the 12 months lease is us that you will not be renewing her lease. That should put you into the springtime months when people are looking to move about, after you do quite a bit of cleanup, repainting, repairing whatever else, and do not forget the bug man for a good treatment as you are likely to have a infestation that has not been discovered yet. Watch out for signs of mice as well.
I would be documenting all the damages and taking them to the Section 8 Office in hopes of having her removed from the program.
I would also let her know that is what I was doing in (ha ha) hopes she might get her act together.
Just got back from fixing the few things.
The sink pipe is good as new cost only $30 total for new pipes/connectors.
The window frame is broke but I used a L shaped metal bracket piece to hold it together for now. I do not think it is a standard size window so it will probably be $$ to replace the bottom frame/part that lifts up. Looking at it it looks like someone tried to pull it up too hard. Maybe she locked herself out?
I raked the two units' leaves in the yards, 7 bags full, I waited a little long this year. I am thinking about chopping down the tree. It is about 50ft and drips tons of sap during the spring and summer and has tons of leaves. Also if I chop it down it could be another parking spot for a future tenant.
In the last two years this has been my only problem for four units besides some vacancy when I first bought them due to the economy. Not bad but I know this issues this week is tenant carelessness in this unit. Just very frustrating because I pretty much spent 7 hours (counting sitting in traffic) on this and I know there is going to be something else she is going to "try to fix" and then end up breaking. I told her not to touch anything and give me a call.
I talked to her and said she needs to get cleaned up. All the food was piled on the counter at least three days old and her kids room smelt like piss.
I will go back in her unit after the weekend to do an inspection and I will talk to the housing authority tomorrow.
anybody with even a couple rentals NEEDS a tape snake at least. One with about a 2 inch rolling ball on a flat steel tape you unroll off a spool holder. that one is for 3" and larger,,,like 4 inch main sewer lines and septic tanks.
The MAIN action comes from punching it thru a clog,,,then twisting it round and round and the edge of the tape 'snaps' around and scours the walls etc.
they make those in a smaller version to fit in 1 1/2 and 2 inch drain lines,,,same action gets her done most every time,,,snap a few ten times and run some water to assure it doesnt back up some more and washes clogs down the drain.
On the real pesky ones you can wrap some barb wire(securely on the ball end) and see whats clogging the drains
If its old steel or cast pipe and you can get to it without ripping out half the house,,,its cheaper to replace it with new PVC than put up with old crap. specially horizontal drains like washer drains
It doesn't matter whether she broke the drain or not. It was OK when she moved in and it broke while she had possession of the house. She's responsible. Bill her for the repair. Send a copy of the bill to her case agent.
You are going to have to replace that broken window frame. HUD won't pass it in their yearly inspection.
Make or get a written estimate for repainting the interior of the house. Present it to her, and inform her that if she continues to allow her child to write on the walls, you are going to bill her for new paint. (Probably a magic eraser will take the crayon off, try that before you repaint).
Give her a written notice that old food is not to be left lying around. That it attracts bugs and vermin and you will bill her for pest control if she brings roaches into the house with her garbage. Send a copy to her case worker. (and go over there right now and place combat gel behind the kitchen sink and behind the fridge and oven.)
I hope you didn't allow her in without a deposit. Section 8 tenants can always get deposit money from somewhere.
Get rid of her at the end of the lease. The damage she does is going to end up costing more than the rent you get from her. If you want to accept Section 8, find another Section 8 tenant. Tell all your applicants that you kicked out the last Section 8 tenant because she lived like a pig, and not to bother to apply if they leave garbage laying around or you will kick them out, too.
You must be firm with any tenant. With Section 8 tenants, you have to go beyond firm and be tough. The reason they live on welfare is that they can't figure out how to function in society. You have to lay down the rules in a very clear manner and enforce them strictly. That's because you must train them to behave in a manner that is acceptible to their landlord. Nobody else has ever taught them.
Serve them a notice similar to this one, you do have in your lease that they are required to keep the property clean, neat and orderly as well as remove garbage on a weekly basis right? Spell out what part of the lease they violated
LANDLORD'S NOTICE TO VACATE
Date:
August 15, 2009
To:
Mr Tenant
123 anystreet
yourbuilding, ST 00000
To the above Tenant and all others now in possession of the below described premises:
123 anystreet
yourbuilding, ST 00000
You are hereby requested to quit, vacate and deliver possession thereof to the undersigned on or before AUGUST 30TH, 2009.
This notice to vacate is due to your following breach of tenancy:
UNAUTHORIZED GUEST(S) STAYING MORE THAN 3 DAYS
FAILURE TO OBSERVE QUITE HOURS ON 7 AUGUST, 2009
SMOKING IN A SMOKE-FREE BUILDING AND APARTMENT
YOUR UNAUTHORIZED GUEST(S) MUST VACATE IMMEDIATELY.
Should you fail, refuse or neglect to pay your rent, cure the breach, or vacate said premises within 15 days from service of this notice, we will take such legal action as the law requires to evict you from the premises. You are to further understand that we shall in all instances hold you responsible for all present and future rents due under your tenancy agreement.
Thank you for you cooperation.
Mr. Landlord
So I got a call (tue) last night that now the kitchen sink pipe has a bad leak.
I just checked this three days ago!
It was fine!
Of course she says it just happened and water was on the floor.
I hope its something easy and does not require cutting pipes etc..
I am going back this afternoon with a camera. To photograph the damage of the paint being peeled/scratched from the walls.
I am going to bill her for this trip but I am not going to get the money. I am in a hard spot here with the economy.
I am getting top rent from her in this economy. Most other comp places are renting for $300 less a month and they have been empty for months. No one is moving. If I kick her out I will have a vacant prop for months.
Whats your time worth?
Tenants will come. Don't stress it - it will make you lose your ability to scrutinize your applicants.
And you could end up with another like this one. You may have only spent $30 so far but her ignorance could cost you so much more. Luckily she's only messed with your pipes. Whats next?
Just got back from the rental.
So the pipe did come apart by its self.
I replaced the plumbing tape and the washer a year ago and I found it disintegrated. How could this material disintegrate in 1 year? It had not been touched.
I replaced the tape and the rubber washer and it is fine. I did notice another one of the washers is failing but I only had one with me. It is ok for now and will go back with a new one in a few weeks. Good reason to check out her unit. She did have it all cleaned up. (:
Plumber's tape? What's that? Washer? what sort of pipe are you talking about? I've been under the impression you're talking about drain pipes under sinks. Those are usually plastic or metal pipes that go together with compression fittings. There's a beveled washer that goes inside the fitting. The pipe with the nut and washer slides over the next one, and you tighten the nut to compress the washer into the other pipe. No tape involved.
Yep thats it. Metal pipes under sinks. 89 construction.
The washer and tape was disintegrated after only 1yr.
I was told to use plumbers tape by people at hardware store.
Plumber tape: A teflon tape is used to seal pipe threads against leaks. It is a thin, white tape that fills in the gaps between the pipe threads. It also acts as a lubricant for the pipe threads when tightening the fittings together.
If you mean a connection like this, except metal:
then no teflon tape is needed. The tape is needed when you have a joint that holds water. With this sort of joint, the washer presses against both pipes to seal the connection. The nut just provides pressure on the washer, and not sealing.
If these are both new from a year ago, they should not have disintegrated in a year or even in 10 years.
The teflon tape disintegrates as its installed. The mating surfaces crush the tape and if fills any gaps. So, as soon as you disassemble the joint, the tape will just be shreds.
-Michael
as always, jon goes above and beyond....thanks jon!