How To Locate Clog or Blockage In Plumbing Waste Drain Pipe Without Hiring A Plumber

in this video I will provide you with something that will help you figure out where your clogged drain could be and even though I will be focusing on a bathroom here you could apply this information to the rest of your house so let's go ahead and get started here we have a toilet with the plumbing drain pipes and we have a cutaway of a bathtub and a sink and what inspired this video was someone asked what the problem could be if they have a clogged sink and a clogged bathtub but not a clogged toilet so with that said let's go ahead and reverse everything and start with a clogged toilet we have a clog in our drain pipe and the water would be backing up into the toilet however we'd be able to use our bathtub and our sink without any problem the clog is Behind These pipes here so with the clog located right here all of these drain pipes would be open and allowed to flow to the Sewer or our septic tank however that will not be the case if we move the clog a little farther to where we'd be able to use our sink but not our bathtub or our toilet and if we move the clog a little further down we're not going to be able to use anything in our bathroom if every fixture in your bathtub is filled with water or won't allow any of these fixtures to be used then there's a good chance the clog is located a little further Downstream than the clogged fixtures now before we leave this illustration I want to point out that the wall water level is usually going to be consistent or level so you could have a situation where you think you can use the sink but once you start putting water in the sink the bathtub and the toilet level will rise so you might think you can use the sink or this might provide you with the illusion that you can use the sink but obviously you won't be able to any water that goes into here will just simply raise the levels of the other fixtures that are Upstream of the clogged drain pipe and this could include other fixtures throughout your home like a kitchen sink or a wash machine drain line now since you probably don't know which direction your drain line is going let's go ahead and flip this thing around and allow the drainage waste water to go out in the other direction along with providing an example of what it could look like if you have a sink that is plugged however you'd still be able to use the bathtub and the toilet and before we get carried away here if you do have an individual Plumbing fixture like a sink a bathtub or a toilet it wouldn't be a bad idea to run some type of a snake through these individual Plumbing fixtures because most of the time the clogged drain pipe is going to be in the Trap so make sure that you check the sink trap first or the traps in the other fixtures if that's going to be easy if it's going to be easier for you to run a snake through the drain line then do that just run the snake through the drain line if that doesn't work then you're going to have to come back and focus on the traps and as you guessed it if we move the clog a little farther down we're going to back up these two fixtures and if we move it a little further down we're going to block up the rest of the bathtub and if we move it a little further down we're going to block up the rest of the bathroom and again if you have a clog in the drain line there's a good chance the water level is going to remain the same it's going to be level in all of your fixtures this won't be the case if you have a clog in the individual pipe leading to that individual fixture if I have a clog here then I'm going to be able to use this sink in the toilet if I have a clog here I'm going to be able to use these two fixtures and if all of this makes sense you can stop watching the video if not let's go ahead and take a look at a house with the drainage pipe system in it we're going to have a washing machine drain here along with our kitchen sink over here and our sink toilet and shower drains over here so a small house let's go ahead and take a look at the kitchen drain line and that would be coming in right here let's go ahead and head over to the other side to suggest that if any of this right here is clogged you're not going to be able to use the kitchen sink and like I said if it's easier for you to just simply unscrew the clean out on the outside and run a snake through here then do that first if not take a look at the kitchen sink trap and a good clue if you do remove the clean out cover and no water comes out then there's a good chance the kitchen trap is clogged if water does come out then there's a good chance the drain is clogged so be careful whenever you're opening a clean out inside because you could get a lot of water coming out of it next up let's go ahead and head over to the laundry area any clogs in here right here is just going to prevent the washing machine drain from working however that won't be a problem if you have a clogged line going to the kitchen sink because if the pipe is clogged right here the water is still going to be able to flow out of here and down through the pipes to the sewer and by now hopefully you're starting to wrap your mind around what I'm talking about with a clear understanding that if you don't know what your pipes look like you don't know what they look like underneath your house then you're going to need to do a step-by-step drain cleaning again starting with the traps if that's easier or clean outs if that's easier so if I had a clog anywhere in this area here the sink wouldn't work but everything else would if I move the clog over to this area here the toilet and the sink won't work but everything else will if I move the clog to this area here everything behind here through throughout the rest of the house which would be the toilet bathroom sink washer and dryer drain line and the kitchen sink however our bathtub or our shower here would be working just fine and if the clog's a little farther down the line anywhere located here or going towards the sewer then there's a good chance you don't need to worry about cleaning out this section here if all of the drain lines in your house are clogged or not draining properly then there's a good chance the clog is going to be located somewhere further down the drain line and if you do have a clean out in front of your house this is going to be the place to start see if you can run a snake through this line to get rid of the clock then if not you might want to go to the back of the house if you have a clean out located back there so that you could run a drain line all the way through Because unless the this is a cleanup that allows you to go in two directions allows you to go this way and this way and the clog is located right here somewhere you're gonna have to somehow run a snake through this line and if you have access to a clean out right here give it a shot however if you do have a clean out at the back of the house then this would definitely be my second choice First Choice here second choice back here for a problem with the main line so I'm not going to be able to provide you with every single problem you're going to run into but this is a good place to start and should be enough basic information to allow you to locate a possible clog in your drain pipe however if it is not make sure that you go to the website click on the repair Tab and then find the plumbing repair section of the website for more videos that might provide you with enough information to solve your problem

Channel: gregvancom

Views: 16,186

Keywords: construction, education, fixing, finding, home repairs

Id: SsiP8xugkMU

Length: 8min 25sec (505 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 11 2023