The bathroom is one of the top two areas in a house that every homeowner will use frequently after a bedroom. Just like the other rooms, a bathroom also needs to be comfortable, clean, and functional since you use it every day. However, we are sure that there is one bad day when you have to face some problems that annoy your mood.
Among many issues that can happen in a bathroom, a clogging sink is one of them. Well, in our eyes, the sink may look clean, but the fact that it’s clogged means that there is something wrong inside. Of course, not to mention the bad odor that might come later from the piled debris.
How to Prevent Bathroom Sink from Clogging
There are a few ways that you can do to make sure your sink works fine. Just like your kitchen sink, there are some things that can cause a clogging sink, for example:
- Hairs
- Soap scum
- Something stuck in the P-trap
- Chemical products
- Damaged pipes
Different causes need different treatments so you can find the right option. Below we have some tips that you can add to your bathroom cleaning check to prevent a clogging sink.
REGULAR MAINTENANCE
You can do this once a month to make sure that the water flows with no problem and the condition of the bathroom in general.
- If you spot the water running slower than usual, you might want to check the sink immediately.
- Check if there is any leak around the pipes and fix it as soon as possible.
- When you check the sink or stopper and there is debris piling up, take them out to prevent it from clogging.
BOILING WATER
This method may not familiar to some people but the purpose of using boiling water is to ‘soften’ the debris or grease in the sink from any chemical product like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, etc.
- Boil about 2 liters of water and pour it into the sink.
- You might also want to combine of with a tablespoon of vinegar or salt.
- Repeat the first step until the sink works as usual.
BAKING SODA AND VINEGAR
- Pour about a cup of baking soda into the sink.
- Follow with a cup of distilled vinegar.
- Let them stay for about an hour by closing the stopper.
- Once it’s done, rinse the sink with about 2 liters of boiling water. You can keep pouring the water if the sink is still not unclogged.
- You might as well use the lemon extract to freshen the sink once it’s working normally.
BAKING SODA AND SALT
Here is another easy way to take away hard debris by using salt and baking soda. The whole process is quite the same as the previous one.
- For baking soda, you can pour a cup into the drain and wait for an hour.
- As for the salt, you can either pour it into the sink directly along with the baking soda or dilute it with boiling water to rinse the baking soda.
VINEGAR
- Pour about a cup of vinegar into the sink and let it sit for about an hour.
- You can add lemon juice or extract as a natural freshener.
- The last step is to pour boiling water to rinse the whole area.
PLUMBING SNAKE
If the sink is still clogged and the water flows still slow, you might want to check deeper because there must be something inside the sink that can’t be resolved only with dilute.
- To take them out, use a drain snake that you can get easily from the nearest hardware store.
- If the problem still occurs, you might have to remove draining pipes.
PLUNGER
This last step could be the last option that you can do if the sink is still clogged because the debris might be bigger than the grease.
- Before using a plunger, make sure to remove the stopper first.
- If there’s no water in the bowl, fill the sink about halfway full of water, then put the plunger over the drain hole and check to ensure you have a good firm seal.
- You may need to cover the overflow hole with a wet rag to prevent the plunged water from coming out.
- Use firm, quick plunges to remove the clog.
- Check between plunges to see if the water has started to drain.
Just like a kitchen sink, a clogging bathroom sink can be an annoyance especially when you need to hurry but the sink is not cooperating. So, before this happens to yours, check your bathroom sink now!