Home and Garden

Problems with your home’s sink plumbing system can be frustrating. Whether in the kitchen or in the bathroom, most common problems with your sink like leaks and drips, clogged drains, foul smell, and slow pressure can disrupt a home’s tranquility. When gone unattended, any of these problems can wreck havoc in your home and can sometimes cause a major upheaval on your finances.

The idea of maintaining a safe and sound plumbing system in a home makes a plumber a homeowner’s best bud. But if it is money-saving preventive maintenance you need, recognizing some common issues with your sink and remedying these with effective DIY can be of great help. To get you started, here are some tips how:

Stinky Sink

Kitchen or bathroom sinks are notorious in giving off foul smell over time. No matter how you clean the surface, this type of smell persists. Usually this smell goes deep into the waste pipe where gunk from kitchen waste or dirt, skin and fat from bathing accumulates. These deposits can stay there for months slowly dissolving and giving out unpleasant odor. Instead of using hazardous solution, making your own eco-friendly concoction would help eradicate the smell.

DIY Tip

What you need: 1 cup baking soda, 2 cups warm white vinegar, a dash of lavender or lemon, and hot water

How to do it: Simply pour the baking soda closely followed by the white vinegar and a dash of lemon/lavender into the sink. Wait for two to three minutes and pour hot, boiling would be nicer, (be careful of scalding yourself though). If you have hot-and-cold water running on your sink, drain the solution using slow-pressure hot water. Let it be for 3 minutes, then, flush out everything using cold water. Smell the difference right there and then. You might also notice a faster drain.

Slow or Clogged Drain

Don’t you just hate it when you are in a hurry and your kitchen sink drain is not cooperating? Slow, and sometimes bubbly or hiccup-y, drain can be irritating. Completely clogged drain is much worse. These problems are often caused by accumulation of dirt, gunk, fats, soap, hair, and other gross stuff. In some cases, it could be due to a badly assembled plumbing system. If your plumbing system is entirely new, you might want to consider having it rechecked by a professional plumber. If not, here’s a simple DIY tip that won’t hurt the indoor air quality of your home and your financial coffers.

DIY Tip: washing soda, rock salt, white vinegar, and hot boiling water;

How-To: Create a vacuum to force-drain the clog. Make use of a plunger suction cup directly into the drain to remove excess water. Make a liquid paste out of the washing soda, salt and water. Pour this directly into the sink. Let it sit overnight for completely clogged drain. Wash it immediately with white vinegar and hot water for slow drains. For full-blown clogging, pour down the white vinegar slowly but surely the day after. Once the fizzing stopped, pour in hot water. Washing soda, by the way, is more potent than baking soda in cutting grease and is quite easier to find in your laundry aisle.

Leaky Faucet

This one could be a constant drip from its spout or from the faucet’s handle, or from its base. A small drip can turn into a catastrophic leak when not attended immediately. Common cause is the seepage from water supply due to changing pressure. This sometimes strain the watertight seal causing your faucet to drip or leak. A quick tweak or replacing of your washers or gasket using a C wrench, Phillips screwdriver, penetrating oil, and replacement washers or O-rings would do the trick.

DIY Tip: Make sure to do the adjustment or replacement only when you know what you are doing. If not, it is strongly recommended that you contact a plumber immediately to guarantee not blowing up the problem.

Like everything else, prevention is the key to ensure that most common problems with your sink do not complicate the plumbing system in your home. For simple DIY initiatives, always keep a can of baking or washing soda, a handy wrench, and vinegar on your emergency box. If you are not confident with your DIY skills, a local plumber emergency number on speed dial can give you a sigh of relief.

Andrew Calderon is part of Abolute Draining & Plumbing, a company that provides plumbing and draning services in Toronto area.

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