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Drain Addict — “Blocked Drain 938” — Bricks and roots clogging a drain

Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) is working in the backyard of a house where it appears that bricks have been dropped down the boundary shaft, and another blockage is causing a shower and toilet to back up.

He starts by trying to remove the bricks. Using the drain camera, he shows how one brick is already near the connection to the mains, while the other is closer to the boundary shaft. A reverse nozzle is attached to the jetting hose, and this is used, without water, to hook the farthest brick. He’s able to pull it back away from the city’s main line.

The closer brick ends up being pulled back, too, and Oliver puts his entire arm down the drain to try to retrieve the brick by hand. Although it isn’t easy and it does take some effort, with the help of a long screwdriver he’s able to dislodge and then remove the nearest brick.

He uses the reverse nozzle on the jetting hose to once again try to hook the remaining brick that’s still in the drain, but the brick’s alignment makes it difficult to move. After some more work with the jetter, the brick does move somewhat, but still not in a way that allows him to remove it. Eventually, he decides to try to pull the brick back using a wet/dry vacuum, but the vacuum doesn’t seem to have enough suction power to sufficiently attach to the brick.

Oliver moves on to trying a large metal hook on the end of some flexible rods. While he is able to move the brick, he isn’t able to retreive it. With it eventually ending up in the city’s line, he calls the city to have their crew retreive it at some point.

In the home’s bathroom, he begins by jetting down the shower’s drain, to see if that can be used as an access point. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work, so he ends up drilling a hole through the toilet’s porcelain instead. Using that as an access point, he’s able to jet down along the bathroom’s branch line, and he pops the blockage. Much of the backed-up sewage in the shower drains away.

Using the camera through the access hole he drilled in the toilet, Oliver inspects the line and finds that some roots still remain after the initial jetting. He does some more jetting to get those all cleared away.

Once the drain line is clear of roots, he hoses down the more solid chunks of sewage remaining in the shower. He then affixes a rubber stopper to the toilet, to seal up the access hole he had drilled into it earlier. Some cardboard that had been placed down on the floor leading from the back door of the home to the bathroom is cleaned up, and then he uses an old towel to wipe up the water that remains on the tile floor. To confirm that the line is clear, a couple of successful toilet paper flush tests are performed.

Drain Addict — “Blocked Drain 936” — Clearing roots from a toilet branch line

Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) has been called in by Isaac, a plumber, to help with a wastewater drain system where flushing an upstairs toilet causes a downstairs toilet to make a gurgling sound. There is what appears to be a vertical stack pipe along the outside wall of the building, and the drain line is thought to run below a concrete walkway next to the building.

From an inspection opening outside, Oliver starts by sending the drain camera down the line toward the toilets. Some small roots are seen along the way, with a more significant blockage being found some distance down the pipe. The pipe locator is used to find where the blockage is located, and markings are left on the concrete above the pipe using pink spray paint. Given the location relative to the building and the external vertical pipe, Oliver thinks there might be roots within the branch line leading to the toilet.

He moves the camera and jetting reel inside the bathroom. During a previous drain cleaning performed by somebody else, a large hole had apparently been smashed through the ceramic drain portion of the cemented-in toilet, and then covered up using duct tape. Oliver reuses this existing opening, and sends the camera down the toilet’s branch line. Some more roots are soon discovered in the pipe, and the pipe locator is used outside the building once again to find and mark where the obstruction is. The location suggests that the vertical pipe on the outside of the building may be a vent pipe, rather than the stack that the toilets are directly connected to.

They decide to jet the line from the outside inspection opening, and Oliver quickly clears away the roots. It appears as though they may be entering through an old inspection opening at the top of the pipe that is now inaccessible below the concrete walkway. While removing the jetting hose, he clears away some more roots that are observed coming in around another old inspection opening near a different branch line junction.

Isaac has to leave, but before he goes, he helps perform a toilet paper flush test. He flushes some toilet paper down the line, while Oliver watches at the inspection opening outside the building. While some water is observed flowing past the inspection opening, the toilet paper isn’t seen. Isaac performs another flush with more toilet paper, and the paper is clearly seen flowing by on this second attempt.

A small piece of cut-away root at the bottom of the inspection opening shaft is removed using a pincher on a long pole, and Isaac gives Oliver some duct tape he can use to patch up the hole in the toilet’s drain. A final visual inspection of the line is performed by feeding the drain camera through the hole in the toilet, confirming that the pipe is now clear.

Oliver clears away some of the existing tattered duct tape covering the hole in the toilet, and then patches it using the roll of duct tape that Isaac had given him. Another test of the toilet shows that it’s flushing fine, and then the inspection opening cover outside the building is screwed back in place.

Kempinger — #451 — Clearing a toilet with an obstructed drain

Carsten (Kempinger Rohrreinigung Berlin @ YouTube; Kempinger GmbH) is in a bathroom with a wall-mounted toilet that is draining very slowly. When the toilet is flushed, the water backs up in the bowl, before gradually draining away. He suspects that there’s something blocking it that has to be removed.

He removes the toilet from the wall, and empties the water inside it into a nearby bucket. The obstruction is clearly visible in the drain pipe within the toilet itself, and it appears to be a short-bristled rubber brush of some sort. The resident mentions having used it while cleaning the toilet, but accidentally lost it down the drain at some point, and wasn’t able to retrieve it using her hand. Carsten removes the brush, and disposes of it in a plastic bag.

With the blockage clear, Carsten remounts the toilet onto the wall. An initial test flush shows that it is draining much better than it did when he’d first arrived, although the water does still back up slightly. He does another flush, with some toilet paper, with the resident there to check if it’s flushing normally, and she suggests that it isn’t. He pours some buckets of water down, and does a test flush with a larger amount of toilet paper. It does seem to flush away, so there don’t appear to be any other significant obstructions. The customer seems satisfied that the toilet is flushing as well as it likely can.

NYDRAINS — “Clogged Drain #243” — Two Quick Blocked Shower Drain Clearing Jobs

NYDRAINS (NYDRAINS @ YouTube) shows a couple of quick and simple drain-clearing jobs.

The first job is at a bathroom with a walk-in shower that isn’t draining properly. The shower’s water is turned on to allow some to accumulate, and then a motorized drain snake is fed through the shower’s drain. After snaking the drain for a little while, the water that collected earlier in the shower eventually begins to drain away. When the snake is removed, some hair and an unidentifiable piece of hard white plastic is found on the end.

The second job also involves a walk-in shower where the water begins to back up when the shower is on. The drain’s grate is removed using a screwdriver, and a motorized drain snake is inserted into the drain. It doesn’t take long for the water that had pooled to begin draining away. When the snake is pulled back, there is some hair on the end of it. The drain’s grate is then replaced.

Penetrator Blocked Drains — “Blocked Drain 500” — Roots in a bathroom’s obscured overflow relief gully

Gavin (Penetrator Blocked Drains @ YouTube; Turbo Plumbing Solutions) is at a home with a bathroom drainage system that appears to be obstructed.

He uses a drill-powered drain snake that’s fed into the pipe via a drain in the bathroom floor. Although the system is draining somewhat after a little while of using the drain snake, Gavin becomes suspicious about what’s actually going on inside the pipe. He puts the drain camera down and does see roots, but begins to think that they may be in an overflow relief gully.

After going outside the house, he uses the pipe locator and determines that the camera is below ground in a landscaped area just outside the bathroom’s window. After brushing aside the loose landscaping material using his hand, he quickly discovers a grate covering a gully. Some roots can even be seen growing in through the grate’s openings. Gavin removes the grate, and he’s then able to manually pull out some clumps of roots, thus clearing the obstruction.

NYDRAINS — “Clogged Drain #242” — Bathroom fixture backups due to wipes in the main trap

NYDRAINS (NYDRAINS @ YouTube) is working in a narrow bathroom, with a clogged toilet at one end, a sink in the middle, and a shower at the other end. When the sink is turned on, water begins to back up into the shower.

A pit with the U-shaped trap connecting the building to the external sewer system is located down a hallway from the bathroom. Some water seepage is noted around one of the trap’s two lids, suggesting that the trap is probably clogged.

The lid that doesn’t exhibit any obvious seepage is removed by tapping at it with a hammer, and once it’s open, the pipe appears empty on that side of the trap. The other lid is then tapped open using the hammer, and it is under pressure. The backed-up sewage leaks out into the pit, where it eventually drains out through the other opening. What appears to be some wipes are visible in the pit after the sewage drains away.

A motorized plumber’s snake is used to clear the clog in the trap. When the snake is removed, wipes are found wrapped around the end of it, and they’re peeled off by hand. The pipe leading back toward the bathroom is briefly cleaned with the auger, too, to ensure there are no additional obstructions in that direction.

Back in the bathroom, the previously-full toilet bowl appears to have drained. The water in the sink is still running, and no water is observed backing up into the nearby shower. The toilet is flushed, and it drains away fine.

At the trap pit, water can be observed flowing through the system via both of the trap’s inspection openings. The lids covering those openings are then put back in place, and tapped in with the hammer. The pile of wipes that were removed from the trap is shown.

Drain Addict — “Blocked Drain 874” — Bathroom sink blockage in an apartment with a view of Sydney’s skyline

Oliver (Drain Addict @ YouTube; Drain Go) is working in an apartment suite in a multi-unit building with an amazing view of the Sydney, Australia skyline. One of the suite’s bathroom sinks is not draining properly. He notices that a chemical, likely acidic, has apparently been used by somebody else earlier to try to clear the drain.

While trying to get access to the drain by removing a section of the pipe in the cabinet underneath the sink, he accidentally gets splashed with some of the potent chemical. After washing it off in the bathroom’s other sink, he manages to remove the pipe.

A drill-powered drain snake is used to pop the blockage, but some of the chemical remains in the pipe. A bucket is then used to pour some water from the shower down the sink’s drain to flush away the chemical.

The drain camera is used to inspect the pipe, and the blockage appears to be scale, concrete, or something similar. Using the drain snake again, Oliver manages to break up most of the obstruction.

After putting the previously-removed drain pipe back in place, he wipes up some water that splashed around while he was cleaning the drain. The sink is then partially filled with water with the drain plug in, and the plug is then removed to show that the sink is able to drain.

While inspecting the pipe beneath the sink, Oliver notices some water on the floor, near the drain pipe. He wipes it up with a towel, and then partially fills the sink with water once more. After the water is released, there doesn’t appear to be any more water ending up on the floor.

At the very end of the video, he shows how the chemical that he’d encountered during the job had caused some significant damage to his work pants.

Kempinger — #447 — Removing buildup that prevents a toilet from flushing well

Carsten (Kempinger Rohrreinigung Berlin @ YouTube; Kempinger GmbH) is in a bathroom with a toilet that isn’t flushing well. He takes the toilet off of the wall to inspect its drain, as well as the drain pipe it connects to. An inspection with a camera shows that there don’t appear to be any blockages in the toilet or the pipe, but there is some scale buildup in both. A chain attachment on a drain snake is used to try to dislodge some of the buildup from the pipe and the toilet, and what appears to be a bent screwdriver is used to manually help scrape some remaining buildup from the toilet’s drain in order to get it flushing properly.