Last year, I had to clear the blockage of 2 areas in my home- one was a waterway from my bathroom and another was a pipe flowing from my verandah to the drain.
For my bathroom, it was obvious the drainage was blocked as water would overflow back into my bathroom. It is quite yucky as the water is muddy and often stinks.
Whereas for my verandah, there is a small built pipe that enable water to flow to the drain. The pipe is in and inverted “L” shape and was blocked due to debris and dirt.
Going through YouTube videos, there were suggestion using baking soda and vinegar.
I tried using baking soda and vinegar as suggested in the videos but it did not clear the blockages. Perhaps it may clear a little bit of dirt and grime but when the blockage is bad enough that it disrupts the water flow, the baking soda-vinegar method may not be so effective.
What worked finally:
Finally, a neighbor came over to help me out. What he did was simple: he just used a hard rubber hose and kept pushing into the drainage. Also let the water flow from time to time to push through.
Reason why it has to be a rubber hose is because it is flexible and can be easily bent according to the curvature of the drain. And it has to be hard so that it is firm and able to push through the dirt and debris causing the blockage.
In the case of the blocked drainage at my verandah, we used a solid wire and pushed through the blockage. It was actually some ashes that somehow had solidified. After a while, when the solid was broken and cracked, the water was able to flow through freely.
There is another that a few others have suggested- that is to pour acid. It is not an option that I am particularly keen to do, first because it is a harsh chemical, second is because it pollutes the environment and third is because it kills whatever that it comes into contact with.
However, I do find baking soda useful for the following:
- to reduce odor from the fridge- place the baking soda in an opened small container and put inside the fridge. It does help to absorb a little bit of odor
- to reduce humidity in kitchen cabinets-sometimes in cold weather with high humidity, place some baking soda into an open container to absorb moisture. Once the pipe in my kitchen sink leaked to below the cabinets resulted a musty smell that came out from my kitchen cabinet. The baking soda helped to absorb some of the dampness and the smell. I also saw some dead bugs there, presumably from trying to consume the baking soda