Disaster (mostly) averted!

The sink and tub in the bathroom have been slow to drain. This means when I shower, that I have to make the decision: Do I want to have great water pressure and be ankle deep in water before I'm done, or will I be happier to have a trickle of water on my head, but have none lapping at my shins? And the sink.... you really don't want your spit floating arund for 5 minutes after you spit while brushing your teeth. Plus, cleaning out the soap ring leftover from washing my hands is no fun. I got tired of going through this on a daily basis. So I called my favorite handy man and aksed what would be best for clearing out the system. I mean, why call a plumber if Liquid Plumber will do, right?!

I was informed that there is a fabulous heavy duty item at Lowe's. It is SO heavy duty that it comes in a plastic bag. They recomend you wear eye protection, gloves and a face mask. I got gloves. Armed and ready I decided to tackle the job today. Dan took the older 3 to Mt Vernon, and I put Delaney down for a nap. It was me and the bathroom.

I decided to try to remove the U joint under the sink first. Why make the stuff work harder if I can pry a few feet of hair out first? Unfortunately, I couldn't get the durn thing off! It was stuck on tight, even after I unscrewed the big screws. I called and talked to my sister who suggester hammering a wedge to pry it off. I didn't think I wanted to chance that. So I screwed the screws back on, checked that they were tight, and got down to business.

I poured the serious chemical stuff down both drains and ran away. Okay, really, I opened the window and closed the door. The stench permeated the entire house in about 3 minutes anyway, Yikes! I opened all the windows and was grateful that its 55 degrees out today.

I waited the required 15 minutes and braved the foul smell and entered the bathroom. At this point, I was suppose to be able to run cold water through fresh-flushed pipes. Imagine my dismay when I saw that the sink was full. Not just full of brown chemical. Nope. Full of truly disgusting nasty black stuff. And it wasn't draining. Let me be clear here- it drained (just slowly) right up until I poured the evil, cancer causing chemicals into it!! AAck! On the plus side, the tub was clear. It still doesn't seem to drain well, but at least IT wasn't backed up!

So, I have a sink full of disgusting black ick, and it's putting off an aroma that simaltaneously makes you gag and pass out. I called my favorite handy man for more help. He said I was screwed. His best suggestioon- other than calling a professional plumber- was to use the hacksaw to saw through the PVC U-joint to get the stuff to drain. I don't have a problem with that, it was the whole hassle and procedure of having to go back to Home Depot and find someone helpful (few and far between here!), and replace tha U-Joint. Acutally, I think he called it a Pea- Trap. (P-trap? Pee trap? hee hee hee!)

Under just a bit of pressure, I decide tackle the romoval of the P-trap/U-joint in the usual manner; I unscrewed the screws. That got a trickle of icky stuff to come out and lowered the level in the sink. I thought it would work well enough to drain the sink so I could wait till Monday and call for a plumber. After 30 minutes though, it became clear that the thing was not draining fast enough. I thought about Deborah's advice and hunted down my flathead screwdriver. I used it and after much gnashing of teeth and great heroic effort, I actually got the joint off! It came in a splurt of gross liquid, but I was prepared and the towel was the only casualty! Yes! I drained the sink and cleaned the P-trap/U-joint. Whew! Mission Accomplished!

Well, sort of. The stinking thing still doesn't drain properly. So I'll have to get a real person to fix it anyway. Sigh.