This shit is seriously starting to irritate me. Like, no foolin'.
I started phase three by pouring a good 1/3 of the bottle of bleach down the drain under the washer, and then followed it with a full 10-quart bucket of hot water. I waited an hour for that to flow through the pipes and empty out/dry up, and dumped foamer #2 down the cat room drain. I waited another hour and flushed out the foamer with another 10-quart bucket of water, and it drained quickly and cleanly, as if anything that was in the drain between the cat room and washer was now completely cleared -- and moreover, it did not bubble up into the drain under the washer when I flushed it. This was a good sign.
The washer, as mentioned before, was stopped at the rinse/spin cycle with the towels, which would be the completion of that load. I started it again once everything had been flushed out in order to see if it would drain out and spin completely to a stop without overflowing the bottom drain again (it was about 2/3 empty of its water when I stopped it). It drained almost all of its remaining water out before it once more began to bubble up through the floor drain and gurgle in the cat room. Sigh. What the fuck, man? I once more stopped it, but this time I was pissed and was taking no prisoners -- since there was still standing water that was draining slowly in the drain under the washer, I dumped about half the remaining bottle of Max Gel in there with it to let it go down and hit the clog, wherever it may be.
And that's the end of phase three.
Phase four will be, as I've basically exhausted most of my other options at this point, dump everything I have into all drains and flush them repeatedly, over and over, until whatever clog is in there is flushed out and/or broken up. And if that doesn't clear it completely, buy more Max Gel and foamers to repeat the process until it does, as I seem to be making at least a little bit of headway. Regardless, my "drain surgery" is basically done for tonight; I will try to drain the towels one more time before bed in order to see if I can further push the Max Gel down against the clog to destroy it, but if I can't or it backs up again, I'll basically repeat the same process I did today when I get up tomorrow, using the last foamer, the last of the Max Gel, and the bleach before moving on to the baking soda and vinegar if necessary -- and if that doesn't help much, buy more of that stuff tomorrow and repeat. If I do it enough times with enough stuff, it'll more than likely break up anything that's in there clogging up the works. As it does drain, albeit slowly sometimes (and quickly other times) that unclogging stuff must be hitting it and doing something to it. As it's kind of important that I be able to shower without worrying about whether I'm going to flood the basement every time I do so, I need to take care of this vigorously and ceaselessly until it's cleared out. I've made the decision that I'll buy a shitload of Drano, foamers, and bleach three times (I've already done so once, of course) and if it's still screwing up, I'll have no choice but to call my landlord and see what he can do about the problem -- as, if it reaches that point, I will have poured close to five gallons of unclogger stuff down the drains in my house, which should be enough to dissolve a body were one to be stuck in there (spoiler alert: there's not a body stuck in there). I'll start with the last foamer in the drain under the washer tomorrow morning, and follow up with the rest of the Max Gel in the cat room drain if that doesn't clear it out. After that, it's bleach and hot water to flush anything I can out of there, and baking soda/vinegar in the proper proportions as well if that doesn't work. I have to do this quickly, again; I desperately need a shower, and can't shower if the drains are backing up like crazy over and over. Well, I can shower, but I have to keep the tub plugged and drain it out very, very, very slowly over a few hours, about 30 seconds worth of draining at a time. With me spending all day Tuesday on campus in conferences with my students one-on-one, I'd rather not have to do that with unwashed, greasy hair and oily skin.
"You may have to call the landlord anyway," Daisy told me tonight. "I mean, this stuff happens on occasion, especially in an old house. Your house is old, babe."
"My house was built in the '70s, honey," I said. "It's not that old. And I don't know what the hell could be clogging it anyway. It's not like I'm flushing tampons down the toilet or anything like that."
I even get the really cheap toilet paper that basically dissolves as soon as water touches it. It could just be a buildup of years upon years worth of crud/hair/etc., but even that should be flushed out with all of the unclogger stuff. Even when/if I do get it unclogged, it's not like I'm not going to watch it cautiously every time I do laundry or take a shower over the course of a few weeks or months afterwards to make sure these issues don't come back. I have a feeling these issues are going to be recurring ones from time to time, which is yet another reason I hope to be able to get a job and a home out-of-state once I graduate next month -- let the next person who has this place deal with the plumbing issues if I can't keep 'em fixed.
So -- phase four begins tomorrow morning, the "dump everything down there and let it destroy all it comes across" phase. Again, there's only so much I can do, and it's a lot of trial-and-error. Dump and flush, dump and flush, try the washer again, etc. If it works, it works.
No comments:
Post a Comment