Day 345 of 365 - One Thing Leads to Another
It's been another day which is slipping by without a significant inspiration for writing. Sometimes, when that happens, I just go do something else, instead of sitting at the computer perusing possible subject matter. Off to the kitchen I went, to wash and spin some greens so we could have a nice salad with our dinner.
Our kitchen drain has been slow lately. Though we are pretty good about not putting excessive bits and pieces down the drain, because we use a lot of loose tea leaves, there is some residue in the strainer even after you empty it into the garbage. Maybe there has just been an accumulation of that kind of thing in the trap of the drain.
I partially filled the sink to wash my greens, but, when I was finished it was very slow to drain. Being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to use a plunger. We have one of those fancy plungers with a pump cylinder, kind of like a bicycle pump. It's quite effective if you get a good seal on the drain, and it worked. However, when I opened the cupboard below the sink to put something in the garbage, I saw a puddle. My plunging efforts had loosened something around a joint.
So, that led to cleaning up that mess, wiping out the floor of that cupboard, which is always fun. (How often do you clean out the cupboard under your kitchen sink? You find all kinds of interesting debris there, especially if you keep an under the cabinet garbage can, as we do.) Then, I called the office of the apartment complex to report the problem and left a message. Someone called back fairly soon and sent a maintenance person to have a look.
There was no issue with leaking when the taps were run. However, if the sinks were plugged and partially filled, they were still slow to drain when plugs were released. As suspected, this probably means there is residue of some kind sitting in the trap, slowing things down. The muscular young man unscrewed the drainpipe under each sink and poked a wire through the upper parts and horizontal part to insure the clog was not there. He then reset and tightened the joints so we don't need to worry about a leak. We can still use the sinks but a drain cleaner was advised.
Off to the hardware store I went to purchase my favorite product for this purpose. It is a bottle of liquid drain cleaner made in Germany. Our local hardware store always stocks it because it is so effective. It is safe for all plumbing. I used to use it at our house too.
I did a couple of treatments with it and everything is running better; not perfect, but much better. I will leave it at that for now.
Thank goodness it was a simple remedy and that we were able to get prompt assistance from a very helpful member of the staff whom we had not met before. (It's the weekend, so he came from a different building as our superintendent was off duty.)
So, the mundane events of my day provided me with a place to put my focus and energy. They also reminded me to not only use my own resourcefulness but to ask for help and expand my awareness beyond myself.
Our kitchen drain has been slow lately. Though we are pretty good about not putting excessive bits and pieces down the drain, because we use a lot of loose tea leaves, there is some residue in the strainer even after you empty it into the garbage. Maybe there has just been an accumulation of that kind of thing in the trap of the drain.
I partially filled the sink to wash my greens, but, when I was finished it was very slow to drain. Being the resourceful person that I am, I decided to use a plunger. We have one of those fancy plungers with a pump cylinder, kind of like a bicycle pump. It's quite effective if you get a good seal on the drain, and it worked. However, when I opened the cupboard below the sink to put something in the garbage, I saw a puddle. My plunging efforts had loosened something around a joint.
So, that led to cleaning up that mess, wiping out the floor of that cupboard, which is always fun. (How often do you clean out the cupboard under your kitchen sink? You find all kinds of interesting debris there, especially if you keep an under the cabinet garbage can, as we do.) Then, I called the office of the apartment complex to report the problem and left a message. Someone called back fairly soon and sent a maintenance person to have a look.
There was no issue with leaking when the taps were run. However, if the sinks were plugged and partially filled, they were still slow to drain when plugs were released. As suspected, this probably means there is residue of some kind sitting in the trap, slowing things down. The muscular young man unscrewed the drainpipe under each sink and poked a wire through the upper parts and horizontal part to insure the clog was not there. He then reset and tightened the joints so we don't need to worry about a leak. We can still use the sinks but a drain cleaner was advised.
Off to the hardware store I went to purchase my favorite product for this purpose. It is a bottle of liquid drain cleaner made in Germany. Our local hardware store always stocks it because it is so effective. It is safe for all plumbing. I used to use it at our house too.
I did a couple of treatments with it and everything is running better; not perfect, but much better. I will leave it at that for now.
Thank goodness it was a simple remedy and that we were able to get prompt assistance from a very helpful member of the staff whom we had not met before. (It's the weekend, so he came from a different building as our superintendent was off duty.)
So, the mundane events of my day provided me with a place to put my focus and energy. They also reminded me to not only use my own resourcefulness but to ask for help and expand my awareness beyond myself.
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