# I suck at drain cleaning...



## JK949 (Mar 18, 2009)

Wed night, overtime call comes in, not my on-call night but I take it anyway. Awards banquet at a private school, floor drain backing up in kitchen. Grab my 3/8" Mini Rooter and could not get through the floor sink trap for the life of me. Tried my arrowhead and auger bits, put a bend in the cable end, cable just got bogged down. Pulled the p-trap at the wall and got 4 feet down til my arrowhead broke off. Called it quits after two hours.

Next day, our drain guy heads back, gets through in 15 minutes.


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## bartnc37 (Feb 24, 2009)

thats when you tell him of course it was easy after you loosened it up!!


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## user2090 (Sep 26, 2009)

Drain cleaning can be harder than some think. Some guys are good and some not so much. My co worker likes to call me the snake king and pretends to play an instrument like a snakecharmer. He does this because I have opened drains he couldn't.


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## stillaround (Mar 11, 2009)

It is an aquired feel. The more you do and persist thru ( which I think is a key mental game ingredient) the easier. Not trying to sound condescending.
Im better with a cable but my son gets the jetter past spots better than me.


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## saysflushable (Jun 15, 2009)

I think I'm pretty good at drain cleaning..........And I have a ton of bent and twisted cables that say otherwise. Actually I rarely kink a cable anymore but I sure ruined a lot learning how to clear drains. If I didn't spend so much money on equipment I would never have stuck with drain cleaning. I also got to watch a few guys that were very good. That helped a lot.


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## JK949 (Mar 18, 2009)

bartnc37 said:


> thats when you tell him of course it was easy after you loosened it up!!



Haha! The way he described it, a white flag shot up from the floor drain and little voices screamed, "We surrender!" as soon as he walked in.


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## plumb4fun (Feb 18, 2009)

Drain cleaning is an aquired feel as already stated, sometimes its just plain luck on some situations that it gets cleared the first time. When I have to clear the tiled in floor stand up urinals at my older schools, I have to use a 3/8" bare end cable with a kink bend to get through the traps. Even that doesn't work the first time and I have to give the drain a muriatic acid soak. Then if the drain doen't clear after awhile I vacuum out the acid and water and snake again. By them its gets loosed up and clears. I hate drain cleaning sometimes, but it goes with the territory.


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## 1703 (Jul 21, 2009)

When it comes to drain cleaning, sometimes you're the hero, sometimes you're the zero.

Myself, I've been both. 

Don't give up.


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## Ashleymc (Nov 14, 2009)

*no*

no bodies perfect or knows all..no matter what they claim..:no:


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

*11 years ago*

I was learning the ropes on drum machines, and so was my helper.


Well, my helper was kind of "rough" as they call it but was freaking hilarious when it came to working in da hood in cincinnati. Guy told more jokes than Al Sharpton to give speeches. :laughing:


Anyway, we had this 7 unit apartment complex, downstairs unit on the right completely flooded from everything above, horrible/disgusting and the cleanup crew was doing a terrible job.

My helper gets on that drum, a 1065 with 3/4" cable and hits a spot you know is a misaligned pipe, 


and it starts winding,


and winding, 


and winding, 


and winding, 


and now, the machine is building a phenomenal amount of torque into that cable, I'm yelling at him to tell him he's going to snap the cable and get seriously hurt, he tells me "F888 it, I'm getting this one open and I don't care what happens." I'm just shaking my head and now the machine is really starting to slow down and the drum is still turning that in. 


I leave, go outside the building knowing what's coming and it's going to be LOUD.

Well...he "finally" stops it, lets it backwind tremendously and tells me its my turn, my helper telling me it's my turn. 


I go and take a shot at it, I try to get past the misaligned pipe and actually do, but I get stuck on the return and the cable snaps off right at the opening of the closet flange, allowing the rest of the cable to hit me in the leg which bruised from the impact.

The boss would of fired us both if he saw what we was doing. The helper for being an idiot,

me for being an idiot letting the helper be an idiot. :laughing: 


$225 25' section of cable, D-stroyed.


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## olivia751 (Dec 12, 2009)

Hello,

Recently one of my friend is also facing the same problem and also some he want to sewer line replacement . He called the plumber and they really do work well with in a reasonable price.



Regards,
Olivia


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## DUNBAR PLUMBING (Sep 11, 2008)

olivia751 said:


> Hello,
> 
> Recently one of my friend is also facing the same problem and also some he want to sewer line replacement.. He called the plumber and they really do work well with in a reasonable price.
> 
> ...


 

I've banned you in two forums so far and set your URL paths to somewhere you didn't want them to go. 



GOOD LUCK


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## RealLivePlumber (Jun 22, 2008)




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## service guy (Jun 26, 2008)

olivia751 said:


> Hello,
> 
> Recently one of my friend is also facing the same problem and also some he want to sewer line replacement. He called the plumber and they really do work well with in a reasonable price.
> 
> ...


Actually, you are just promoting your own company. At least be honest about it.


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## ILPlumber (Jun 17, 2008)

olivia751 said:


> Hello,
> 
> Recently one of my friend is also facing the same problem and also some he want to sewer line replacement . He called the plumber and they really do work well with in a reasonable price.
> 
> ...


Hello,
Recently one of my fellow tradesworkers is also facing the problem of getting her a$$ banned. 

Before you submit what you type. Read it aloud. Does it makes sense when you say it. 

Consider this your warning. Your last post smells like straight up spam. I think I will edit it. Don't make a post like that again.

Regards,
ILPlumber


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## SewerRatz (Apr 25, 2009)

Do not feel to bad about you having a hard time with it and the other guy getting it open in 15 minutes.

We run around with 2 guys on the truck. Me and my partner have totally different rodding styles. On lines I can not get the rod through he tries and gets it open, and on lines he could not get through I try and get it open. My rodding style is firm, yet I let the machine do all the work, and I know the limits of my machine, his is a bit more aggressive at going into the line he tries to work the machine instead of letting the machine do the work.

I do find I am more successful most of the time than my buddy, I think its cause I can feel the cable and picture in my minds eye what the cutter is doing. One of the things I am real good at is making the drop in blind back to back drains. 

I had a guy with me on a school job with two backed up lav sinks. Pulled the trap on them both, they both had elbows in the wall pointing at each other. So I know as well as all you that they both hit a cross right in between the sinks. I get out my K-50 with the 3/8 cable drum, put a slight bend on the head fed the cable in felt the drop, pushed on the cable then ran the machine. The cable made the drop in the cross and got the line open. I let my helper at that time try he came up the other sink. I showed him how to "feel" the cable and drop, but after a half hour of him trying he just couldn't get it to go. He then said I got lucky the first time that I wouldn't be able to do it again. I did it 5 times in less than 2 minutes. His trouble is he could not picture what was going on in the pipe.


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## Plumber Jim (Jun 19, 2008)

SewerRatz said:


> Do not feel to bad about you having a hard time with it and the other guy getting it open in 15 minutes.
> 
> We run around with 2 guys on the truck. Me and my partner have totally different rodding styles. On lines I can not get the rod through he tries and gets it open, and on lines he could not get through I try and get it open. My rodding style is firm, yet I let the machine do all the work, and I know the limits of my machine, his is a bit more aggressive at going into the line he tries to work the machine instead of letting the machine do the work.
> 
> ...


 
Tell him to do drains you must use the force sometimes and he should speak with master Yoda! :laughing:

Serious though I agree with you. You learn to develope a feel for it.


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## user4 (Jun 12, 2008)

SewerRatz said:


> Do not feel to bad about you having a hard time with it and the other guy getting it open in 15 minutes.
> 
> We run around with 2 guys on the truck. Me and my partner have totally different rodding styles. On lines I can not get the rod through he tries and gets it open, and on lines he could not get through I try and get it open. My rodding style is firm, yet I let the machine do all the work, and I know the limits of my machine, his is a bit more aggressive at going into the line he tries to work the machine instead of letting the machine do the work.
> 
> ...


Cap one waste opening and hit the other lav with a kinetic water ram.


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## Plumber Jim (Jun 19, 2008)

Killertoiletspider said:


> Cap one waste opening and hit the other lav with a kinetic water ram.


I have to admit I bought one of those a few weeks ago and have used it on a tub with a drum trap and It worked very well.


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