Friday, March 16, 2012

Yuck

I told you about the drains. I had to clean them out. We have two regards in the utility room floor, which I suppose are called "access points" in English. They are large concrete basins between the pipe sections where the drain water slows down and drops sediments.

Callie thought the smell was interesting.

So they have to be cleaned out periodically and while it's a yucky job, it's pretty easy to do. However, over the years, the pipes themselves accumulate gunk between the regards. So how does one clean them out? Manually, of course, with a pipe snake.

This is one of the regards with the cover removed. Callie is enjoying the smell.

We invested in a power washer and an attachment that snakes out drains. I used the attachment to clean out our pipes. Unfortunately, I needed to alternate between the manual snake and the power washer snake. Neither one could clear the blockages alone, but alternating them seemed to work out. So that's what I did.

The other regard. The main pipes are on the bottom; the plastic pipes you see come from the utility sink and the downstairs shower.

It took me several hours of working the manual snake through the concrete pipes and then doing the same with the power washer snake to actually dislodge the stone-like build-up inside them. But it eventually broke up and came out. Now the drains are flowing well.

This is the calcium gunk that came out of one section of pipe. Yuck.

I think that there were decades worth of build-up in those drains. I'm happy now that they're flowing more freely. I think the power washer just paid for itself.

The Kärcher power washer.

19 comments:

  1. I have that same power washer bought from our Bunnings Hardware, for AUS$99.
    great device. Why is it that dogs love bad smells?

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  2. If you had a win on the lottery, would you spend it on having someone else to clean the drains ....... or on nice stuff like food and wine and still clean them yourself ??

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    1. Jean, with Walt it's all about personal satisfaction. The gunkier it gets, the happier he is.

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  3. Our power washer was in the garage over winter. We think it didn't appreciate getting frozen and we'll have to get a new one.

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    1. I haven't looked at our one since we moooved... and I can't remember whether or not I'd emptied it.... oooooh dear! We talking only yesterday about doing the gates... that'll be fun trying it out [or not]

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    1. Walt... Callie must be well behaved... my old BC would have been trying to roll in the regard!

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  5. So, how do you say "So butch" in French?

    Thanks for the lesson on these drains. We apparently have the same kind here and the aroma can be unpleasant. They've been cleaned twice in the past 6 months.

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  6. We've been swithering for ages whether or not to get a power washer -- think you've convinced us!

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  7. Swithering - what a great word, I have never heard it before - I shall find a reason to use it today !!

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    1. what can I say .... I'm married to a Scot ... it does rub off !! ;)

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  8. Great job, Walt :) Yuck... with a good ending :)
    (p.s. If you're taking feedback, I have a hard time reading the reader comments section now that it's against the black background. It doesn't seem to bother me for your blog entry, but the comments sections is hard for me.)

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  9. Yuck is right!
    Can you go back to photographing vineyards?
    m.

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  10. On dirait un seau plein de huîtres de Bretagne.

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  11. Holy hell that's nasty ! Thank god I have my version of you at home to do that kind of stuff. Haha!

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  12. It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it! ;)

    Did you know that Kärcher has become a noun in French now? As in "nettoyer quelque chose au kärcher". I actually knew the word first before I knew it was an actual brand, like Kleenex or Band-aid!

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  13. Good work!

    Have you considered a water softener?

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  14. well that is certainly a change from the appetizing food photos !

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  15. leon, good question!

    jean, that would depend on the amount of the win!

    susan, ooops! That's a drag.

    tim, Callie does roll in foul stuff outdoors. Then it's bath time.

    mitch, I think "butch" in French is "Marine LePen." heyey, that's a little French political humor. :) So I looked it up. The French actually say "butch" using the American term. Ce garçon est très butch.

    n&a, I think it's a good investment. I'm really happy with ours.

    judy, interesting... on my computer the comments and the blog text are in exactly the same font, same size, and same color. I don't get it...

    mark, lol. Not to worry. If I had kids, I could show them with black eyes and bleeding tongues...

    dean, I thought exactly the same thing!

    scott, just all part of life in the country!

    ksam, I remember when Sarkozy used it that way to refer to cleaning up a certain cité. Before long it'll become a verb! Kärcherer. :)

    chris, no, I don't like those. Hey, Culligan man!

    michael, no kidding! :)

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