Urgent request. Disaster relief deployment tomorrow.

[install4you]

Good morning to all.

I'm hoping for quick answers because I need to fix this today. I have a disaster relief deployment tomorrow (volunteer group). My wife is out of town & will be back before I am.

Yesterday my wife yelled for help because the kitchen sink stopped draining right. It would drain so slowly I would call it seeping out. (After I got as far as described below, I became convinced this problem was caused by bad practices using the garbage disposal. Correcting that is another problem & will create some relationship issues.) I'm trying to anticipate the info you need so I'll start with the layout, what I've done, & what I've found.

Double sink w/ disposal, centered under window on outside wall. After the trap, where drain enters wall there's an immediate right turn and a +/- 18" run (to just past window) into dedicated wet vent. Floor joists sit on block wall over finished basement with removable 2'x4' ceiling tiles. Drain end of wet vent drops through bottom plate of wall, angles down & Y's into pipe. Tail piece (name correct?) with cleanout before Y. Pics attached. (Ignore the plugged T on the right side. That's from something that used to drain into the pipe.) Then 8' to 90° elbow & 20' + into main drain to sewer.

First I verified it was clear from the disposal into the drain. I tried inserting flat snake through the sink drain to the first turn before the trap, then a plunger, then Drano, more plunger, Drano again, plunger, boiling water, plunger, Drano, plunger. Plunging with my sink-dedicated plunger included trying to seal everything so all the pressure would be against the clog. Then I half filled both sinks with soapy water hoping the seeping out would clear the Drano. Finally removed trap, finding about 75% blockage from the trap to the wall. I cleared the crud to the wall & tried snaking. I didn't get far because I hadn't noticed the turn & short run to the wet vent. I pulled a hose with a power nozzle from outside, inserted it into the pipe, wrapped rags to kinda seal the pipe end, & tried to flush the clog out. Water filled the pipe & started leaking out my "seal." I stopped that. Later I realized that because the clog was stopping the flow, I was forcing water up the vent pipe. That's why my bucket almost overflowed.

Next step was under the floor. After tarping the area I removed the cleanout plug. Glad for tarp. I started snaking the 8' section. It seemed almost full the entire length. I couldn't pull much out because it was too soft to clump on the end of the snake. That's when I stopped for the night. I figured my next step would be to try a hose again, but this time I think I can seal off the Y where the drain comes down & send all the pressure against the clog. If I have to go past the elbow I'll have to start cutting.

SO HERE'S MY ASK.
1. Is there a simple (or even hard) way to clean the inside of the pipe so stuck-on gunk doesn't trap particles & start the stop-up process all over? Rag on a snake? Foaming cleaner? Anything?
2. Since I have my doubts I can really clean out the whole pipe without cutting it, (maybe even cutting through the back of the kitchen cabinet into the wall) should I be satisfied if I get the drain running or do I need to cut into the 20' run, examine it, & replace everything that has crud clinging to the inside? The hardest part about replacement will be getting the old pipe out without spilling all the gunk inside all over the room. I think I'd have to cut it in pieces to work around the ceiling grid. I can tape up the ends for carrying it out but each cut creates a spill point until it's sealed up. As for the part from the sink, through the wet vent, to the drain below, I'll need something more flexible than my snakes to do that section if it still needs it. Do you ever see clogs happen because something falls down the vent pipe? Maybe I need to get on the roof & snake that unreachable section from above.
3. Is there anything I'm missing? Can the vast experience represented in this forum provide guidance or hints?

I'll appreciate ANY help you can offer. If you think I need a live conversation to solve this, and you're willing to call, here's my #. (205) 612-8296.
Thanks for reading.
Eddie

 

[Geofd]

So you need to snake 25-50 in length 3/8" in diameter,your other option is using a pressure ballon ,with cold water , only because hot water I've seen compromise the ballon but that can be messy if the clog doesn't clear, once clear flush with lots of hot water

 

[pasadena_commut]

Please be more careful with chemicals! There was who knows how much Drano remaining in that pipe when you were forcing water into it. I really hope you were wearing serious eye protection when the water was splashing back out of that pipe. It doesn't take much Drano in the eyes before you need a dog and a white cane.

In terms of cleaning out the pipe, get it running with a snake as Geofd suggested. Then you can try to wash off whatever is sticking to the sides with water and a drain cleaning bladder on a hose, or a jet cleaner if you can rent one. I recently changed out the pipes under my sink and there was a really nasty accumulation of yuck in the metal pipe coming out of the wall. It took quite a lot of time with a conical garden hose nozzle at zero range to wash that stuff off. Blasting away at it through the trap was not effective, it had to be a straight shot at the mass. Your pipe shouldn't be that bad though, as I believe that sink crud does not grip plastic quite as tenaciously as it does old metal.

 

[install4you]

Thanks for suggestions. I didn't really know about the pressure balloon. that would have helped. As I mentioned in my original post, my next step was try flushing with conical power nozzle on hose. I pushed hose in about 18" past the Y from above. I put a thick thick piece of plastic in next to the hose to cover the Y inside. I stuffed as much towel as I could to push the plastic against the Y opening to prevent water from backing up the drain from the wet vent. I turned on the hose, holding rags tightly against the opening & waited. When the water began forcing its way out I turned it off. When I went back upstairs, I saw that my barrier against the Y opening didn't really work. there was black water in the cabinet & a little on the floor. Fortunately, I had covered stuff well & no harm done.

That's when I decided to call a plumber. I got a rec for a guy who was available. He used his power snake all the way to the main drain. Then he used a pressure balloon to flush. He put everything back together and after a thorough test for leaks, he used a jar of Glug to clean the pipes. After he saw what I had done before calling, he told me he thought I would have been successful if I had had the power snake he used. So I was on the right track. I guess $315 was a reasonable fee.

Thanks for all advice.

 

[pasadena_commut]

Glug is just sodium hydroxide. That label is a kick: "odorless non acid crystals". No kidding, in solution the pH of sodium hydroxide is 14. All that would do is clean the bottom of the pipe, since he had already snaked it out, it will just run along the bottom of the pipe and out. To hit the upper part of the pipe it would either need to be able to hold water, a foaming cleaner of some type would be used, or a jet cleaner of some type would be run through. The last one is probably the easiest and safest. Foaming caustic cleaners exist but seem to me like a recipe for disaster.