To many house owners there is a sound that instantly instills dread and fear. A sound that drains the money from your wallet and instantly expands to fill your spare time with DIY repairs and decorations.
That sound is running, dripping, splashing water. It's the sound of an overflowing bath removing the ceiling in your kitchen. It's the sound of the guttering giving up the ghost during a heavy rainstorm. It's the sound of a burst pipe running down the stairs upon your return from a winter holiday. It's not nice.
On Saturday morning it was the sound of washing machine water flowing out of the bowl in the downstairs toilet. A mini-waterfall of grey-white, washing powder scented water rapidly soaking the vinyl-covered floor. And, just to top off the scene, the remnants of one of our children's previously unflushed toilet visits rapidly appearing and dis-appearing in the grey murk and the water swirled around the bowl.
Cue some rapid bailing of unclean water into the nearest receptacle - the shower tray. Just enough to stop the overflow. And then quickly halting the washing machine's habitual regurgitation of it's supposedly cleansing contents.
I've never had to unblock a drain before. Luckily there's a very short distance between our downstairs toilet and the man hole cover where the drains for our property converge and feed out to the shared sewer.
Spent the next half hour rodding our drain with an unbent coat hanger and a small crowbar finally managing to remover a blockage that appeared to consist of an entire toilet roll (Connor has a penchant for sicking whole ones in the toilet and flushing) and numerous baby wipes.
Thanks to the short distance, it was actually much simpler than I had expected, although just as unpleasant as my imaginings had warned me it would be. By doing it myself I saved between £25 and £125 for calling out a professional.
I did then have to scrub my hands and arms raw before I could eat my lunch.
great image on the right frame.
In the top right-hand corner? I'd like to say it's all my own work, but it isn't.
It's a scan from a Sin City comic book by Frank Miller, slightly edited for my purposes.
