Saturday, September 6, 2008

How do you unclog a toilet?

The toilet in our dorm room has not been flushing well. In fact, it’s been clogged. We were told it was because threw toilet paper in there! I probably missed this important piece of information during our cultural training. So I managed to let the campus handyman know and he came over but couldn’t fix it. He called an expert in the next day, and that guy came in with a bag of snakes (actually just old rusty wires from a junk yard somewhere) of various lengths. He started with the shortest one, reached his arm all the way into the toilet bowl guiding the snake. Then he tried longer ones, and then tried the plunger. After a while, he managed to get it to flush all the way and left with a satisfied smile because of job well done. The next day, the toilet clogged again. I mentioned it to a lady working in the International Relations Office after I helped her with some translation work and she actually walked the handyman over to our room to take a look (I scratched her back and she mine). The ‘professional’ guy got called in again, but this time he came bringing a pair of Jeans instead of a bag of snakes. He first soaped his arms. Then he wet the pair of Jeans, twisted one pant, and then drove it into the toilet bowl guiding it with his arm all the way down into the bowl. Then he took it out and flushed, and it worked! How about that?But then today, Caleb used the toilet and it seemed to be clogged again! What’s next?

1 comment:

Winnie Wong said...

Dear Andy and Grace,

Try using hot boiling water to unclog a toilet. Pour in hot boiling water while trying to pump it through, hopefully the hot water will make the sewage pipe to expand and "things" will go through.

Good luck and cheers,

-Winnie from Singapore