Why is my new kitchen sink clogging?

[Wassamatau]

Two months ago our landlord installed a new double kitchen basin. The previous sink had cracked, but at least water went down the drain as well as onto the wooden cabinet floor. Heck yeah, it was a mess..... The minute they installed the new, two-sided sink, both sides began to back up. I removed the trap several times, but found no blocks.

The landlord said to throw some drain cleaner down the pipes which I would never do at my own house unless pressed in an emergency. Chemicals cleared the system for maybe 20 minutes max. It could be a blockage further down the pipe, but that sounds like reaching to me. Wouldn't the sink have started blocking up before being replaced. I kept the traps as clean as I could. There is no disposal unit here.

Could it be a block further down the pipes? Why would it start after changing a sink? Could it be old pipes? What type of pipe could be affected in hours, not days. It's an old house. I'm going to call the local water authority to see if I can find out the type of pipes, to see how old they are, to see if any work has been done or is currently being done in the neighborhood.

 

[rpm]

Having once found a small sponge that somebody plugged a pipe with whilst working but then forgot to remove anything is possible and I`m leaning towards an installation fault. Could you post a photo of the overall set up.

 

[Wassamatau]

Having once found a small sponge that somebody plugged a pipe with whilst working but then forgot to remove anything is possible and I`m leaning towards an installation fault. Could you post a photo of the overall set up.

Thank you for replying. I’d appreciate your feedback. I’m also proud to report after joining the forum that I did some online research and figured out that an extension tube had slid down into the bottom housing leaving a huge gap. It took me awhile to slide it up and attach it securely to the (left side of the sink) and insert it into the trap if that’s what it’s called. It has been working since 4-5 a.m. yesterday morning French time. That’s right. I joined the Oklahoma forum because I was getting a bum steer from a French plumber. I’m sending the pix now because I need some validation that it won’t explode and send a torrent of water all over the place. Is it usual or common for all the pvc pipes and connections to be just a little off? I saw the plumber put in the sink and he just sort of eyeballed it. And when I tightened everything you could see that nothing is really square. And I would love to know how a single tube fixed the problem? The landlord forced me to pour caustics down his pipes and I believed that couldn’t be the problem. It started to clog immediately after the installation. I wish I had taken pix of the sink when it had filled. Put water down the left drain and the right would fill and start to swirl with crap from the right side and vice versa. I suppose the drain cleaner (They call it de-stop here) could have finally worked its way to a clog. And I may have added enough juice to dissolve a boulder so as not to give the landlord an excuse to say we had caused the problem.

 

[rpm]

Squareness of pipes & fittings is best, if a pipe slid down then it needs clipping to something or supporting so it can`t happen again.

It may be the camera but follow the pipe down from the sink to the left turn elbow, now does that short horizontal rise towards the bottle trap? If it does then this is going to be a problem area.

 

[moonlight]

Looks like someone modified the installation, who uses a bottle trap on a sink waste? As rpm says the pipework rises to the trap also.

 

[Wassamatau]

Looks like someone modified the installation, who uses a bottle trap on a sink waste? As rpm says the pipework rises to the trap also.

Are you saying that they shouldn't have used or didn't need to use that pear-shaped trap, a bottle trap? He installed it with the sink. I watched him do the original install. He was pretty confident as he eyeballed all the connections, but the drains started blocking up the same day.

Thanks everyone for your feedback and help. I was desperate to fix those drains. I was blamed for blocking the pipes when the problem only started after the sink had been replaced. I did a bonehead thing with the sink at first because we were rushing to come back to the states. That's a long story. It was hard to defend the idea that we didn't cause the problem. You can't break something that wasn't working properly in the first place. I'll suggest that they have their plumber revisit his work after we leave.

 

[Chuck]

I saw the plumber put in the sink and he just sort of eyeballed it.

Not a good sign. Competent plumbers think the job through carefully and do a lot of measuring up and checking gradients with levels, etc. This is needed for the completed installation to work well and look tidy.

 

[jacksparrow]

Speaking about kitchen sinks... for those living in Oklahoma, I was looking for an honest plumbing company that could help me out with my kitchen sink, and these guys plumbing inc did a tremendous job. The quote was accurate and once the total amount I paid wasn't too far off.

 

[moonlight]

A bottle trap or pear shaped trap is not a good choice for a kitchen sink, because of the types of things that go down there. Even if one is to be used it should look more like the first picture, ideally the second installation is better. No added bit at the beginning on either installation.