Calling all Plumbers, Handymen, or anyone with experience with Cold.

Get a bucket...clean out a space under the sink....put the bucket under the trap...this looks like a big u.....unscrew the top giant nut... you should be able to get it with your hand....  when it is all the way unscrewed it should fall down onto the skinner part of the pipe....now unscrew the other giant nut on the other side....same thing should happen....let the water drain in the bucket....pull the u piece of the pipe out....empty it of any clogs.... take in the the bath and wash out with hot soapy water......put it back on the sink pipes screw the giant nuts back on... and you should be good.....let me know...

Thanks, I'll try that...

 ETA... K, ya that's not gonna work... the whole thing is put together with pvc pipe, sealed with cement and even if I could get it undone, There is no room to get a bucket under it...wish I had a camera, I'd take a shot of it and show you.  The Ubend is like 2 inches off the bottom of the cabinet and there is a shelf in there, handy most of the time, not right now though...

But no giant nuts.

Where did that headbanging emoticon go?   

huskymom

the lowest part of the ubend is lower than where the pipe goes afterward so how

That u-bend is actually called a p-trap. It allows water to settle so that sewer gas doesn't back up into the house, using Archimede's Principle and the laws of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. But if the pipe that joins the p-trap to the vertical drainpipe in the wall is sloped back to the p-trap instead of toward the wall, you will always have a draining problem, especially if it gets cold enough under the sink for that extra water and such to freeze at least into slush. What might help, if possible, is getting a shorter tailpiece (pipe from sink to p-trap) so that the p-trap section is slightly higher than where it ties into the drain pipe in the wall. This will allow better drainage of water and then you would only have a few inches of water in the p-trap (normal) and therefore less water to freeze or partially freeze and block the pipe.

Well I'm stumped.  The plumbing here is insane.  After the ubend, coming from the sink, the pipe goes into the next cupboard, which inturn goes into the next one and then into the wall, where I assume it connects to the pipes that go to the dishwasher hookup that haven't been used in ages.  BUT there is a pipe coming off the main pipe in the second cupboard, that just comes to the front of that cupboard under the shelf that just stops and has a cap on it.  What the heck is that for?  My kitchen if you will, is shaped like an L.  The sink is in the middle of the long part of the counter.  The shorter piece, or bottom of the L is where the stove is and beside that on the farthest point is where the dishwasher was and where the hook ups still are.  The weird ending pipe to nowhere is between the sink and the corner.

AND my pipes are still plugged.  With something. I emptied both sinks, poured salt down them as that is what I found on the internet to do in case of freezing.  That didn't work.  I plunged it several times.  No luck.  My dad came with she shop vac to get most of the water out and we poured drain-o down there.  That is still sitting in the sink...I think I'm just gonna move. 

Since you don't have any draino or anything, which I would use...try pouring boiling water down the drain.  Sometimes really hot water will loosen up a clog.  That's all I got for ya.  Good Luck!

 We tried drain-o... didn't work... I'm moving. 

huskymom

 We tried drain-o... didn't work... I'm moving. 

I wouldn't blame you. It sounds like the sink may have been in another location at one time. Instead of adding in a new drain pipe to tie into the main drain line, they just extended from where it was to where the sink is now. In gravity drain systems (no pumps to move water along) the drain pipe is supposed to slope with a fall of 1/8 inch in height for 12 inches of run. Any shallower and nothing will drain. Any steeper and the water moves too fast to carry solid waste.

I'm not a plumber but I've learned a lot working around them.

I even came up with my own Christmas song for plumbers.

Said the electrician to his helper,

"Do you smell what I smell?"

Said the electrician to his helper,

"Do you smell what I smell?

A plumber, a plumber, you'd better run for cover

'Cause they always smell that way

No matter how many times they bathe a day.

To the tune of "Do you hear what I hear?"

Thankyouverymuch.

 LMAO!  You didn't even have to say what the tune was.  I sang it in my head that way from the start...

We've had this trailer since time began... It was my grandma's, then my dad bought it.  Now I'm stuck with it.  Sigh.. the sink hasn't moved... There were issues at one point though.  I don't know exactly what it was but I know a pipe burst at one time.  I remember the kitchen carpet(yes there was carpet in the kitchen gross I know, not as bad as the bathroom though) was soaked.  My dad switched to 2 inch pipe...from 1 inch in parts of the house.  And it doesn't help that the place isn't fully skirted yet... sigh, a foot of snow, but the underside of the house is open... come on in!  Well, alittle more snow and I won't need the rest of the skirting. 

I have found that , in times of finding something that I cannot fix, a good stiff drink helps!

huskymom

Well, alittle more snow and I won't need the rest of the skirting. 

Then the added snow will provide insulation against wind, thereby keeping the pipes from freezing up, drain problem solved. Have you tried a "snake"? It's a flexible metal tape, much like an electrician's fish tape, designed to snake down a pipe and you twirl or move it back and forth to break up a clog. You can get little 25 footers at a hardware or home improvement store. They will do what a plunger can't, just in case you've got some solid stuff like vegetable scraps or whatever, blocking up the pipe.

 Amanda!  you're a genius!  That is the very next thing I'm gonna try!

Ron, I don't think I have a snake here, but my dad should have one.  I do think its the next step.  But first, we are going to build a styrofoam surround for the exposed pipes, and set the space heater in there to get it thawed properly.  Really getting sick of vaccuming out the sink...:P

Home ownership is NOT all its cracked up to be.  I wish i was brave enough to cut the skirting myself.  But I don't 'do' metal.  I'm a carpenter, not ... well whatever someone that works with metal is. 

huskymom

well whatever someone that works with metal is.

heee hee that'd be a "metalworker" LOL.

rwbeagles

heee hee that'd be a "metalworker" LOL.

I was going to say that. However, when it comes to skirting on a mobile home, I think it would normally be the siding installer that would do it, as some homes have metal siding, including a skirting. Or, whoever delivered and anchored the home might be multi-talented and put on most of the skirting except for access for plumbers tieing water and drain pipes.

rwbeagles

heee hee that'd be a "metalworker" LOL.

Thanks Gina... I kinda feel dumb.. but not really.  I thought of metalworker, but it sounded sort of like a laymen term.  Like calling a carpenter a woodworker.  Some do, but he term is carpenter... I just though a metalworker would have its own name... ah well, I'm not a metalworker then. 

ron2

I was going to say that. However, when it comes to skirting on a mobile home, I think it would normally be the siding installer that would do it, as some homes have metal siding, including a skirting. Or, whoever delivered and anchored the home might be multi-talented and put on most of the skirting except for access for plumbers tieing water and drain pipes.

 

I think perhaps whoever delivered and anchored the home is probalby pretty old and feeble now.  LOL.  This place is hmmm...27 years old... its more settled now than most houses with basements I know...

So I have been doing the skirting myself...well my dad has been cutting it into lengths for me, but I've been installing it.  I will do the siding next year if i can afford it.  But that's just esthetics.  The skirting isn't.  I needed new skirting.  I have a night cat.  By this I mean that there is a cat that comes to stay the night everynight.  He's getting in through the bottom of the house... I don't like this.  I want someone to take him away.  He scratched me last night when i asked him to leave.  We put up all the insulation under the place but apparently there is a hole somewhere that only said cat knows about.  Once I put the new carpet down, I'll trap the cat inside and let the dogs escort him out.  Gin thinks I should get to be buddies with the cat... I don't.  Stupid cat.  

So anyway, the drain is still frozen.  I did the dishes today, vaccumed out the water, poured it down the toilet and went about my day.  Kali hates the sound of the shop vac, but I can't use my regular vac for water obviously.  How long does it take to build a styrofoam surround?  Pipes probably gonna bust. 

I'm just gonna move.