Unblock a Drain - If you have ever cleared a drain before then not only is this article probably not for you, but you will most likely be aware that it can be a very unpleasant household task as the age old adage of “what you can’t see can’t hurt you” does not exactly ring true.

Recently my bath at home was not draining water quick enough so I had the unfortunate pleasure of digging out my clean and unused drain snake and after plunging it down the plug hole, I am ashamed to say this action made me gag, for I then produced a concoction of slime and hair from my bath waste and my cool little gadget for fixing this type of problem will never be the same again. I think it’s fair to say, if you have ladies at home with long hair and an obsession with having a bath twice a day, then you may find this article more useful than you think.

Of course there are more ways to block a drain than hair and more drains to block than the bath so I will attempt to cover as many as I can think of, and explain the best ways in which to unblock them.

Toilet – You would be surprised at how many people would actually call a plumber to do this task but it is relatively simple to do and you will only need a few items to complete the job assuming that the blockage is not further down the waste pipe.

If you have a plunger or an auger to hand then these are the best tools to start unblocking but if you haven’t got these to hand then an old wire coat hanger will do the trick.

• Using rubber gloves and a pan or bucket get as much water out of the bowl as possible.
• If you are using a toilet plunger or a pump action toilet unblocker, hold with both hands and proceed to pump up and down allowing the air and water to clear the blockage.
• If you are using an auger or old coat hanger then maneuver the length of the object down in the u-bend and clear the blockage. Augers are very flexible and you should have no trouble clearing it.
• Flush the toilet, several times.
• If the problem persists then you will need to check the drain cover nearest to the toilet in case the blockage is further down and if you do not have access to a decent set of drain rods then this may be the time to call the plumber.

Washbasin and Bath – Just like the toilet, all water pretty much goes down the same way so you will also need to follow the same logic.

If like me you are finding water not draining away quickly enough then try and purchase a drain snake. The one I have in mind has flexible tubing and and a cone shaped end that resembles the bristles on a hair brush. This, for me was an effective method to drain the water away quick enough but sometimes that is not always the case.

• Check the drain cover that is nearest to your home, if there are no handles present to lift it off then use a spade or a similar type of leverage tool. Be mindful as some of these covers can be fairly heavy and you will not want to risk injuring yourself in the process.
• If you have drain rods, and I truly believe everyone should own a pair then connect them together and push them down the length of the pipe opening until you reach the blockage. You may find that you will have to add additional rods or even some kind of corkscrew at the end to relieve the blockage.
• Once you have removed the blockage, run the hot taps for several minutes, and maybe even pour a little bleach or other cleaning solution down the plug hole, making sure that the water drains away the way it should do with no more blockages.
• Be sure to clean and dry the drain rods as drains can harbor an unbelievable amount of germs that can make a person or animal ill.
• If the blockage is still present then it may be time to call in the professionals.

Kitchen Sink – Kitchen sinks can be a nightmare to clear a blockage from as the amount of sticky food waste that can go down the drain will cause all sorts of problems in the event of a blockage. Luckily there are a number if simple methods to solve the issue.

• Using a plunger, ensure that the cup of the plunger completely covers the plug hole, hold with both hands and plunge several times
• Using a drain snake/auger or metal coat hanger repeat the steps that you would for unblocking a toilet by snaking the length to attempt to clear the blockage.
• No article should be without an old wives tale and this works extremely well when you are faced with a blockage. Pour about 3/4 of a cup of baking soda down the hole along with 3/4 of a cup of vinegar. Follow this up with water and hey presto the acidic reaction should clear even the most stubborn of blockages.

To end this article I thought of a few methods that can prevent blockages in the first place. 

For the kitchen sink why not consider installing a kitchen waste disposer? They are a fantastic contraption that I personally love using in my home. Use it correctly and you will rarely encounter any type of blockage derived from food waste.

Use a strainer in the plug hole. These are common add-on’s that  nowadays come with any brand new sink but can also be bought separately from any decent DIY store and will save you the dread of having to unblock a drain.

And finally for the bathroom……

Ban everyone in the house (except yourself from bathing or using the toilet roll).

I am joking of course. Happy Unblocking!!

Words by Ant Langston

A Spanish architect of my acquaintance deplores the modern trend to build grand master bedrooms and then have a skimpy little en-suite bathroom.

It has to be said that he is starting from the different Spanish perspective which is that bedrooms are just where you sleep and then you live as much as possible of your life outdoors. The nearest that you can come to that way of life in Britain is to build a big conservatory (and maybe an indoor swimming pool for those favoured few).

 Spanish Practices

It is a Spanish trait to supply lots of little bedrooms, to suit their frequently large families and frequent visitors. Yet Jesus (for such is his name) insists on making the bathrooms the signature rooms of the house – the grandest, sexiest and most luxurious places, where you deliberately spend time and linger over your ablutions or whatever else takes your fancy.

One of the hotels he has designed builds a circular tower into each suite in which you can bathe by the curved window and gaze out onto uninterrupted olive groves, stretching away to the mountains…  Alright, so that might be a little hard to engineer into a scheme for a semi in Solihull, but there is a theme here that you can take with you. Rethink your refurbishment or extension plans. Allow more of your space for the bathroom, at the expense of the bedroom where necessary. Or just allow more space in total.

 The Essential Bath

As we often point out, the fashion may be to shower in most cases but that does not allow you to avoid installing a bath. For all but the most bijou apartments and studios, a bath is on the wish list of any buyers, especially if they have a family with children and the elderly. Or they just know how indulgent it is to light the scented candles and indulge oneself from time to time.

If you don’t fancy the Spanish theme, seek inspiration from Bubbles Bathrooms of Australia, who won their country’s Bathroom Project of the Year and Bathroom Designer of the Year awards with expansive styling involving bathrooms with double sinks, working fireplaces and big central tub baths with TVs. If you are going to have a bath, then make it a centrepiece, do not automatically tuck it away in the corner.

In the southern states of the USA, where of course they do things bigger and sometimes better, their ‘upscale’ bathroom designs are now increasingly making space for an island, a central basin console like that in your kitchen, which incorporates many drawers and a worktop for all your makeup duties.

 Chinese Porcelain

For the ultimate in spreading the ‘more is more’ message we travel to (of course) China, where in Chongqing they have a bathroom with 1000 individually designed, often wacky, toilets. Now of course we are stretching a point here – this is a public ‘bathroom’ in the American sense – but it is worth mentioning, if only to be able to quote the official who explains ‘we are spreading toilet culture’ (not in bacteriological terms, one hopes). He says of his customers that ‘after they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy’. But after a good soak in our private bath, aren’t we all?

Although this column is strenuously non-sexist in all matters, it must be admitted that statistically it tends to be gentlemen rather than ladies who accumulate tools, discuss their relative merits in the pub, and prize them for their unique abilities.

And when it comes to choosing handy tools for the bathroom then it will be predominantly men who will be waxing lyrical about the wonders of the multi-tool, how it goes where no normal drill or sander can, and is (all in all) an essential purchase.

Thus with Fathers Day looming at the time of writing, it seemed a good opportunity to look at an item which makes an excellent present for a Dad.

All Things to All Men (and Women)

So just what do these devices do? Well, let’s start with the iconic Dremel – this company has made its name in markets including craftwork, picture framing, jewellery making – and fine, accurate DIY jobs. If you have an intricate cutting and shaping job to do on a shower cubicle tile, let’s say; or some dodgy grout to rout out; or a small tap screw head to remove; or a corroded piece of trim to buff up and renovate, then this little multi-purpose marvel is the machine for you.

Then it’s a case of choosing between a mains or a battery-powered device, and between different power levels and detail abilities like controllable speeds and torque. Here’s a Dremel at-a-glance guide: basically you start at the lowest model number and work up, depending on what you think your needs will be.

200 Series – for first timers. Mains, 125W, 2 fixed speeds and 5 accessories

300 Series – also 125W but with variable speed 10-33k RPM. 30 accessories (also comes as a added-value Gift Kit (pictured) that is ideal for birthdays or Christmas)

4000 1/45 – 175W, up to 35k RPM, 45 accessories

4000 4/65 – same but with 65 accessories

7700 – 7.2V Ni-Cad battery, fixed 10 or 20k RPM, 30 accessories

8200 – 10.8V L-Ion battery, 1 hr charge, variable speed to 36k RPM, 35 accessories

Dremel also offers some more specific tools that are also of interest –

Trio, as the name suggests, is 3-function (it cuts, sands and routs). But whereas bigger devices can be overkill and can damage fine jobs, this has a small head as well as soft start for accurate, smooth cuts; it maintains its speed under load; the handle pivots and there is a pistol grip and an area to hold with your other hand, for greater control; the foot does not mark surfaces; and a vacuum attachment sucks away dust and debris.

Fortiflex is a high-precision tool for fine work and it accepts Dremel’s range of accessories. It has a foot pedal control so your hands are free for maximum accuracy.

Finally the Engraver is a reciprocating-action tool that can work at different depths and has a replaceable carbide point.

The gift that keeps on drilling

But as the old Avis advert used to say, ‘we never forget you have a choice’. Thus the good folk at Plumbworld have a one-stop multi-tool shop and you need go nowhere else. Here in brief are your other options.

Draper’s Multi-Tool has a mid-range 145W power and 15-35k RPM. With its 56 accessories, it is a good-value package.

The same company offers a 230W oscillating device that is really a sander and saw rather than a multiple machine.

At the top end of the market, beloved by professionals, is Bosch. Its proprietary L-Ion batteries are second to none in terms of staying power and the 10.8V machine comes either with 2 of them, or with neither (for those who already have the company’s interchangeable power packs). The device is described as being for plunge cuts, sanding or flush sawing.

The remaining machines are more at the budget end but may get the job(s) done perfectly well, especially for occasional users. Choose between these:

• Silverline 249765 Rotary Hobby Tool 135W, 10-35k variable RPM, 3 year guarantee
• GMC 920154 Rotary 135W, 15-35k variable RPM, 42 accessories
• GMC 920196 Battery 9.6V, 5-25k variable RPM, soft grip, 82 accessories
• Einhell Grinding/Engraving Kit 135W, 207 (!) accessories
• Einhell Multi Tool (cut/sand/scrape) 180W
• Black & Decker Wizard Multitool Kitbox 90W, variable 8-24k RPM

So there you have them. Small but perfectly-formed and versatile bits of kit, which will prove to have uses that you never imagined, throughout the bathroom and the rest of the house.

And if the man in question already has one, then what about a tool belt for the finishing touch – to make him really feel as if he belongs on DIY SOS…

Posted by Chris Ring

In these columns we have often advised the safe route of fitting out your bathroom, shower room, ensuite or wc with pristine all-white suites, bathroom furniture and tiling. It offends no-one, it can increase the value of your home (especially where it replaces some 70s or 80s taste aberrations) and there is a multiplicity of choice available from the budget ranges through to designer pieces.

But we do not live in an all-white world. We can be depressed when starved of colour. Thankfully it is hard to find an avocado suite nowadays in the tasteful pages of Plumbworld – but that is not to say that they cannot provide you with a palette of colour to use as highlight items, or specific toning pieces that will look all the more interesting for not toeing the white line.

Bold accents

Of course designers do advocate the use of a splash of colour in one wall or niche, and the picture here shows that being put into practice with a rich red accent wall, which is reflected to good effect in the over-sink mirror. The much-derided toilet mat even creeps back into the design, as well as a useful mat for standing on whilst at the sink when the mornings are cold.

But can you also get colourful with your bathroom furniture? Yes, you certainly can. We have previously demonstrated how effective wood finishes can be; but you can be bolder, if the mood takes you.

Continuing the red accent, this Novara range makes a striking statement and it is not just confined to standard wall cabinets – the concealed cistern cabinet gets the treatments too, to excellent effect. The Treviso and Arezzo ranges offer the same shade but in different shell and handle designs.

If you want to fit out your bathroom totally, then consider the Sicily range of furniture with the stunning gloss burgundy door option.

As we saw recently, shower trays have undergone a wholesale change and if they no longer have to be ceramic, then designers asked themselves, why do they still have to be white? Most people keep their tray grey, or light stone in appearance, rather than a wackier colour, but it is another step towards deconstructing white.

Tile in style

Tiling has never before offered such a choice of styles and tones and it is necessary to look long and hard at what will work best. Get samples from your retailer and try them against each surface before you finally decide. It is definitely a good idea to at least have a tiled dado rail (for the traditional look) or a lining or framing effect in a sympathetic colour – do not overdo it or use random tiles, but let them complement the accessories that you want to use. Note how mosaic tiles are used in the picture above.

And then accessorise away, with this silver mdf toilet seat, an attractive set of soap dispenser, toothbrush mug, etc. and toning towels and flannels – maybe differing colours for each member of the family?

Posted by Chris Ring

Having reviewed some of the cutting-edge bathroom tech wonders in past months, the pace of change is accelerating such that another update is in order – if only as a peephole to the mass market innovations that we can expect to become tomorrow’s must-haves and no doubt staple products on the Plumbworld online catalogue.

Most of us come into contact, or rather don’t, with the automated public toilets that sense your presence, turn on the light, and turn on the toilet flush at the wave of a hand (or when you leave the stall) as well as dispensing soap, water and drying air in the cloakroom one by one. You may be an obsessive user of liquid antiseptic hand cleaners, but with these systems they are unnecessary as you need hardly touch a thing.

Such technology is surely going to filter through into the domestic bathroom. But it is the more high-end luxury developments that really catch the eye – literally so in the case of the mirrors that become condensation-free TV monitors.

It is often the case that the USA leads the way in new fads, and as early as 2006 the Wall Street Journal was reporting on the trend among wealthy apartment dwellers to install retractable desks in their bathrooms. Do they never stop in Wall Street? More amazing yet were the sales figures of Acquinox, who reported sales of their steam showers and whirlpool baths equipped with handsfree mobile units tripling to 14,800 in 2005 – and not at a bargain price, you can be sure. These and more gadgets are still on offer.

UK Leads OK

But since this is a British column, we are proud from time to time to report on bathroom design innovation that does not spring from the USA or Japan, but in this case from London SE14. Now those who know the area will not readily associate Millwall with the ultimate in luxury, but it is from here that Bathomatic develops its integrated state-of-the-art bathroom devices.

These start with the Bathomatic itself – we have reported on such automatic-fill baths before but this goes all the way to the Ultimate model, which not only controls temperature and fill level but adds fragrances and bubbles and pampers you with ‘chromatherapy’ LED in-bath lighting, plus jets and blowers. You don’t need to splash out (sorry) on the whole kit – the system can be retrofitted to your favourite bath.

But just as you thought it couldn’t get any more stylish, they introduced the Bathler (pictured). All the above, plus a pop-up TV at the foot, by your feet, adding the ability to surf while you soak. And it even goes up to 11: the Bathler is equipped for 5.1 surround sound. One louder…

You can even be reminded of how your ancestors had to do the tedious ‘filling the bath’ ritual, with a screensaver that shows it all in an animated timeline.

The same company of course offers you iShower, with a multitude of spray sensations controlled from the keypad or even from an iPhone app (natch) which saves you valuable ‘warming up’ seconds by monitoring the water and cubicle temperatures.

And as you would expect there is Bathovision, their frameless mirror TVs. These are becoming quite widespread in the market but in this case the added value comes from the potential integration of controls with the bathroom suite ones: and the nifty idea of ultra-slim‘plaster-in’ wall speakers (Amina model shown here) to avoid moisture damage, maximise space and have no unwanted boxes spoiling your minimalist heaven.

Posted by Chris Ring