Kitchen Flooding !

Water began to flow into kitchen..*sob*

...after 45 minutes.. *wring hand*

...next morning, after blockage was cleared... *wrinkle nose*
Our lovely kitchen was flooded some time ago.*heartache*

Many of us will encounter that situation at one time or another. In this article we shared what we did to solve our drainage problem, in the hope our experience will be useful to you.

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So, what would you do when you encounter a drainage problem? Should you call the hdb town council? Or managing agent if you live in a private apartment? Or your own plumber?

You call the town council if the hdb common service pipe is chocked. But you call your own plumber if the blockage is in your internal kitchen pipe. Knowing whom to call will save you time, heartache and money.

Here was what we did:

We began by investigating the cause of the flooding. We recalled the last time we flushed water down our kitchen sink was barely 40 minutes ago; the water had drained from the sink without any problem. We were therefore certain no waste matter clogged our kitchen drainage pipe.

Drawing of common drainage pipe:

Take a look at the drainage pipe drawing. If blockage had occurred in the common drainage pipe, the water level discharged from all flat units above our unit level would rise and flow into our unit. That won't occur if the blockage occurred in our kitchen pipe - the water would simply stagnate until the blockage was cleared. Luckily we recalled that we last used the kitchen sink about 40 minutes prior to the flooding, which meant the common drainage pipe was blocked and caused our kitchen to be flooded!

That must be the reason, we concluded! We called the town council.

* * *

Note: We also regularly maintained our drainage piping system. You should too - find out how in a related post.

Also note that the kitchen drainage system is separate and distinct from the bathroom / toilet drainage system. Therefore you can rule out your toilet drainage pipe if only your kitchen is flooded.

* * *

Our town council ("TC") responded quite swiftly to our call. The TC maintenance supervisor and the area manager visited our premises to check on the flooding situation. After listening to our explanation and doing some tests of their own, they agreed with our assessment. It was late in the evening,

Next morning a plumber and his assistant came. They asked to view the common drainage pipe. Luckily - although we had concealed the common drainage pipe behind a partition wall - we could open the partition doors once the fridge was moved away. See how our kitchen drainage system was concealed behind a partition.

Flexible pipe to probe for obstacle

After gaining access to the common drainage pipe, the plumber used a long flexible "stick" to probe / clear any waste matter that may have caused the blockage. He confirmed there was indeed a blockage, and that the blockage was in the common drainage pipe!

Inspecting the flat unit below

Next, he went to inspect the unit below our flat. The unit was tenanted to a foreign family.

True enough, the ceiling in the unit below had flooded copiously the night before. The tenant told us he had called the landlord owner but the owner had told him to solve his own problem!!

The plumber got down to work. He decided to cut the common drainage pipe under the kitchen sink after ascertaining the location of the blockage.

After the pipe was cut, he extracted a piece of clothing from the grimy mess. That was the cause of the blockage!

Urrggh..so gross, the cause of the blockage!!

Less than 30 min later, the blockage was cleared. Hooray!

What a mess

How in the world could clothing end up in the common drainage pipe ???!!!

Maintain Your Drainage Pipe System

An organized and functional kitchen - whether ours or friends' - always gives us pleasure to prepare and cook wholesome, nutritious meals for family and friends.

To ensure we derive maximum utility from our kitchen (or bathroom or toilet), we regular maintain the drainage piping system in our flat.

Here's what we did:

Check and clear floor traps
You should check there is always a floor trap in the kitchen, bathroom or toilet. And the floor trap should be seen, not hidden behind a partition in your bathroom or beneath a raised kitchen floor.

We should know - our contractor / ID did not heed our instruction and concealed the floor trap behind the partition wall, making access difficult, if not practically impossible.

The floor trap serves a dual purpose: 1 - prevents pests like cockroaches from entering your flat from the drainage pipe, and 2 - traps dirt such as hair - yes, each family member sheds a lot of hair during a shower!) from clogging the drainage pipe.

Clear your drainage pipe regularly with boiling / hot water
Regularly maintain your kitchen plumbing system by pouring a full kettle of boiling water down the sink once or twice a week. Or after we did a lot of cooking and washing, such as on festive occasions.

The hot water will melt and clear cooking grease, fats and oils that may have accumulated in the drainage pipe.

CAUTION: Some sinks and wash basins have plastic discharge pipes that may buckle under boiling or very hot water. If your sink is fitted with such pipes, avoid using boiling water. Use a proprietary cleaner like Kleen Drain, or similar products.

Use paper towel to clean off grease, oil and fat
Better still - we use a paper towel to wipe off excess oils and grease in our woks and pans and throw the soiled paper towel into the waste bin. Then we use dishwashing liquid to wash and clean the utensil.

That way we reduce the likelihood of cooking oil and grease choking our kitchen drain pipe.

Toilet bowls can get choked by too much tissue.
Not all toilet rolls are the same. Some rolls have thicker 2, 3 or more ply of tissue, while others are too thin and tear easily.

Likewise, not all toilet bowls are the same. Depending on the design, some bowls have a narrow discharge pipe. Which can become choked by too much toilet paper.

Therefore, be judicious in your usage of the toilet roll. If you must use a lot of toilet tissue, flush the cistern each time after using 3-4 tissue paper - just to ensure your toilet bowl is not choked.

Time the toilet bowl's discharge of the content
Each time you flush the toilet you should check that the water takes a reasonable time to be fully discharged from the toilet bowl.

If it takes longer than usual, it may be an indication some tissue - trapped in the neck of the toilet bowl - is hindering the water movement. When that happens, we flush the bowl another one or more times, until we are satisfied the water is discharged within the usual time. That usually dislodges any toilet tissue that may be trapped within the bowl neck.

Don't assume your maid knows
Don't forget to tell your maid never to flush girl's sanitary pads or baby's sanitary napkins (e.g. Pampers) into the toilet bowl.

Foreign maids - especially those from poorer countries - usually clean themselves with water and thus may not be acquainted with the use of toilet paper or sanitary pads. *grin*

They therefore need to be properly instructed. Our plumber tells us that's a very common cause of toilet choke - maids flushed Pampers down the toilet bowl!