She fetched a plunger. Not a toilet plunger—a heavy-duty drain plunger with a rubber cone. She sealed it over the bottom outlet of the downpipe. "Now go upstairs," she said, "and pour a bucket of hot water down the top."
Arthur had two choices: call a plumber (who charged £300 just to look at a pipe) or watch his house dissolve into a puddle. He chose a third, stupider option:
She didn't use a hose. She didn't use a coat hanger. She put her ear to the pipe, then went to the bottom where the pipe turned into the underground drain. how to clear blocked downpipes
Arthur bought Gladys a bottle of whisky. He cleaned his mother-in-law’s knitting needle. And he learned the true moral of the story: Don’t push the problem down. Clear it from the bottom. And if all else fails, find an old lady who knows where the real blockage is.
He grabbed three tools: a wire coat hanger, a bucket, and his mother-in-law’s best knitting needle (she was on holiday. Probably). She fetched a plunger
It was the wettest April on record, and Arthur’s kitchen wall was weeping.
Arthur remembered a YouTube video. "Use a garden hose," the man with too many teeth had said. "Ram it up there." Arthur rammed. He turned the tap to full. For ten glorious seconds, nothing happened. Then the pipe shuddered, made a noise like a bear giving birth, and a geyser of black, leaf-infused water shot out of the top of the pipe, directly into his face. "Now go upstairs," she said, "and pour a
Defeated, Arthur went inside and called his neighbour, Gladys, a 78-year-old former plumber who used to fix boilers during the miners' strike. She arrived in slippers and a raincoat.