How to Fix Frozen Plumbing

So last night I came home and began washing my hands in the kitchen sink when water began to fill up in both basins. I ran the garbage disposal, thinking it might be food that was clogging causing the clog, and was happy to see the water get sucked down the drain. Unfortunately, it immediately came back up, refilling the basins.

The plumber showed up this morning and, after a little research, notified me that the plumbing for the sink is so close to the outer wall that water had frozen. He would have to come back tomorrow... unless I could fix this myself.

Let's Do This!

Items Needed

• Shop Vac
• Large pot for boiling water
• Sidewalk salt (as used for de-icing a walkway)
• Note: Don't use the stuff with bits of rock in it, or you could jack up your drain. If you have to, use any form of cooking salt.
• Rubber gloves
• Toilet Plunger

Steps

1. Use the shop vac to vacuum as much water up from the sink. If you have 2 basins, I prefer the side without the garbage disposal. If you have only one, skip to step 3.
2. Plug, or cap-off the side with the garbage disposal.
3. You can use rubber gloves for wearing during this process, but the reason I used them was because I couldn't think of anything else to stuff around the edges of the shop vac hose and the edges of the drain. What you want to do is create an air-tight "vacuum" so that no air can get in, and help force the remaining water into the shop vac. Stuffing 2 rubber gloves around the edges with a spoon helped make a close enough seal for me. 
4. Continue to suck up more water into the shop vac until you're certain no more will come up.
5. Pour about 3 cups of sidewalk salt into your large pot.
6. Fill the pot with anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up with water.
7. Stir and begin to heat water on the stove.
8. I didn't boil the water, but brought it up to about 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
9. Now slowly pour the water into the sink drain.
10. Once all of the water is in the drain, you can use the toilet plunger as an attempt to mix the hot water with any water that may have remained after using the shop vac.

This isn't a guarantee for success, but hopefully your drain should be unfrozen in a few hours!