The drain and the maid

When I told the maid downstairs, who cleans occasionally before 9 am, that my drain needed a drain cleaner, "Debouchage! Debouchage!" she sure didn't understand. She said something that sounded like ah-never. She wrote on my note  a curlicue nine with a tail and a big H. Oh, I got it, that means at the ninth hour. Neufchâtel here or some kind of spelling. DYAC! So I used google translate to write up four possible sentences and showed them to the head seamstress downstairs. She read them patiently. "The water doesn't go down, my sink isn't working, the drain is broke" whatever those hopeless sentences really said. She finally got it, remarking, "Debouchage! Debouchage?" And came upstairs to look at it. How come Debouchage didn't work for me...?