A clogged shower or bath drain is one of the most common bathroom issues that homeowners across the country face. Whether it's hair, soap or anything that's been dropped while bathing, a clogged drain can be a real pain to fix.
Luckily, we have provided several different methods that you can employ to get the water draining properly again.
Boiling water doesn't always work to unclog drains, but it's the simplest way to resolve minor clogs. In fact, president of Mr. Rooter Plumbing, Doyle James, advises pouring boiling water down the drain at least once a week to prevent clogging. If that doesn't do the trick, you might be in for a 'hairier' situation.
Take a screwdriver and undo the screw holding the shower drain in place. Then use a wire hanger, plunger or even a drain snake to get all the hair, organic matter and other debris out of the way.
Pour boiling water into the drain, and if the draining rate still seems slow, you got more digging to do. Repeat until the drain rate is quick and normal. If that doesn't happen, you might need an organic drain bomb, but we'll get to that later.
This will take a bit more effort, but anyone with a screwdriver can do this in 5 minutes. If you have a trip lever plug, undo the screws that hold it in place. Gently pull out the trip waste mechanism and remove all the hairs that have clung to it that caused the clog. Clean the lever mechanism, as well as the train and overflow pipe with boiling water before putting the trip lever and plug back in place.
If the drain rate is normal without the trip lever and plug but turns slow when you put them back in, Popular Mechanic suggests the problem could be that the trip waste linkage is too long, and is blocking the overflow pipe. Shorten it by around 1/4th inch by loosening the nut on the linkage's threaded brass arm and then threading the arm into the bracket, which should improve the drain rate.
If it's still slow, shorten the linkage a bit more. As for the bath drain itself, follow the above process for unclogging the shower drain. And if the clog is still present or the drain rate remains slow, it's time to call in an airstrike.
If boiling water won't budge the clog, it leaves you no other choice but to go with the organic drain bomb. In a HomeServe Living guide to unblocking bath or shower drains, they advise using a combination of 15 tablespoons of baking soda and 100 ml of vinegar to do the job.
Put the baking soda in first and then pour all the vinegar in. After the fizzing is over, flush out the drain with boiling water. Apart from being a cheap and effective way of dealing with any such blockages, another great thing about this concoction is that unlike certain industrial drain cleaners, it doesn't damage your pipes at all.
And as we at Apartment Guide have detailed in our own list of bathroom unclogging methods, baking soda and vinegar is an organic concoction that also won't damage your septic tank, making it an ideal way to also unclog your toilet in the absence of a plunger.
If your drains are still clogged, you might need to resort to industrial drain cleaning solutions or call a plumber. After unclogging everything, make it a habit to pour boiling water down your bathroom drains once a week.
Personal development and lifestyle blogger Angela Lee knows a thing or two about how hard it is to learn certain crucial home maintenance skills. When she's not chasing deadlines, she actually finds it relaxing to go around the house to see what needs fixing. Although she admits that she needs the help of professional plumbers and electricians half the time, she prides herself at having a respectable tool kit at home and having the knowledge to actually use it.