Not every project goes as well as planned. We would be happy to spend a few minutes answering your questions.
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Many the homeowner has encountered the slow bathtub drain. Not that it is totally clogged, but it has just enough debris in the drain to make the water drain very slowly. Most of the time, the obstruction is not deep in the drain pipe, but rather just beyond the strainer where you can reach it with a tool.
Drains that drain slowly typically smell. This is because the hair and soap mixture that is clogging the drain is decaying and really lets off a pungent odor. So be forewarned, clearing a slow or clogged drain is nasty business.
You need to get access to the drain pipe. Typically you can remove the drain cover by unscrewing it. Because you will have to wrestle around the support for the drain stopper, you must use something long and reasonably thin. Needle nose pliers work great if the clog is fairly close to the surface.
You can use a coat hanger. Straighten out the hanger and bend a little hook in the end of it. Then you can fish it down the drain and hopefully lock on to the hairball. You can also buy a product called a "zip it" that works in the same manner. It is a plastic stick with little barbs all over it. When you push it into the drain the hairball gets caught on the barbs allowing you to pull it out.
Get creative. I've used a shopvac to suck out clogs. I've even taped a PVC pipe to the end of a shopvac to reach a deep area. Finally, you can use a snake. Here is some information on using a snake to clear a drain clog.
Whatever method you use, just be prepared to get the foul smelling clog out of your house quickly.
In my job I go into a lot of other people's houses, and consequently get to see how they live. Sometimes it's amazing. I went into a house today that wasn't bad at all, but I was surprised at how people are willing to put up inconveniences that would drive me crazy.
This customer had a bathtub drain stopper that was broken . Not a difficult job right? The thing I thought was funny was that she was using an old shower cap to plug up the drain. She would wad it up in a ball and stuff it into the hole. It wouldn't completely stop the water from draining, but it slowed it down enough where she had time to bathe. She said sometimes she would have to put her foot over the drain hole to help slow it. Too funny. She obviously was very tolerant. I wouldn't have lasted a day like that, but she had been doing this for 3 months!
I brought along a universal tub stopper kit and was done in about 3 minutes. This is a nifty product that has a stopper that fits any hole. It's gimmick is that it comes with many different size O-rings that you can replace to fit your particular drain hole. It simply pushes into the hole and the O-rings stop the water from draining until you throw a lever to drain the tub.
The customer was very happy, but I think she thought it would be a big project. Three months of suffering with short baths, when all it took was 3 minutes for this Las Vegas handyman to repair it.
