slow draining shower

Moved in to new house. The shower drains very slowly. This is a tiled shower stall, not a tub. I tried using liquid plumber; no luck. I can do a fair number of home repair projects, but have done very little with plumbing and drains. Do I want to try to rent a snake and mess with this myself? Or just call a plumber? If I do it myself, tips hints and instructions would be appreciated.

Reply to
alath
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Most likely hair build up in drain. Before you tackle it make sure that caustic drain cleaner you used is well rinsed out! If it is hair it is probably in the first elbow or trap.

If not a clog in the drain then you might be looking at a poor vent or blocked vent.

Reply to
Jackson

Consider this just an expense for your new home and call a plumber. You just moved in, don't make your first memories those of you fighting with the shower drain!

Reply to
Noozer

All good advice. First you look at the trap. It is an S-shaped pipe underneath every sink or drain in my house and probably yours. Could be in the basement or crawl space maybe in a wall. It should be hand-tight and easily dissasembled. Be ready with bucket to catch the sludge. There should be hair and stuff in the trap. Clean it out and use gloves if you wish cause it's nasty. Or use a coat hanger like that guy said to hook the hair and drag it out. If that don't work then get back to us.

Reply to
Lawrence

Just take a metal coat hanger, straighten it out, and bend about a half inch to about 60 degrees. Then take the cover off the drain and stick the coat hanger down their and pull up all the hair.

Reply to
news

I was wondering about the trap. This home is built on a concrete slab floor. I don't think I am going to be able to get at the trap to take it apart.

Reply to
alath

If the house is new, and not just new to you, then contact the builder, it is his problem not yours.

Yea, it would have been luck if it worked. All those things are luck if the work, or seem to work. It is far better to really fix a problem than use them. (see below)

Well you need to decide what YOU want to do. I would buy a small snake if I did not already have one and clean it out myself. You might want to call a plumber. Chances are a simple snaking will take care of it. Note: remember that you used those chemicals and they are still there. They will make your job more difficult and dangerous. I would want to get that stuff out of there and well flushed before I used the snake. I don't even have any of that stuff in my home.

If not then call the plumber. Do please tell them about the Liquid Plumber you used, as it can be a danger to them when they are working on it. Also note it can be a danger for you as well.

Get a DIY book at the hardware store. It will cover with photos the basic procedure. The book will be handy to have around in the future.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Rinse that out well.

Some one here has reported success with a wet-dry vac, on wet. If that works, it would be the easiest I think, and you could see how much came out.

Reply to
mm

Thanks for the help, all.

I tried the coat hangar trick and got a fair sized wad of hair, but it still drained slowly.

I went to Menard's and got a cheap 15' snake. It might have been about

5' in when I retrieved what initially looked like a very large rat, but was actually a gigantic loathsome mass of hair and random sewer crud.

Shower drains great now.

Thanks for the tips and hints.

Reply to
alath

Just a note that if you take the drain cover off you might need a bit of plumbers putty when replacing the cover.

Reply to
Jackson

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