Stuck bathtub drain... Have tried everything... need help

[Al Kondo]

I have a stuck bathroom drain in my second floor bathtub. The house is probably 50 years old so it has old plumbing. The drain flows but very slowly. At times, when the volume of water is fairly high, I end up standing in a puddle when showering. Here is what I have tried so far:

1. boiling hot water down the drain several times
2. Drano and its equivalents several times
3. Snaked the pipe through the overflow for a distance of about 10 feet. Pulled up some hair but the drain was still not performing.
4. Used the contraption which is placed into the drain pipe and attached to a garden hose. It fills up with water after sealing off the pipe and shoots a flow of water into the remaining pipe. No luck.

I am reluctant to expose the pipe to pull it apart as I will have to take off the sheetrock from the first floor to do it. I would appreciate some suggestions.

Al Kondo

[Speedy Jim]

Assuming that you have already cleared any hair out of the drain fitting in the bottom of the tub, you may have to resort to renting a longer snake. You can get a hand-held power snake with a 25Ft cable.

One of the problems in snaking a tub drain is that often the snake will go *up* the vent instead of down the drain. It helps to have someone listen in the wall for this.

Can be tricky to snake.

Jim

[Gideon]

A 25' snake shouldn't cost you more than about $10 at Home Depot or Lowes. I often remove the snake from the plastic housing and crank that it comes with and attach it to my electric drill to improvise a power snake. I recently took care of a very sluggish bathroom sink for my mother. Somebody had snaked it for about 10' and didn't get much relief. I ran the 25' snake through and got the water flowing very well again.

Don't forget, when all else fails you can call in the plumber. There are times when we homeowners have to call in the big guns.

Good luck, Gideon

======

1. boiling hot water down the drain several times
2. Drano and its equivalents several times
3. Snaked the pipe through the overflow for a distance of about 10 feet. Pulled up some hair but the drain was still not performing.
4. Used the contraption which is placed into the drain pipe and attached to a garden hose. It fills up with water after sealing off the pipe and shoots a flow of water into the remaining pipe. No luck.

I am reluctant to expose the pipe to pull it apart as I will have to take off the sheetrock from the first floor to do it. I would appreciate some suggestions.

Al Kondo

[Andrew Duane]

I find that the two-part foaming slow drain unblockers work MUCH better than the normal drain openers for things like this. With a golden retriever and a daughter with long hair, I use it at least once a year.

The Drano foam> I have a stuck bathroom drain in my second floor bathtub. The house

[sleepdog]

I found some stuff at home depot called "Pequa" that worked wonders on our sink drain. Manufactured in Massapequa, NY. About $10 per half gallon I think.

[longshot]

roto rooter probably won't cost more than $100.00 & you won't need to tear up any ceilings

[I R Baboon]

dont use drano or the like. ever. ever. ever.

[Ludger Wolf]

Could you explain this a bit?

Ludger

[Mikepier]

Al, what kind of drain do you have ? Is it the kind that is outside of the tub with a tube that you pull up or down to activate the drain? Or is it just a standard drain that you activate inside the tub?

[Stormin Mormon]

There are two (general) kinds of drain cleaner. The ingredients will say either hydroxide, or acid.

Hydroxides are used to remove grease, hair, and biological materials. Acids will remove calcium scale. I'd suggest trying an acid drain cleaner -- your problem may well be calcium.

The other folks are also right about longer snake, and perhaps the snake going up instead of down.

At my local discount "dollar" store, they have bottles of drain cleaner which are acid. Vinegar is a mild acid. And fairly cheap.

[scott_z500]

I'm guessing that you need to use a drain cleaner formulated for hair, and lots of it. That's what I use and it works great. Just leave in in overnight. I tried the acid ones mentioned above and they didn't help much, but since you already know that hair is the problem it makes the solution much easier (unless the 25' snake works good).