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

Al Kondo wrote:

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

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

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

======

Al Kondo wrote in message ...
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

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 foaming liquid snake seems to work pretty well.

Al Kondo wrote:
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

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.

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

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

wrote in message
ups.com...
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.

On Mon, 09 May 2005 20:19:34 GMT, "I R Baboon"
wrote:

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

Could you explain this a bit?

Ludger

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?

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.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.com


"Al Kondo" wrote in message
...
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

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).