If this were my job to fix, I'd bend out a drain snake, so the end of the
wire sticks forward, and try that, see if I could pull the fabric back.

Second try would be plumbers force cup, with the overflow vent closed with a
rag, held tightly on.

I'd go for sulfuric acid as the third try.

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

"blerg_blerg" wrote in message
...
So I had a plumber over to my condo unit (2nd floor) to fix a toilet issue
(water spot on ceiling of unit below me). That night, no joke, a baby
washcloth went down our bathtub drain. I have tried fishing for it with a
plastic drain hook tool with no luck (it doesn't appear to be flexible
enough to navigate the pipes). I can see water in the drain pipe, about
3-4" down. When taking a shower now, water fills up to about ankle depth in
about 10-15 minutes but then seems to drain within the same amount of time.
Some approaches to try that I've read about are various drain clog cleaners
or bleach to try and dissolve the washcloth or using a wire hanger (all of
ours are plastic) or plumber's snake to fish it out. I've also read that it
might be easier to remove the stopper linker and go straight down that
overflow pipe. I've tried to read a lot about this but am left wondering
how my situation being on the 2nd floor of a condo/former apartment differs
from the drain pipe setup of a normal house. For instance, my bathtub drain
does not feel like it goes straight down very far before it takes a hard
turn, presumably toward the wall. I guess I'm just looking for any
suggestions/tips. I'm trying to resist calling a plumber since I already
spent $250 that I didn't have on one earlier that same day and the guilty
party in this case was a family member who was babysitting our daughter and
giving her a bath. Thank you.