What is wrong with my shower and why won’t it drain?? Plumbing help needed!

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

Garh, between Sawyer and Smile’s encounter and the 12 + inches of snow we got today…I’m like, can anything else go wrong???

My shower is not draining. I had a shower this morning and noticed the water wasn’t draining quickly, so I figured there was hair in there so I pulled out a bit of hair, not enough to warrant a blockage. Still nothing. I had an ENTIRE shower and filled the tub. My boyfriend got the plunger and tried to plunge the drain, but nothing.

I just got home from work and the tub is full. No draining over the course of the entire day.

What in the world do I do??

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

For me it always ends up being hair that I can’t grab by hand… I get a wire hanger and bend it apart to make a skinny hook to stick down the drain. It’s been delightfully nicknamed the “drain coathanger abortion” here. It always looks like a pulled a dead animal out of there once I get the big hunks of hair! Delicious…

[Lightchick]

Yummy, Rachel…

Lion_Lop, did you try Draino or some other nasty caustic chemical?

[jerseygirl]

Try manually dislodge if you can. I’ve done what Rachel has plus also accessed the outside house drain and tried the wire there. Also, I’ve fed a garden hose down the shower drain right through to the outside. You can connect it up to water to or just use the flexible hose to go round the pipe bend. If you try this and turn it on, be prepared for mess – and maybe bucket out the water in the bath first.

Last suggestion is call your neighbours to see if they are having troubles too. The blockage may actually be at the bigger street drain and will need attention. Good thing about that is it shouldn’t cost you anything to get it cleared, it should be council responsibility.

[Lightchick]

KatnpCrzy also just posted a DIY website….

[skibunny8503]

We’re having the same issue!  If you have a snaking tool, try that it works great.  There’s also this plastic thing..oh I can’t remember what it’s called but it’s straight and has teeth on each side and you put it down the drain and it gathers all the yucky hair and crap.  Lastly, go into the basement and find the pipe that goes out of the tub.  It’s called a “trap” and it goes from the drain out and curves, see if you can get the curve out and if there’s anything in there blocking it.  Ours is a little better but I think it’s more the plug that we need to replace (we just bought the house) and it’s one of those where you have to push down on it to close it…not very fond of that one.  Hopefully that will help. 

[hooty22]

I pull a Rachel “drain coathanger abortion” as well and then I normally follow up with some draino which seems to eat anything that I missed… Unless its possible your drain pipes froze…. I know my parents have had that happen a few times.

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

Oh my gosh, I hope they didn’t freeze…..!!!! What do I do if that’s the case? Because we did have that cold snap last week…and I didn’t shower on Saturday, which was the coldest day…

[hooty22]

Well freezing isn’t all that likely, the only reason it happened to my parents is because our house is over 100 years old and an animal pulled the insulation off the pipes. Has the water gone down at all?

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

Nope…I had to bucket it out into the toilet this morning, and then I pushed the toilet plunger at it, nothing. I haven’t got a wire hanger, so I tried to push this piece of straw down there and it hit something impassable.

So I’m thinking that there’s some major blockage in there…from what, I do not know…hmm.

I will have to get some kind of Draino thing?

It is a pain in the arse to have to empty your entire bathtub by bucket after a shower…yeesh..

[hooty22]

If the plunger isn’t working at all then you probably aren’t sealing off the overflow drain. Its a hole thats in the wall of the tub above the drain on the floor. I attached a link with a picture to help describe it a bit better.

http://www.homerepairforum.com/images/uploads/2004-12-18_Bathtub%20Drain_w550.JPG

If you take a wet cloth and jam it in there, then the plunger should push whatever is stuck in there down instead of allowing the air to escape out of the overflow valve. If that takes care of your backup problem, I would start using a biological drain cleaner every few weeks to prevent future blockages….

 

 

…and no I am not a plumber, just a household handywoman….

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

LOL, you’re being terrifically helpful Hooty.

I appreciate it!! I shall try sticking something in the overflow drain…I definitely know that part, and it makes sense that air would just get pushed out of there!

[BunnyMuffin]

This might sound stupid – but have you tried messing with the mechanism to open/close the drain for filling the tub for a bath? I was doing some cleaning once and the tub was draining slow, so I pulled out the drain cover and removed a bunch of hair and stuff, and then the tub just kept filling, and I was freaking out that I’d wrecked something. But as it turns out I just need to flip the switch for filling the tub and all the water started spiraling down the drain at top speed (even though the cover was off and it looked like the water should drain, the tub filling mechanism is apparently further down and got closed when I pulled the cover off…hopefully that makes some sense to someone out there, it’s kinda complicated to explain).

Anyways – just thought I might point out the obvious, just in case it helps. 😉

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

I was sitting in my room watching a movie when all of a sudden I heard water gushing. I ran into the bathroom and the shower was draining …….

???????

On its own?!?!??!?!?!

…
Tub’s empty now… the water all drained out.

What the heck??

[hooty22]

Maybe they were frozen….

[jerseygirl]

Huh!

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

Very very weird…

I have yet to take a shower but I guess we’ll see tomorrow morning if it drains normally…

[MimzMum]

Hm. Freezing is my guess. If it were a hair clot it would still be plugged, I’m sure. Nothing else goes down that drain, does it?
Hubby just got on my case recently for putting small amounts of hay in the toilet as we are on septic here. He says it doesn’t break down and clogs the lines. 0_o Ooops! Sorry honey! *nervous giggles*

This is your house, right? (you own or are buying this place?) Can you coax the bf to put heat tape on your pipes?

[Lion_Lop_Lover]

yeah, my own house… nothing else goes down there…lol…unless you count any stray hay or litter on my bare feet…but no, nothing major.

They musta froze…how bizarre….!!!

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