Can't Afford a Plumber

[dumbledork]

I have a clog in my shower drain. It has been developing for awhile but now my drain takes about 12hrs to drain. I think it might be hair. I have tried all of the liquid plummer stuff at the store and I am out of ideas.

Please Help.

 

[mynameisCat]

If you have fairly good newish plumbing, go to your nearest big box store like Home Despot and ask after one of the pressure thingies -- it's this sort of thing like a pogo stick that you use to seal up the drain, and then you pump it a couple times to build up pressure...and a cartridge then blows it out the rest of the way for you.

We got one for hair in a slow bathtub. It works GREAT....

....just did a search. They're called "kinetic water rams". Try taking a look here for more info. There's some great information there about your options!

 

[mamab]

You can also take the plug out of the drain and run a "snake" down it. If there's an obstruction, the snake will get caught on it and be pulled out when the snake is extracted.

 

[lyricb]

There is also the good old fashioned coat hanger trick which we use quite often around here because my husband is a hairy beast. We pop the drain and pull all the hair out using the hanger.

 

[louisgodwin]

I've done the coat hanger thing too. This actually works pretty well. If it's hair that's close to the surface, I use a pair of tweezers and just pull it thru the narrow openings of the drain.

 

[handystan]

You can also take the plug out of the drain and run a "snake" down it. If there's an obstruction, the snake will get caught on it and be pulled out when the snake is extracted.

Listen to mamab,
A snake is cheap ~10 and will get down and clean out the drain. It is also works excellent with hair.

 

[mamab]

My husband, who is a plumber, said it might be build up in the p-trap. If you can get a snake down it, it should take care of it. He said there's also an attachment that can be hooked to a water hose that'll blast out any obstructions.

 

[penguinmama]

It might be a good idea to get a 'hair trap' to cover the drain, too, so that it is less likely for that to happen again

 

[Melos]

I second (third?) the snake idea. The kinetic water ram thing sounds like a great idea too - as long as your pipes aren't really old and not too much pressure builds up. It also sounds rather liek some futuristic weapon.

 

[sarahlorrain]

We rescently had to get Mr. Rooter to come out and put his big thing (that didn't sound good) but you know what I mean down my pipes to work a hole down the middle. They are REALLY old and super clogged up. That was about two months ago, and my drain is slow AGAIN, but that's b/c one of my son's little toy dinosaurs went down. ANYWAY, my point was, Mr. Rooter has this product that you pour down your drain and it eats away the stuff like soap scum, grease, etc and helps free your drains of clogs really well. I think you are supposed to use it for maitenance, and then if you have a bad clog then you use more of it once or twice. Anyway, it's like fifty bucks a bottle, but I really think it's worth it! Good luck!

Edited to add: The Mr. Rooter guy said that the stuff from the store actually makes it worse if you have a bad clog because if it cannot go down the drain quickly it solidifies (not solid solid, but thick jello type texture). Not good. For now, I would try boiling water until you can do something else.