Bathroom Drain Clogged
Bathroom drains block with hair bound together by soap scum, and that mass usually sits within the first foot or two of the drain. That is why most bathroom blockages can be cleared without any equipment at all.
What to do right now
Do these first. None of them need tools or plumbing knowledge, and they limit what this ends up costing you.
- Remove the stopper or strainer and lookMost basin and bath stoppers lift or unscrew out. The blockage is very often visible and reachable once it is out.
- Pull the mass out rather than pushing it downA plastic drain zip tool costs almost nothing and removes hair properly. Pushing it further in with a wire converts an easy job into a harder one.
- Then plunge, covering the overflowBathroom fixtures have an overflow that lets pressure escape. Hold a wet cloth over it firmly and the plunger will actually work.
Does this need a plumber tonight?
- The bathroom drain and other fixtures are both affected
- Water rising in the bath when a toilet is flushed
- Sewage smell
- A single slow basin, bath or shower
- A blockage you can see and reach
- Slow drainage that still clears
Why the overflow matters
Because plunging a bathroom fixture without covering the overflow does almost nothing. The pressure escapes out of the overflow instead of travelling down the pipe.
This is the single most common reason people conclude a plunger has failed on a basin or bath. Blocked properly with a wet cloth held firmly, the same plunger and the same effort usually clears it.
In a double basin, the same applies to the second plughole. Block one, plunge the other.
When it is not hair
When more than one fixture is affected, or when a bath fills as a toilet is flushed. At that point the bathroom drain is a symptom of a shared blockage further down.
The other exception in older Ogden homes is a scaled cast iron branch that has narrowed to the point where normal use blocks it. That presents as a fixture that blocks repeatedly no matter how carefully it is used, and it is a pipe problem rather than a habits problem.
What clearing a bathroom drain costs
[PLACEHOLDER: PRICING] Pending from the client.
This is one of the more common jobs a homeowner can genuinely do themselves, and we would rather tell you that than attend for something a cheap plastic tool would have solved.
Questions people ask about this
Should I use drain cleaner?
On hair and soap it often does very little, and on older pipe it does harm. A drain zip tool costs a few dollars and removes the mass rather than partially dissolving it.
My shower drains slowly but never blocks.
That is early stage hair accumulation. Clearing it now is trivial. Left alone it becomes a full blockage, usually at the least convenient moment.
It blocks every few months.
If you are already clearing hair regularly, the pipe may be narrowed. In older Ogden homes with cast iron branches, that is worth investigating rather than continuing to clear it.
If that is not quite what you have
Not sure how urgent this is?
Describe what you can see and hear. We will tell you whether it needs someone tonight, and what to do in the meantime either way.
Or send it over
Four things and a photo.