Plugged drain?

Question

my stupid little sister painted the upstairs part of our garage and took a shower and now the stupid drain is plugged. weve tried draino already. this is soo frustrating grrgh. so my question is can a plumber fix this or is there somthing i can do? the water will not go down the drain.

Answer 1

You can probably do this if you have a strong stomach and a drain snake.  You can pick up a drain snake at most hardware and home improvement stores.  It is a coiled up, flexible rod that comes in a plastic funnel-shaped... umm... thing.  It has a crank on it and it's actually pretty easy to use and I don't *think* it's very expensive.  You'll insert the snake in the drain and start cranking it and pushing it further and further into the plumbing.  Eventually you should hit a hairball or something and pull it out.  Here's where you'll need your strong stomach.  This stuff is gross!

Enjoy!

PS- One more thing, I had to do this to our shower a couple years ago and had trouble getting the snake down the drain of the shower, I actually had to remove the panel for the drain plug lever and stick the snake down there.  Just FYI, you might have to do that.  It really wasn't too difficult, though, done in about 10-15 minutes.

Answer 2

Use bleach, it breaks down the cells. pour 2 cups of bleach directly into the drain. If there is a lot of standing water pour 1/4 of a gallon. Bleach will not harm the plumbing. When drain flows run hot water for about 2 minutes.

Answer 3

try this first, it's cheap enough:

http://www.zipitclean.com/comments.htm

if that doesn't work, you will need to snake out your drain with a power snake.  you need to be very careful with a power snake.

Answer 4

First...try a good old fashioned plunger, if it's a bath shower combination then you'll need to seal off the tub overflow with a wet washrag. Before doing anything, remember you used Drano in it so use rubber gloves and eye protection. If that fails, then there is a clean-out plug in the p-trap. Locate the p-trap and remove the plug. It can be cleaned with a small screwdriver. When reinstalling the plug use Teflon tape on the threads. Or call a plumber, it should cost around $150 depending on your area.