Saturday, December 17, 2011

How to Clean Out a Basement Or Shower Floor Drain


!±8± How to Clean Out a Basement Or Shower Floor Drain

For floor drains like those in basements and showers, a garden hose often is more effective than an auger if the blockage is far down. Remove the strainer from the drain. Attach the hose to a faucet (a threaded adapter is needed for a sink or lavatory faucet).

Push the hose into the drain and pack rags around it. While you hold the hose--and the rags--in the drain, have a helper turn the water alternately on full force and abruptly off. The surges of pressure should clear the blockage.

To get increased pressure you can buy, at a plumbing supply store, an inexpensive rubber device that resembles a nozzle and seals the hose in the drain better than rags. When the water is turned on, the device expands against the drainpipe so that the full force of water is directed into the drain.

Be sure never to leave a hose in any drain, though. If water pressure should drop suddenly and drastically--a rare but not impossible occurrence--sewage could be drawn back into the fresh water system.

To unclog a bathtub, unscrew the overflow plate and lift it up and out. Draw out the stopper and its linkage (note how the parts line up so you can put them back the same way). Close the overflow opening with rags or masking tape, then use a plunger to open the clog.

If that doesn't work, then run an auger through the tub overflow opening to reach the P trap, which serves both tub drain and overflow. Use the cranking back-and-forth movements of the auger to unclog the drain effectively.

Keep in mind that instead of a P trap, bathtubs in older hoses and apartments may have a so-called drum trap located at floor level alongside the tub. To get at it, unscrew the cover of the trap counterclockwise with an adjustable wrench. Remove the rubber gasket. Using a drain-and-trap auger, first search for a blockage in the lower pipe inside the drum. If you find no obstruction there, insert the auger in the upper pipe, which goes to the main drain.


How to Clean Out a Basement Or Shower Floor Drain

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