Before you reach for a tool
A slow drain is easy to ignore until it stops completely. Clearing it early is quicker and less messy, and it tells you whether the problem is local or something bigger further down the line. Knowing where to stop is just as useful as knowing where to start.
Clearing it by hand
- Pull the stopper. In bathroom sinks and tubs, a lot of hair wraps around the pop-up or the strainer. Lift it out and clean it. Sometimes that is all it takes.
- Use a plastic drain snake. These inexpensive barbed strips reach a few inches below the opening and pull up hair and soap.
- Plunge properly. For basins and tubs, a flat cup plunger is the tool. Stuff a damp rag into the overflow, cover the rubber with water and pump with steady, firm strokes.
- Clean the trap. Put a bucket underneath, loosen the slip nuts on the U-shaped trap, and empty it. Rinse it, check the washers and reassemble hand-tight plus a little more.
- Try a hand auger. A small drum cable can reach past the trap arm toward the wall. Feed it slowly, turn as you go and pull back when it catches.
- Flush with hot water. When it drains again, let the hottest tap water run a short while to carry off what you loosened.
What makes clogs worse
- Chemical drain openers. They seldom work on hair or grease clogs, they can damage older metal pipe, and leftover caustic can burn whoever takes the trap apart.
- Plunging after chemicals. Splashing caustic liquid toward your face is a bad idea. Already used one? Say so when the plumber arrives.
- Overtightening plastic trap nuts. They crack. Snug is enough.
- Using a toilet plunger on a sink. The flanged shape does not seal on a flat drain.
- Pouring grease down the sink. It cools into a solid layer inside the pipe. Our what not to flush guide lists the other usual suspects.
Handing it over
Stop and call if several fixtures are slow at once, if water backs up into a tub when the toilet flushes, or if the basement floor drain gurgles or overflows. Those are signs of a blockage in the main line, which a hand tool will not reach. The same goes for a drain that clogs again within days of clearing.
In a basement that floods regularly from the floor drain, consider whether a backwater valve would protect you from the City sewer side as well. And if the trap itself is cracked or the slip joints keep leaking, a quick repair is usually cheaper than a ruined vanity cabinet.