I wrote a post for Bob Vila about unclogging a clogged drain. I chose a sink drain for his article but I thought I’d cover another simple topic here on dadand.com, a slow-draining older tub drain.

You know the feeling, you’re showering and getting all nice and squeaky clean, you look down at the end of the shower and you’re ankle deep in your own filth. Kind of gross.

Here’s the thing, your tub drain should EASILY be able to handle the 2.2 gallons per minute (or whatever) that your shower puts out. If you find yourself ankle deep after your shower then you have something restricting flow down the drain. We have an older tub so it has no real drain cover to keep the debris out, but that’s ok, since there shouldn’t be that much debris going down your drain.

The fix is way easier and probably just as disgusting as you think.

Step 1
Uh DOY, look in the drain for blockages. Most likely it’ll be very obvious, especially if you live with a lovely lady that has hair. I’ll bet you 99.9% of the time there’s a wad of hair in there that over time gets matted up with soap residue.

Step 2
Get some needle nose pliers and pul it out. If you’re manly, like me, use your fingers and just go ahead and pull it out by hand and whip it in the trash.

I hope you have a strong gag reflex.

Now? SPLOOOOOSH. The water should be flowing faster than Jeff Ross insults at a celebrity roast.

Step 3
Find some kind of drain cover and install that sucker. If there’s no good fit (like on mine) then just check it every once in a while. If you don’t want to touch anything gross get one of these crazy [amazon_link id=”B000BO9204″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Zip-it drain unclogging tool[/amazon_link] and jam that down there every once in a while.

Zip-it drain unclogging tool. It works well for sinks but I don't like it for tubs.

There’s also something else in your bathroom that can get clogged, but that’s for another article.

Another story for another day.

Read about some simple steps to unclog a clogged drain in my article on bobvila.com