Bathroom Drain Unclogging in Ajax

Telltales that call for bathroom drain unclogging

• Your ankles are underwater before the conditioner is rinsed out.
• The vanity basin takes minutes to empty after brushing teeth.
• A pop-up stopper that no longer lifts or drops properly.
• A sewer smell from the overflow slot under the tap.

How we do the work

First we take out what can be taken out. Tub drains have a stopper or strainer, a lift linkage behind the overflow plate, and sometimes a trip lever plunger that collects a mat of hair on its own. Vanity pop-ups have a pivot rod under the basin that hooks the stopper; we free the rod, lift the stopper and clean both. Most of the time the clog comes out in one grey clump on the end of a barbed strip or a short cable.

If it does not, we run a small drum auger through the overflow opening rather than the drain itself, since that route bends less on its way to the trap. Shower stalls without an overflow are cleared through the strainer after it is unscrewed or cut free.

1. Remove stopper, strainer or linkage.
2. Pull hair from the first bend by hand or barbed tool.
3. Auger the trap and branch if flow is still slow.
4. Rebuild the linkage, test the stopper, and check the overflow gasket.

On Ajax streets

Second-floor bathrooms in Ajax two-storeys often drain across a joist bay to a stack in the hall wall. When the clog is in that run, we work carefully so cable doesn't scrape a thin ABS fitting. In a few older homes the tub trap is a drum trap, which needs a different approach and sometimes replacement.

Price swings on

Whether the stopper hardware comes apart cleanly, whether the strainer is seized, and how far down the clog sits.

Worth asking the plumber

• Is my overflow gasket sealing?
• Do I have a drum trap?
• Would a new drain assembly behave better than this one?