This week, let’s take a look at why your bathtub is draining so slowly, as well as some of the non-expected, more serious issues that it can cause.
As you may have guessed, a slow draining bathtub is usually a symptom of a buildup of hair, dirt, and debris. Usually, if you catch it early enough, you can quite easily clear it with a simple set of needle nose pliers and perhaps a coat hanger. The bigger issues happen when you allow it to become fully clogged!
First, a fully clogged bathtub drain puts an immense amount of pressure on the drainage system. A full bathtub places a great deal of what is called “Head Pressure” on the piping system. Head pressure is essentially the weight of all of that water pushing down into the drains. Drains are not meant to hold this pressure! This can cause major leaks, sometimes even breaking pipe joints (which means a whole bathtub of water falling into the ceiling below).
Secondly, when faced with a clogged drain, many of you will reach for the Draino, or some other similar product. As I’ve mentioned before, these chemicals will undoubtedly corrode or melt your drainage piping. Of course, that would lead to a very expensive fix!
So what is the solution? There are many products available that will lessen the amount of hair and debris that fall down the drain. Prevention at the source is best! If you still find your drain has started to slow, use a coat hanger or small hand snake to try and remove some of the hair and buildup that has made its way further into the drain. If you can stay on top of those two things, you’ll never need to call me to fix it again!
That’s it for this episode! I hope you all have another great week and we’ll see you next time 😊
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