Shower Drain Clogged? Clear It In This Order

A shower clog is usually not deep and it is usually not complicated. Hair sheds, lands on the strainer, and some of it works past into the drain body where it catches on the crosspiece or the stopper mechanism. Soap and shampoo residue binds it into a mat, and in hard water that residue is soap scum - sticky stuff that does not rinse away, which is why the mat grows rather than washing through.

That matters for the fix: the clog is almost always within arm's reach of the opening, and the tool that removes it costs a few dollars. It also matters for why it comes back. If you clear a shower drain and it slows again in four months, nothing is wrong with your plumbing - the same hair and the same soap are doing the same thing. A hair strainer over the drain breaks that cycle.

Across North Texas the hard-water angle is worth knowing. The region's water carries enough dissolved mineral that soap scum forms readily, and that is a large part of why recurring shower and lavatory clogs are so common here even in houses with perfectly sound, modern drain pipe.

Work from the opening inward. Each step is more effort than the last, and most people never need to get past step three.

1. Remove the strainer or stopper. A flat strainer usually lifts out or has one center screw. A lift-and-turn or push-pull stopper unscrews from the shaft. A pop-up stopper is connected to a linkage and may need the overflow plate removed.
2. Pull the clog out mechanically. A plastic barbed zip tool, a bent-wire hook, or needle-nose pliers will bring up the mat of hair. Do this over a bag - it is unpleasant and you only want to handle it once.
3. Flush with very hot tap water for a minute or two to carry away the soap residue the hair was bound with. If the drain now runs freely, you are done.
4. Try a plunger. Add an inch of water, cover the drain with a cup plunger, and work it twenty or thirty times. The water column does the work, which is why a dry plunge accomplishes nothing.
5. Use a hand auger carefully. A small drum auger fed into the drain can reach the trap and the first part of the branch. Feed it gently - forcing a cable in an old drain can damage it, and in a tiled shower the trap is not accessible from above.
6. Stop there. If the drain is still slow after the trap has been reached, the blockage is further down the branch or in the main, and that is a service call rather than a Saturday project.

Caustic drain cleaner is the most common mistake in this job, and it is worth being specific about why. Against a solid mat of hair it rarely clears the blockage outright; it sits in the standing water on top of it instead, hot and concentrated, against the pipe, the trap seals and the stopper mechanism. Repeated use is hard on older metal drain bodies and on rubber components.

It also makes the next step dangerous. If the chemical does not clear the drain, you or a plumber now have to open a drain full of caustic liquid, and plunging it splashes. Professional drain cleaners frequently ask homeowners not to use it before a visit for exactly that reason.

An enzyme-based maintenance product is a different thing and can be used periodically to keep residue down, but it is slow and it is not a fix for a blocked drain. The mechanical removal is both safer and more permanent.

• Rarely clears a hair mat - sits on top of it instead
• Hard on trap seals, older metal drain bodies and stopper mechanisms
• Makes the drain hazardous to open or plunge afterward
• Enzyme products are for maintenance, not for an active blockage

One slow shower is a local clog. The signs below mean the blockage is in the main line, and in that case the shower is simply the lowest fixture in the house - which is why it is the first place sewage appears. Clearing the shower drain will not help, and continuing to run water makes it worse.

• More than one fixture is slow or backing up at the same time
• A toilet gurgles or bubbles when the shower, sink or washing machine drains
• Water rises in the shower or tub when a toilet is flushed
• A sewage smell indoors, or around a floor drain or an outside cleanout
• The same drain clogs again within weeks of being cleared properly

A hair strainer over the drain is the single most effective thing you can do, and it costs very little. Clean it when you clean the shower rather than waiting for a slow drain. Flush the drain with hot water periodically to move soap residue through before it builds, and brush hair out before showering if long hair is the main source.

In hard water, a whole-house softener reduces the soap scum that binds the hair in the first place - which is a bigger maintenance decision, but it is the reason shower drains in softened houses clog less often.

Dallas Best Plumber is a free referral service, not a plumbing company. If the drain is still slow after the trap, if more than one fixture is affected, or if you would rather not take the stopper apart at all, tell us what is happening and we match you with a licensed, insured local plumber who clears drains, with a free, no-obligation quote.