Hardware/Plumbing Problem

susiestar

Roll With It
husband was trying to clear the bathroom drain with one of those drain cleaner snake thingys sold on tv. It worked well on the sink after I took the stopper out for him.

He tried it on the bathtub drain with-o taking out the stopper. Our tubs have a stopper that is not removable unless you take out a screw located under the top of it. There is barely enough room to get the right size screwdriver in to the screw in the gap between the drain and the top of the stopper when it is pulled out as much as possible.

I am sure you can all guess where this is going. He got a lot of hair and gunk on the snake thingy and it broke. He cannot get the screw to come out.

We have tried liquid wrench, force, tapping the screw, etc... I am tired of having one tub out of order.

Any hints on how to get the dang screw out or to get the stopper out another way?? I am afraid that if we run any water in that tub then the snake thingy will go down the pipe so far we won't be able to get it out and it will be a major plumbing fiasco, more so than we already have.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
We have to crawl under the house. There is no way that I can do it for physical reasons and husband is very reluctant. It is going to mean a big whiny pouty session and about a week of pampering poor him after a week of talking him into it.

It still won't get the stopper out, but he might be able to clear the drain. That stopper MUST come out because it is not working properly to stop the drain or to keep hair out the way it should. husband is a terrible plumber and I am afraid he will get mad and break a LOT of things if I force this.

I am about ready to take the drill and try to drill out the screw, or to use a saw and try to cut the top of the stopper off. Not sure it is a good idea, but....

Once the stopper is out it will be replaced with a different one that will keep hair out.
 

Shari

IsItFridayYet?
Cut the stopper off and go to Ace or the local hardware store and get a rubber stopper for it. That's all we have, and it works like a charm. You can also get a little mesh basket to fit down inside the drain pipe to catch what it can of the hair, etc.
 
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