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DIY Plumbing Fails With Your Bathtub Drain

Learn About Some Bathtub Drain DIY Plumbing Fails

At Robins Plumbing we see a lot of DIY plumbing fails with your bathtub drain. There is a lot of DIY plumbing attempts and some of them are just too funny not to share. Plumbing isn’t for everyone, thank goodness. The world also needs so many other amazing professions. Plumbing isn’t as easy as it looks. Nor is it as easy as the person in the plumbing department at the local hardware store makes it sound. Many small DIY projects go just fine for handy homeowners, but there are those that are epic fails.

This week we would like to highlight a project where the homeowner was experiencing a stoppage in their bathtub. The homeowner, not having an accurate understanding of how the drain lines work and where they are actually connected, took a drill to his tub. The homeowner drilled through his porcelain tub several times. Which, of course, allowed his tub to drain, but not where he thought it would.

The water drained into the ground beneath the tub. After several weeks of usage it started to create quite a flooded mess. We felt for this homeowner because his tub had to be replaced, but his wife was thrilled at the mistake. This DIY plumbing project gone wrong became the catalyst to the bathroom remodel she had been wanting for several years.

DIY Bathtub Drain Clearing Tips

The moral of the story, if your tub is draining slow and you’d like to attempt this repair on your own, please don’t get out the drill. Most bathtub stoppages are caused from excessive hair down the drain. A great option to try and clear that hair on your own is to take a metal coat hanger and extend it apart fully. Turn one end into a small hook and gently fish the hook end into the drain.

Be aware, this is not a clean project. Be sure to have a plastic bag nearby to put all the hair into. Do not hesitate to hire a professional plumber to clear the drain if this does not clear the stoppage. You may be tempted to dump drain cleaning chemicals down your drain. But cleaning chemicals rarely work and they can cause damage to your pipe if your drain line isn’t ABS.

Services in Phoenix & Beyond

When you’ve found yourself in need of plumbing services in the Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, or Chandler area, you can trust Robins Plumbing to provide you with prompt and expert care, contact our team today! In addition to our toilet services, we also offer a variety of residential and commercial plumbing services, including: drain cleaning, water heater repair and replacement, sewer camera inspection and locating, backflow prevention, commercial and residential jetting, water treatments, and more. Visit our reviews online to see what others have to say about our local plumbing company!