A slow shower is nearly always hair bound together with soap residue, sitting in the trap just below the waste. It is unpleasant but it is not complicated.

What you need

Rubber gloves, a flat screwdriver to lift the waste cover, and either a drain claw, a length of stiff wire with a hook bent into the end, or a plastic drain snake. All cost a few pounds.

Step by step

1. Lift or unscrew the waste cover. Most lever out with a flat screwdriver; some unscrew.
2. Reach in with the claw or hooked wire and pull out what is there. Expect the blockage to be within the first few inches.
3. Repeat until nothing more comes out.
4. Flush through with a kettle of hot, not boiling, water.
5. Replace the cover.

If that does not clear it

Try a plunger, with the overflow blocked if there is one, so the pressure goes down the pipe rather than out of the overflow. Then try a mixture of bicarbonate of soda followed by white vinegar, left for half an hour and flushed with hot water. It is mild, it will not damage your pipes and it deals with soap residue.

Why not to use chemical drain unblockers

When it is not the shower trap

• More than one fitting is draining slowly, which points further down the system
• Water backs up when another appliance drains
• There is a smell of drains rather than of stale water
• It comes back within days of every clearance

Any of those suggests the problem is in the branch or the main drain rather than the trap, and that is drainage work.

How Vantage can help

We cover Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire and we hold jetting and CCTV survey equipment for blockages further down the system.

Frequently asked questions

Are chemical drain unblockers safe?

They are caustic, often ineffective on hair, and they make the job hazardous for whoever opens the trap next.

Why does my shower keep blocking?

Hair and soap. A cheap hair catcher over the waste prevents most of it.

Can I use boiling water?

Hot rather than boiling. Boiling water can distort plastic waste fittings.

When is it a drainage problem?

When more than one fitting is slow, or it returns within days.

Want it sorted properly?

Anything past the free checks above needs a Gas Safe engineer with the right test kit. Ring Vantage on 01462 506374, any hour, any day of the year. You will get an honest arrival time rather than a comforting one, and the price before the work.

Where to next

• Blocked drains and drainage
• Advice from our engineers
• Talk to a local engineer