Blocked Baths & Showers
Hair, soap and limescale: how bath and shower wastes block, and how to get them draining properly again.
Last updated
In short: Baths and showers block when hair binds with soap residue and limescale inside the trap and waste pipe. Pulling hair from the plughole and cleaning the trap clears most of them. If the bath empties slowly even when the trap is clean, or other fittings are slow too, the blockage is further down and needs clearing with the right tools.
A shower that leaves you standing in an inch of water is rarely an emergency, but it gets steadily worse. Hair is the main culprit: it catches on the plughole crosspiece or the trap and acts as a net for soap scum, conditioner and skin oils. In hard water areas, limescale stiffens the whole lot.
Shower wastes are also narrower than people expect, often a 40mm pipe with a shallow trap, so it doesn't take much to slow them down.
What you can do yourself
Remove the plughole cover or the shower trap's top and pull out any hair you can see, using gloves or a cheap plastic drain snake. Many shower trays have a removable dip tube or cup under the grate that can be lifted and rinsed. For a bath, the overflow and waste are linked, so cover the overflow with a damp cloth if you try a plunger. Avoid pouring boiling water into a shower tray, as acrylic trays can warp.
When it's more than hair
If you've cleaned the trap and water still drains slowly, the blockage is in the waste pipe under the floor or behind the panel, or the bath and shower share a pipe with a basin that's also blocking. A waste pipe without enough fall, common where a bathroom has been moved or added, also drains slowly and blocks easily. We'll tell you if that's what's causing it.
Wet rooms and walk-in showers
Wet room gullies and linear drains have a removable grate and a trap below it, and they need regular cleaning because they're flush with the floor and take everything that's washed off. When a wet room floods, it's usually a hair blockage in the trap, but it can be a waste pipe that doesn't fall enough. We carry the smaller tools these traps need.
How we clear bath and shower wastes
We clean out the trap and clear the waste pipe along its length with a flexible auger, rather than only pulling out what's in reach of the plughole. Then we run the bath or shower fully to check it drains at the speed it should. If the blockage is lower down, we clear the soil pipe or underground drain it joins.
Stopping it happening again
A plughole hair catcher costs a few pounds and stops most blockages before they start. Rinsing the trap every month or two, and using less heavy conditioner and bath oil, also helps.
Questions people ask
Why does my shower drain smell?
Hair and soap in the trap start to decay, and if the trap's water seal dries out or is sucked out, drain smells come straight up. Cleaning the trap and running water for a minute usually fixes it.
Why does my bath gurgle when it empties?
Gurgling suggests the waste is partly blocked or isn't vented properly, so air is pulled through the trap as the water goes. Clearing the waste usually stops it.
Can you fix a shower that leaks as well as drains slowly?
Yes. Leaking waste joints and failed trap seals are common and we can repair those at the same visit. See plumbing services.
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