You go to brush your teeth and you turn on the sink to find it not draining like it use to. Maybe you’re trying to take a shower and instead end up with a bath because the water won’t drain. If either of these things are happening to you that you may have a clogged drain.

It’s important to do a drain cleaning on your pipes at least every few months. The build up of hair, dirt, soap, and any other gunk can significantly clog your drains. Follow these tips of the trade to prevent your drains from clogging or if they already are clogging, how to open them up.

Using Drain Cleaner

The first and most obvious is probably to get some drain cleaner liquid for your local shopping center. These drain cleaners contain bacteria that will break down all the gunk and grim build up in your pipes. By using a half bottle of drain cleaner (more or less depending on the severity), and then waiting about 10-15 minutes, you should have cleaner drain pipes. Afterwards rinse the drain with hot water for a few minutes to further help break down any blockage.

Cleaning your Drain Stopper

Most sinks have a drain stopper that you can pull up if you need a sink full of water. The stopper itself can get grim buildup around it causing the water flow to drain slowly or not at all. You’ll want to check your drain stopper if this is the case usually by hold it and turning it to disconnect it from the pull lever. once you have it you can see all the build up around the stopper. Just clean it like any other Dishware and then reattach it. If your drains themselves weren’t the issue then this should do the trick.

Using a Mesh

Hair build up in the shower can be a drain killer. Whether you’ve got long locks of hair, shaving in the shower, or even giving your pet a bath, hair can build up in the drain creating a clog. The first tip would be to catch any hair traveling to the drain before it goes down, but we’re not always that quick. An alternate method is to use a mesh on the drain hole so that water continues to run down, but things like loose hair or soap blocks will get caught in the mesh.