So one of my tenants called and said the bathroom sink drain is going down slow.

I asked when did this happened she said this morning, and it was draining fine last night.

I went there after work to investigate and look what I teased out that's wrapped around the popup drain stopper. It's kind of gross but I thought why not it's nothing a plumber hasn't seen right LOL.





It's hair and grease all tangled together. Now how can this be a "suddenly it drains slowly"? This has been happening for a while.

Which brings me to the question I want to ask about securing the popup drain stopper.

I usually secure the stopper with the horizontal rod underneath, this way the stopper stays put. I have found that if I don't secure it, some tenants will just pull the whole stopper out and don't use it, which leads to other issues like dropping Q-tips or toothpaste caps into the drains and they end up calling me to come "fix" it. The down side of doing this is when you have hair accumulating below the stopper they cannot take it out to clean it.

If I do not secure the stopper, and just let it sit over the horizontal rod, it will still go up and down with the lift rod, and the tenants can take it out to clean it when it's slow draining, but then they are also more likely to just toss it into the medicine cabinet and just leave a big hole there, thinking this will allow the sink to drain fast.

No perfect solution?



Edited 1 times.

perfect solution for rental units:


grid drain with NO, repeat NO, pop-up





available with and without overflow port

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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

Sum, it is entirely possible that they just noticed the slower flow because a big blob of hair got caught that was only 10% of what you removed.

Bernabeu wrote:

>perfect solution for rental units:
>
>grid drain with NO, repeat NO, pop-up

Yes yes yes. Tenants will remove the hair that accumulates on top of the grid because it looks bad. Everybody wins.



Edited 1 times.

+ the tenant can purchase (if needed):



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"Measure Twice & Cut Once" - Retired U.A. Local 1 & 638

quote: Yes yes yes. Tenants will remove the hair that accumulates on top of the grid because it looks bad. Everybody wins.

I work in rentals often. 75% acceptable level of cleanliness. the rest not so much - blinders on and focus on fixing the problem ASAP.



Edited 1 times.

Bernabeu, that's a good alternative to use that I will keep in mind for the future when I do a turn over. I will even buy that piece of stopper for them.

When I do a turn over I usually have a whole month of vacancy, to fix things up like painting, new blinds, cleaning, change locks, then I can change out the sink drains. Right now it's difficult to change out the sink drains because most of my rentals have pedestal sinks, and to change out the sink drain often require removing the bowl off the wall completely - I tried changing drains in place, it's real difficult with the drain inside the pedestal U and the supply stops and most times even with a basin wrench I can't get that but tight enough to be leak free. With the bowl off and turned upside down then it's much easier.

Sum, in the mean time you could provide your tenants with a hair catcher like this that just sits inn the sink (and/or tub) over the pop-up drain assembly. Easy for the tenant to use and keeps hair from clogging the drains. Benefit to the tenant is not having to call you for a clogged drain. You can get these anywhere housewares are sold (e.g. Target, WalMart, etc)



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Not a plumber by trade but a fierce DIYer