How do you clear a clogged shower drain?
The short answer
It's almost always hair bound up with soap scum, sitting just below the grate. Lift the grate out, hook the clog out with a drain snake or a bent piece of wire, then flush the trap through with hot water. A hair catcher over the waste stops it coming back — this is a blockage that returns unless you stop feeding it.
Shower and bath wastes clog differently to sinks. There's rarely fat involved; it's hair, and it knits itself into a mat that soap scum then binds together. The good news is that it's usually within reach.
Get the grate off — some unscrew, some lever up. A cheap plastic drain snake, the kind with barbs down the sides, is the right tool and costs very little. Push it in, twist, and pull the mat out. It's a genuinely unpleasant job and a genuinely effective one.
If the water still backs up with the trap clear, or the bath and the shower are both slow, the problem is further along the waste run and needs someone with a set of drain rods and a look at the gully outside.
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