Plunger has caused standing water in shower!

[StrawberryJamSandwiches]

Hi all,

Not sure if anyone can advise but my shower has been emitting not so nice smells and started to drain slowly. I put some Buster down there about a week ago but it didn't seem to help. Today I bought a plunger and was actually excited to use it..... It has made the shower completely block and now the tray is full of water 😱😢 what should I doooo!? Please. 😊

Keep plunging

Try some drain cleaner and if that doesn’t work you’ll need to ring someone who cleans drains with the drain cleaner stick thingy. Or buy the stick and clean it yourself.

Mr muscle drain unblocker. Pour the whole bottle and leave it for however long it says on the bottle and then a kettle full of boiling water to wash it down.

Thanks all! Arghh, so the shower drain seems to be like a cup, not a long vertical pipe (as like a sink would be) so I don't know which way to angle th stick - sorry if that makes no sense, I'm at a loss with this stuff if u can tell 🙄

I'm scared to keep plunging as the tray is almost full and overflowing 😩

And also, out of pure curiosity, why has the plunger appeared to have caused more harm than good at this stage? Even Google doesn't have an answer!

The stick is bendy. If you’re unsure I’d recommend calling a tradesman. They charged me £50 to shove the bendy stick 10m along the pipe and hoover out the gunk.

The gunk probably had a gap in it that the water was slowly going through, and now you’ve moved the gunk around so it’s fully blocked.

Does the cup come out? My shower has a removable cap/drain cover, then a cup that sits inside. You remove the cup and clear out the gunk - it's like a trap to stop the pipe blocking.

@Amima

The gunk probably had a gap in it that the water was slowly going through, and now you’ve moved the gunk around so it’s fully blocked.

This makes sense, thanks ☺️

@Jubilate

Does the cup come out? My shower has a removable cap/drain cover, then a cup that sits inside. You remove the cup and clear out the gunk - it's like a trap to stop the pipe blocking.

It doesn't unfortunately, I can take a part of it out (which I do regularly as it collects the hair etc and I then clean and return) but the actual cup like thing underneath this appears to be part of the actual drain itself and is not removable.

Can you remove the plug hole ( they are often attached by a screw in the centre) , and see if you can then feel the blockage and remove it , a bit of strong wire , like a old wire coat hanger with the tip slightly bent may help you pull the gunk out .

@pigletjohn is good with this kind of thing , he may be able to help

Bugger x post with @StrawberryJamSandwiches

You can get a special bendy rod stick thing to poke down there. That would maybe break up the blockage a bit.

Now you've plunged it and had some movement do you think you could bail out the water from the tray and stick another bottle of unblocked down there?

Mr Muscle stuff straight down. I bet it is hair and shampoo causing a build up.

Yep, I reckon you've pulled the blockage further up and it's blocking more of the pipe. Can you scoop out most of the standing water, then plunge again? You're probably really close to clearing it!

Try scooping out as much water as you can then put down loads of bicarb of soda then white vinegar. Will fizz like crazy but hopefully help break up whatever is down there. This helped first time we had a blockage.

We had another blockage last year however nothing shifted it, DH took plumbing apart and found a huge ball of black gunk in pipe once that was gone water drained fine.

Sounds like you haven't removed the waste trap (the cup) before you got busy with the plunger.

See if you can remove the trap and then get back to the plunging.

My shower tray often blocks and drains slow.
I use a bottle of Mr Muscle on it, leave it overnight and it sorts it with no problem.
You can use it when there's standing water, just put the opened bottle over the plughole and pour the contents out.
Leave alone for the day or night for it to work it's magic.

Sorry, lesson in RTFT.

I see you have tried to remove it and it won't come out. Does it twist? Sometimes you have to give them a half/full turn before they will lift out, but it should come out somehow.

I think you've possibly caused an airlock so the water can't get through. pigletjohn will explain better, but when we did that, we filled the sink with water then plunged that and it unblocked the shower tray for some reason as they are connected?

An empty squeezy bottle with a spout (eg washing up liquid/toilet cleaner etc) will help to suck up the standing water - can be a bit slow to do, but will get the level right down. I agree with PPs, the plunging has moved the blockage. I have had this happen to me before: had to wait for the standing water to completely drain (took a few hours) then kept gradually adding unblocker up to the plug hole level until it finally cleared. The sense of relief was overwhelming when it finally did!

Happened to me and it was blocked drains outside!

Showers have a very small trap underneath to stop smells coming back up.
It has to be small because the drainage pipe has to go to outside in the gap before the ceiling of the room underneath.
If you can get to poundland they sell the twisty snake thing so it may be worth trying.
If that doesn't work then scoop as much water out and try drain clearer the cheap ones are the same as the branded ones.
The drain is going to go in the direction from the shower to the outside wall where the pipes to the ground is sited there usually is a separate pipe for the sink shower and bath if you have one the shower one will be the lowest.

Are you sure it's the shower thats blocked not elsewhere and it's backing up to the lowest point .