I have a blocked shower drain. It fills up the tray straight away, but when I plunge it runs away at a rate of about 50%. The problem is that this is one of those modern shower drains with a little plastic sleeve/basket which is supposed to catch hair, you can lift the sleeve out but there is no hole that leads to the exit pipe so you cannot use any of the snake tools to clean the pipe or even a camera to see what’s going on because the water exits the drain by rising in the recess behind the sleeved section and then running out of the pipe. I have a heavy-duty pump plunger for sucking water back up and then blowing it down under pressure. I have also tried a powerful wet vacuum to suck out the water hoping to drag what ever is blocking with it. I have also tried chemicals but they were useless as always. I cannot really contemplate tearing up my heavy cemented in shower tray! Please can someone offer advice?

Kev, November 2011

Thank you for your suggestion. I assume the shower drain joins with the sink drain (because they affect each other) I assume they drop in at a T piece above the horizontal soil stack/sewer pipe, which exits the toilet. This is all underground. I do however have access to the main sewer pipe, so temporarily blocked it in the inspection chamber outside, then filled the shower drain and sink drain and soil pipe (all 3 pipes) with water and then back plunged the main drain with rodding equipment, lots of water everywhere back in the downstairs bathroom, but it did not resolve the issue.

Kev, November 2011

Have you got access to the shower waste from outside?. if it has any push fit joints pull them apart and try getting access from the outside in under the shower.I would doubt it is blocked in the shower if you have removed the hair basket as it is straight through from there so would suspect blockage is in the waste pipe

A1, November 2011