Slow draining bath - P trap blocks fast?

[Andehh]

Hi guys,

I had a new bathroom installed a year ago. All was well until the last month or so the bath/shower was draining very slowly. It got to the point where there would be almost an inch of water at your feet.

I took apart the P-trap underneath and found it 80% blocked (ie unit 'U' shape was blocked) with a tough, clay like substance. I imagine this was soap scum (we use bars of soap in the shower).

I dug it all out and gave it a good wash before re-fitting it, however within a week it seems to be having draining problems. This evening for me there was a couple of cm around my feet whilst I was showering, but (and this really confuses me) when my girlfriend has a showered she said there was zero water pooling and it was flowing fine.

Id does seem to be random, sometimes I shower and it drains away perfectly - other times it pools around my feet

I cant for the life of me think what's causing it.

Do they do clear PVC P-traps that I could buy to see how the waters draining away?

The layout is like this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/72120595/IMG_20120827_202059.jpg

cheers guys

 

[Armo74]

Is it the angle of the picture or is the waste pipe rising just before it looks like it goes through the floor?

 

[Andehh]

There is a slight rise, but I never worried about this because the long pipe from under the bath has quite a steep gradiant on it.

Another shower this evening that seemed to drain away fine...I'll check it myself tomorrow morning!

Edit: couldnt resist running the shower to see for myself now and low and behold it drains fine. I did remove the riser plug earlier (pop up type one) in case that is constricting the flow slightly, maybe that was what was doing it? Will report back later.

Is that slight rising going to cause any long term problems? The sink drains down an inch or two behind it along with the long run from the bath....I'm hoping between then they will flush it out with the occasional help from some pipe unblocker?

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Could partly depend on the type of shower and person using it! From my experience women like a hotter shower, with some types of shower, especially electric, the hotter the temp, the slower the flow. If you are having a cooler shower there may be slightly more flow, which would account for it not draining away so swiftly. The only see through trap I can think of would be glass for laboratory wastes, complete overkill in this context though.

I'd cut a piece of wood to wedge under that low spot and try and achieve an even fall along the waste. Dips can collect crud which eventually will set and cause a restriction. Unsure if its my eyesight or there is a slight kink in the waste between the trap and the first bend?

 

[Dan Robinson]

Unsure if its my eyesight or there is a slight kink in the waste between the trap and the first bend?

I thought that too..... right after the initial thought of "damn that's a fine example of builder's plumbing".


I would rework that corner for a start, and make sure the pipe work and traps aren't under any stress (for long term leak freeness more than anything).

 

[Andehh]

The pipes are all sitting relaxed, the one coming up from the floor seems to be at an angle which is causing everything else to sit slightly off. When I replaced the p trap I tried wedging something under the corner but it felt like it was putting stress on other sections so I decided against it. The bath drain/p trap is higher then this whole corner section so figure the sought drop wouldn't cause many problems. Also, any debris from the shower would also get washed away every time the sink was used as it empties just shy of the corner with quite a drop to speed up the flow of water. That's my uneducated guess though?

Shower this morning drained away fine, gf and lodger both like their showers hot whilst I prefer mine quite cool - it may just be that tbh. This is all off a combi boiler.