Preventative Maintenance - Did you remember the tub drain?
To often when we think of rental property preventative maintenance we think of replacing furnace filters and smoke alarm batteries. But do you know that you should also be doing preventative maintenance on your tub drain?
When was the last time you got a call to go out to inspect a slow draining tub or a tenant complaining that when they shower the water builds up? These call can be avoided by doing some simple maintenance before a tenant moves in or after they move out.
The number one cause of a plugged or slow draining tub/shower drain is hair build up in the drain.
So how do you go about cleaning all that hair from the drain? Below we discuss a few methods you can use to remove the hair.
Tools that will be handy:
ZIP IT - can be purchased at most hardware stores
needle nose pliers
flat tip screwdriver
Locking pliers
disposable bag and gloves
safety glasses
Before proceeding we recommend you put on some disposable gloves (This hair and stuff is nasty) and eye protection (your dealing with grey water that may splash back, you don't want that in your eyes).
Method 1
Use the Zip it tool and push into the drain all the way. Slowly pull out and remove hair from tool. Repeat until no more hair comes out on the tool.
Method 2
Remove the drain plug. This simply done by holding the bottom portion and then unscrewing the top cap. Using a screw driver remove the lower portion. Once this is removed you will have full access to the drain. Using various tools (Zip IT, needle nose pliers, flat tip screwdriver) you can now remove all the hair.
Preventative Maintenance
As a rental property management company we make it the tenants responsibility to clean out theses drains on move out. For long term tenants we make sure that it becomes a preventative maintenance item they are responsible for. If you have open drains (like most stand up showers) it is recommended you install a hair catcher similar to the picture shown here. Theses are available at most hardware stores.
