FirstCheck
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🍁 Built for Canadian homes — written to Canadian codes and provincial rules. Not intended for use outside Canada.
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A drain is clogged or draining slowly

Nine times out of ten this is hair and soap within arm's reach of the drain opening — free to fix, and you probably won't need a single tool. This page starts with the two-minute check, skips the chemical drain cleaner on purpose, and is honest about the one pattern that means put the bucket down and pick up the phone.

tuneWhat are you noticing?
Select anything that matches and the checklist below reorders to fit. Not sure? Skip it.
emergency_home

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Start here

In Canadian homes, start at the stopper. Most slow bathroom sinks and tubs are hair and soap wrapped around the pop-up assembly — the little plug and the lever that moves it — within arm's reach of the drain opening. Lift it out, clear it off, and you're usually done. Free, ten minutes, no tools.

Ranked from real-world failure data. The order updates as you select what you’re noticing above.

Likely causes, in the order to check them

Showing the typical order
Beginner-friendly Doable, with care Safety-critical Call a pro

visibilityHow to check

  1. Run some water and watch. If it pools in the bowl right away, the blockage is near the top — good news.
  2. Lift or wiggle the stopper and look at its base. Hair wrapped around the stem, bound up with soap, is the usual find.
  3. Shine a flashlight down the opening. A visible grey wad within the first few centimetres is the most common cause to rule out — and it's already within reach.
buildflashlight schedule10 min

handymanHow to fix it

Pull the stopper, clear the hair mat off it, run a plastic hair-clearing strip down the drain, and put it all back. Free if your fingers don't mind, under $10 if they do.

  1. Bathroom sink: under the sink, unscrew the pivot-rod nut on the back of the drain pipe (fingers usually do it), pull the rod back, and lift the stopper out of the bowl. Many tub stoppers simply unscrew counter-clockwise.
  2. Peel the wad of hair and soap off the stopper and its arm. That mat is usually the whole clog.
  3. Send a plastic hair-clearing strip down the drain, twist, and pull up slowly. Do it twice — the second pass often brings up more than the first.
  4. Reinstall the stopper, re-seat the pivot rod, hand-snug the nut, and run hot water for a minute to confirm.
schedule20 min savings$0–10
Plastic hair-clearing strip (zip tool)Any barbed plastic strip about 50 cm long; sold at Canadian Tire, Home Depot Canada, and dollar stores
warning Skip the chemical drain cleanerCaustic drain cleaners rarely clear a real clog — at best they burn a narrow channel through it — and whatever doesn't work stays pooled in the P-trap, waiting for whoever opens it next. That might be you, twenty minutes from now, or the plumber whose visit now starts with a chemical-burn hazard. Everything on this page works better and costs less: fingers, a zip strip, a bucket, an auger.

visibilityHow to check

warning If drain cleaner ever went down thereOpening the trap is the check itself, and the trap holds whatever went down last — including caustic drain cleaner that didn't work. If any has been used on this drain, wear rubber gloves and eye protection, crack the nuts slowly, and keep your face out from under the trap. Otherwise this is just water and gunk: unpleasant, not dangerous.
  1. With the stopper out and clean, if the drain is still slow, the trap below is the next likeliest spot.
  2. Opening the trap IS the check — and most of the fix. Empty the cabinet and put a bucket underneath before anything else.
  3. If the trap turns out clean inside, the clog is further along — move on to the branch-line step. Nothing wasted: the trap needed ruling out anyway.
buildbucket schedule15 min

handymanHow to fix it

warning If drain cleaner ever went down thereThe trap holds whatever went down last — including caustic drain cleaner that didn't work. If any has been used on this drain, wear rubber gloves and eye protection, crack the nuts slowly, and keep your face out from under the trap. Otherwise this is just water and gunk: unpleasant, not dangerous.

Bucket under the trap, loosen the two slip nuts by hand, tip out the water and gunk, rinse the trap, and reassemble hand-tight. Ten dollars of washers is the worst-case parts bill.

  1. Empty the cabinet and set a bucket directly under the trap — it's full of water by design.
  2. Loosen the two slip nuts by hand; if they won't budge, channel-lock pliers, gently. Support the trap as the second nut comes free.
  3. Tip the trap into the bucket and push the gunk out with a bottle brush or a gloved finger. Rinse it in a different sink.
  4. Check the washers as you reassemble, seat them square, and tighten hand-tight only — plastic slip nuts crack under tools.
  5. Run water and watch the joints for a full minute. A weep means re-seat the washer, not more force.
schedule30 min savings$0–15

visibilityHow to check

  1. Stopper clear, trap clean, drain still slow: the clog is past the wall. That elimination IS the check — no new tools yet.
  2. Confirm it's only this fixture. If the sink beside it or the tub drains fine, the blockage sits in this fixture's own branch.
  3. If instead water rises HERE when OTHER fixtures drain, stop — that's the main-line pattern, one section down.
buildNo tools schedule20 min

handymanHow to fix it

warning Easy with the augerA drain auger is safe, but it isn't gentle: fed through the sink opening it will scratch porcelain and enamel, and forced hard it can punch through an old, corroded trap arm. Feed it at the wall, crank steadily, and don't force a cable that keeps binding — that's the point where a pro with a proper machine is money well spent.

Open the trap and feed a hand-crank drain auger into the branch line at the wall. Crank through the clog, withdraw slowly, flush with hot water. The auger costs $25–60 and lasts decades.

  1. Remove the P-trap (see the trap steps) and feed the auger cable directly into the pipe stub at the wall. Going in through the drain opening scratches the fixture and wastes half the cable in the trap.
  2. Feed until you feel resistance, lock the chuck, and crank clockwise while pushing gently. Let the tool do the work.
  3. When it breaks through or snags the clog, keep cranking while withdrawing slowly, and wipe the cable clean as it comes out.
  4. Reassemble the trap hand-tight and run hot water for a couple of minutes to flush what's left downstream.
schedule45 min savings$25–60
Hand-crank drain auger (6 mm / 1/4-inch, 7.5 m)A 6 mm cable suits sink and tub branch lines; drum-style with a locking chuck is easiest to control

visibilityWhat you can spot yourself

  1. Check the pattern, not the fixture: several drains slow at once — different rooms, different floors — points at the one pipe they all share.
  2. Look at the lowest drain in the house: the basement floor drain or a ground-floor tub. Main-line blockages show up there first, because that's where the backed-up water exits.
  3. Flush a toilet and listen at the nearest tub or shower. A gurgle there, or water rising in it, points down the main line.
buildNo tools schedule10 min

verifiedWhy this one goes to a pro

Clearing a main line means a powered drum auger or a hydro-jet, usually through a cleanout and sometimes off the roof — equipment that can injure the operator and wreck old pipe in inexperienced hands. It's also the one clog where what's in the pipe is raw sewage. A plumber will scope the line with a camera, clear it, and — just as valuable — tell you whether tree roots or a sagging pipe mean it's coming back.

Your notes travel with the request — what you saw, what you ruled out, when it started — so the pro arrives with a head start instead of a mystery.

visibilityHow to check — from inside

  1. The signature: gurgling from OTHER fixtures when one drains — a tub that talks when the toilet flushes. That's air being pulled through traps because the vent can't supply it.
  2. Drains slow everywhere but NO backup at the lowest drain separates a vent problem from a main-line problem. Backup at the bottom means main line; gurgle-and-slow with a dry floor drain leans vent.
  3. In a deep cold snap, suspect frost capping — the vent's moist air freezes shut at the roof. It often clears itself on the next mild day, which is a diagnosis in its own right.
buildNo tools schedule10 min

handymanHow to fix it

report The roof is the hazard, not the pipeEverything about clearing a vent is easy except where you're standing. Ladder falls put more homeowners in hospital than any drain ever will. Solid footing, dry shingles, a proper ladder angle, and someone home who knows you're up there — and if the roof is steep, high, or icy, which for much of the Canadian year it is, don't negotiate with it. This is a quick visit for a plumber, and there's no shame in that call.

From the roof: clear what's visible in the vent opening, then flush the stack with a garden hose (a helper listens inside). The plumbing is the easy half — read the roof gate before you fetch the ladder.

  1. Read the roof gate above first. If the roof is steep, high, wet, or icy, this is a plumber call — full stop.
  2. At the vent opening, look for the obvious: leaves, a nest, a tennis ball, or in winter a cap of frost. Clear what you can reach by hand.
  3. Run a garden hose down the vent while a helper listens inside. Water backing up out of the vent means the blockage is still below you — an auger down the vent is the next step, and a fair place to hand off.
  4. If the water runs away freely and the gurgling stops, done. Recurrent frost capping has a permanent fix (a larger or insulated vent section) — worth raising with a plumber.
schedule60 min savings$0–20
sort

Why the list is in this order

We don’t sort by likelihood alone. We sort the way a good, honest tradesperson thinks: rule out the free, safe, common causes first. That’s why the cheap checks outrank the expensive repairs — and why anything dangerous gets a hard stop instead of a pep talk. The order exists to save you money, not to sell you anything.