Bathroom Sink & Tub Drain Cleaning in Toronto

Signs your bathroom drain needs attention

Most bathroom clogs announce themselves slowly. The basin takes a minute to empty, the tub leaves a ring of standing water, or the drain gurgles when the toilet is flushed next door. A musty smell rising from the overflow slot is another clue that a mat of hair and soap has started to rot inside the trap.

• Water pooling around your feet during a shower
• Bubbling in the sink when the tub drains
• Pop-up stoppers that no longer seal or lift
• More than one fixture on the same floor slowing down at once

What causes it in older Toronto homes

Hair and bar soap do most of the damage everywhere, yet Toronto's pre-war semis add their own wrinkles. Many still have narrow 1¼-inch galvanized or lead waste arms that rust from the inside and shrink to half their bore. Cast-iron drum traps hide under clawfoot tubs and behind access panels; they collect sludge for decades. Our moderately hard municipal water also leaves scale that gives hair something to cling to.

When two fixtures slow together, the trouble usually sits further down the stack rather than in either trap, which is when main drain cleaning becomes the better call.

What we do on site, in order

1. We protect the tub and floor, then pull the stopper and inspect the trap.
2. Hand tools come first: a small cable or a grabber clears most hair without stressing old joints.
3. If the blockage is past the trap, we run a drum machine through the waste arm toward the stack.
4. We flush with hot water, check every joint for weeping, and reset the stopper so it seals.
5. Where we find corroded galvanized or a lead bend, we show you and explain your options rather than forcing a repair on the spot.

What affects the price

We give you a price before work begins, and it depends on a handful of honest factors: how easy the trap is to reach, whether the clog is in the fixture or the branch line, the condition of old metal piping, and whether an access panel or tile needs to be opened. A quick hair pull at a pedestal sink is a very different visit from a buried drum trap under a 1920s tub.

When to call right away

Phone us without waiting if water is backing up into the tub from another fixture, if a ceiling below the bathroom is stained or dripping, or if sewage smells come with the slowdown. Those signs point to a shared line or a leak rather than a simple clog. Owners of older homes curious about what the supply side looks like may also want to read our guide on spotting lead pipes.

The job, in four moves

1. 1
   Pull the trap or cleanout

   Bucket under it, cap or trap off, standing water bailed first.

2. 2
   Run the right cable

   Small drum for sinks and tubs, sectional machine for the stack and lateral.

3. 3
   Camera the line

   Push camera fed in after the cable to read joints, roots and belly.

4. 4
   Flush and show you

   Hot water run at full flow, footage played back, trap reset with new washers.

Common questions