I recently accepted the job of selecting a new color and repainting a master bathroom that had been poorly prepared and painted with a flat paint originally. The skylights had always remained shut which aided to the moisture created by the shower and bath to seep into the flat paint and develop long dripping stains down the walls. Then, there was this issue with the shower and the drain: the drain was so clogged up that whenever the homeowner showered, the water flooded up and created kind of a mess all around the edge of the tiles. The shower water itself would hit the side of the curtain and escape onto the wall and deteriorated the wooden baseboard and wall section. So, the work of preparing the bath walls became an issue of helping to alleviate an on-going problem in the piling up of water and it's distribution to various spots where it could do further damage in the future.
The photo above is what I pulled out by using a $10 tool I purchased at a Bed, Bath & Beyond store. It is a long, vinyl-coated flexible wire that has a piece of Velcro at the end, and one can shove it into a pipe and twist and pull out a disgusting blob like you see here! The reason such a blob even existed in the drain is largely due to a drain cover that has very large holes for water to flow down. This means that long hair can go right down the drain and collect and clog things up. So, some other type of drain protection needed to happen. The remedy is below in the two shots...
First, a new drain cover that replicates the one meant to fit was purchased and replaced the rusted old existing one. Then, a simple plastic drain cup-cover was purchased to sit on top of that metal one to catch all the hair...
Now when they shower, the hair can be caught and thrown away properly to avoid another clog in the drain, which can be an expensive visit from the plumber. It does present an issue though when showering now: the person standing in the shower has to take care not to knock it away or squish it by stepping on it and ruining it's functionality. Perhaps there is still a better remedy out there....
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The issue mentioned regarding the shower water adversely affecting the adjoining wall and baseboard is handled by purchasing a SPLASH GUARD of some sort. There are basically two sizes on the market, and although I could not locate the longer version that I wanted to place along this particular shower tile section, we'll see how this one does to help protect things for a while...
(BEFORE a Splash Guard was installed):
I had to scrape away any mildew, broken paint surfaces and, old curled up and withered caulking material....
