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Hi all, new here so I hope I'm posting in the right place. I'm having a hell of a time with my bath drain cover. I just wanted to take it off to get a better look at whether the P-Trap was dry. So I unscrewed it. And it won't come off, but neither will it screw back down! Now I just want to screw it back down so we can have baths again, but nothing I try works.
I'm in the UK, the flat was built <20 years ago. This is the actual drain cover:
The cover itself doesn't screw into anything below, it just sits over the drain and should be held down by the screw in the middle, like this one:
The screw extends about an inch below the cover before entering where three black plastic spokes meet in the middle from the outside edge of the pipe. I can pull the cover up about 1cm, and wiggle it around. When I do, the black plastic pipe below moves around with it. If I try to tighten or loosen the screw, it just spins around and around. I've tried tightening and loosening the screw while lifting up the screw, while lifting up the cover, while hooking and lifting up the plastic spokes underneath, done all the above with and without pressing down extra hard on the screw... every combination I can think of. And nothing works.
One very weird thing: when I tighten the screw, pressing down on the screw while hooking and pulling up on the plastic, it does actually tighten! As long I maintain upward pressure on the plastic, the cover gets and stays pretty tight to the bath (though the screw never does stop turning). Then, as soon as I release pressure (from the coat hanger I'm using), the cover is loose again and I can pull it up easily. SO WEIRD.
I also noticed that when I unscrew, while pulling up on the plastic and pressing down hard on the screw, I can feel that it's at the end of its thread because once per turn there's a little pop as it passes the end of the thread and slips back down ever so slightly.
So there is definitely some threading, somewhere.
But it won't stay tight. And it won't screw out. I've tried pulling on it pretty hard and it won't give. Could probably put in a bit more force still, but don't want to completely break anything. I haven't yet tried taking off the bath side panel to have a look underneath - is that likely to help at all?
Any ideas for how to get this screwed back down would be very gratefully received. Really don't want to pay to get a professional out just to tighten a screw!
Update: just took off the side panels to have a look beneath the bath, and turns out this screw is all that holds the entire drain/shoe piping to the bottom of the bath! So the pipe was sitting ~1cm below the bath, and water was leaking out when there was a good flow going. Bodged it for now with elastic bands hooked from the drain cover to the taps... But it's starting to feel urgent now. Maybe I do need to call a plumber to tighten a screw for me... :,(
I'm in the UK, the flat was built <20 years ago. This is the actual drain cover:
The cover itself doesn't screw into anything below, it just sits over the drain and should be held down by the screw in the middle, like this one:
The screw extends about an inch below the cover before entering where three black plastic spokes meet in the middle from the outside edge of the pipe. I can pull the cover up about 1cm, and wiggle it around. When I do, the black plastic pipe below moves around with it. If I try to tighten or loosen the screw, it just spins around and around. I've tried tightening and loosening the screw while lifting up the screw, while lifting up the cover, while hooking and lifting up the plastic spokes underneath, done all the above with and without pressing down extra hard on the screw... every combination I can think of. And nothing works.
One very weird thing: when I tighten the screw, pressing down on the screw while hooking and pulling up on the plastic, it does actually tighten! As long I maintain upward pressure on the plastic, the cover gets and stays pretty tight to the bath (though the screw never does stop turning). Then, as soon as I release pressure (from the coat hanger I'm using), the cover is loose again and I can pull it up easily. SO WEIRD.
I also noticed that when I unscrew, while pulling up on the plastic and pressing down hard on the screw, I can feel that it's at the end of its thread because once per turn there's a little pop as it passes the end of the thread and slips back down ever so slightly.
So there is definitely some threading, somewhere.
But it won't stay tight. And it won't screw out. I've tried pulling on it pretty hard and it won't give. Could probably put in a bit more force still, but don't want to completely break anything. I haven't yet tried taking off the bath side panel to have a look underneath - is that likely to help at all?
Any ideas for how to get this screwed back down would be very gratefully received. Really don't want to pay to get a professional out just to tighten a screw!
Update: just took off the side panels to have a look beneath the bath, and turns out this screw is all that holds the entire drain/shoe piping to the bottom of the bath! So the pipe was sitting ~1cm below the bath, and water was leaking out when there was a good flow going. Bodged it for now with elastic bands hooked from the drain cover to the taps... But it's starting to feel urgent now. Maybe I do need to call a plumber to tighten a screw for me... :,(
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