This morning, I noticed that the water was backing up a bit in our shower, and I knew that once again, the time had come to extract the hairball from the trap.
I usually sacrifice a coat hanger for this job, but in my quest for a coat hanger, it struck me that the 12-in. blade in my reciprocating saw’s box was perhaps the perfect tool. The blade is plenty long enough, and the teeth are angled back: just right for snagging the rat’s nest. I removed the drain cover, and after a couple of passes, the drain was free of hair. With a quick rinse, the drain and trap were clean, with no need to take the trap apart from below.
Mark Rabe, Lee Center, NY
