Install a Drain Plug in Your Bathtub
Bathtub drain stoppers play an unheralded but vital role in American hygiene routines. If you only take showers for cleaning, you probably don’t even think about the drain plug. You may need to install a new drain plug in your tub for a number of reasons. It can be frustrating and wasteful to have even a small leak around a stopper’s seal. You may have lost or broken the old plug, or simply are tired of dealing with a standalone plug that gets in the way. Maybe you just want to update the look of your tub. You can purchase kits that include press-on drain stoppers and overflow caps that fit most tubs. One of the easiest bathroom plumbing repairs is replacing the stopper. You should be able to either screw or glue the new stopper into the drain flange using the kit’s supplies. It’s easier and less time consuming to screw in the part, but that may not be an option because your flange doesn’t have threads, or they don’t match up with the new plug. To create a better seal, you can also use silicone adhesive to fill in any gaps in the plug. If you use glue, you need to wait several hours for it to harden before using the tub. With a press-on drain stopper, you don’t need to attach it to a lever controlled via a switch on the overflow cap. You can easily fix your bathroom plumbing this way. Even if just for aesthetic purposes, you might want to replace the overflow cap with a new model. You can sometimes replace the old overflow cap by unscrewing it. If you want to remove an old drain lever, the job gets more complicated. If that happens, you might need some extra tools to extract pins and pull out the old parts.