A clogged shower drain

How can this be of interest to anyone? A clogged shower drain. This drain was in our new shower in the second bathroom. It is one that we don't use so had no reason to think it didn't drain. I started a maid service when I had my surgery and they had commented that the shower drained very slow. I just chalked it up to our old plumbing in this condo.

Today I ran the water in the shower to see how the water was going down the drain because I knew the maids were arriving tomorrow. The water did not drain. OK, I got out the Drano and put it down the drain. Nothing happened, water stayed. Next step, I got out the plunger and tried to plunge the drain. I brought up some rock and dirt but that was it.

Now this should have been my first clue that something wasn't right. Nothing happened. My third step was to call a plumber. The Roto-Rooter guy came out and it didn't take him long before he figured it out. When we had the bathroom shower tiled, the workman placed a cap over the drain so that grout would not go down it. He didn't take the cap off. All this time that cap had been in place with grout around it. The plumber had to work a little to get things loose and freed but he succeeded. The water went down real easy. He did say not to use Drano as it is good to eat through hair but it also eats away the pipe. Not a good thing to happen.

I kept the cap and a piece of the grout to show what was holding up the water. If we had been using it from the start this would not have been an issue as we would have discovered it so much sooner. It cost us $157 to find this problem. At least it wasn't a major problem. Another problem solved!