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How Removing Hair with a Hanger?

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Bend a wire hanger into a straight line, leaving a small hook at one end. Use your hands to bend a wire hanger as flat and straight as you can. Grip one end of the hanger and make a small curl—small enough so it can fit into the drain and, if applicable, through the strainer below the drain stopper. You may need to wear work gloves to give you some traction.


Don’t worry if there are a few slight bends in the hanger, just try to get the center part it as straight as you can so it can fit down into the drain. Create a half-square-shaped handle on one end of the hanger. Bend one end of the hanger into a shape that looks like half of a square (or the big dipper). Make a total of 4 90-degree angle bends in the following order: the first to the right, the second upwards, the third to the left, and a final one back upwards.


This end will act as a twisting handle. Remove the drain stopper with your hands or a screwdriver. Insert the tip of a screwdriver into the head of each screw and twist to the left to loosen them. Set the free screws someplace away from the open drain (like the bathroom floor) so there’s no risk of them falling in. Cover the holes with tape if you’re worried about accidentally dropping the small screws down the drain.


If you have a shower and tub combination, you might be able to take out the stopper by pushing it down and twisting it to the left. Insert the long end of the tool down into the drain. Place your right hand on the handle that you made and use your left hand to guide the long end down into the drain. Insert it as far as it will go or until the bottom of the handle is 4 inches (10 cm) to 6 inches (15 cm) above the drain opening.


Turn the tool clockwise while moving it up and down for 1 minute. Hold the tool by the handle with your right hand and use your left hand to rotate the top end in a circular motion. Push and pull the tool up and down into the drain as you twist it around. Moving the tool up and down will help the curled end of the wire collect as much hair as possible. Do this for up to 60 seconds or until you feel that the tool isn’t meeting any resistance from grime and hair.

How to Replace Faucet?

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Remove the large nuts that hold the faucet in place. This is where you’ll want to use a basin wrench if you have one. You may have one, two, or even three nuts. Your sink may look different because they may be hard plastic, brass, or silver-colored metal. This may be the hardest part of the job, since the threads are often quite long and they may be corroded so that the nuts are difficult to turn. Hang in there! It gets easier from here. Lift the old faucet up, tubes and all, right out of the sink.

Now, examine the tubes carefully. If they are damaged in any way, take one with you to the store where you bought the wrench and buy two, new, gray plastic tubes the same length. They come with new nuts and end fittings.

Before installing your new faucet, give the sink a good cleaning where the old faucet was mounted. You may have to scrape and scour to remove hard water deposits, although depending on the new faucet, some of the area may be covered. Try vinegar or an acid cleaner to help dissolve hard water deposits.

Check your new faucet base and see if they include a soft plastic gasket. You need something like this to seal around the base to keep water from getting under it. If not, buy some plumbers’ putty. It’s gray in color and is something like chewing gum. Stick a bead of it around the base before you mount the new faucet. When you tighten down those two big nuts, it will squeeze a little of this putty out but it’s easy to clean up with rubbing alcohol.

Attach the new tubes to the new faucet before you install it in the sink. Assemble the new faucet. Sometimes there is a separate flange or plate that slips over the bottom. If you want this flange installed, or if there are any additional hoses to assemble, do so now. Slip the new faucet through the holes in the sink. Tighten the new nuts from below the sink, but stop when you get close.

Before you get those two big nuts tight, take a look at your new faucet, see if it is straight or angled one way or the other, then finish tightening up the nuts. Insert the tubes into the valves under the sink and tighten up the tube nuts. Turn on the water and check for any leak. Wait for ten minutes and check for leaks again. If everything seems fine, you’re done; if not, tighten the fittings a little more and check for leaks again.