Hi,

We have 1951 cape, with an older tub, looks like it has one of those insert things installed around the tub and tubwall, where there may have been tile at one time. Anyway, the drain is pretty old. There is also a rather large overflow drain (made by Sterling) that has a little opening cover that can be put to the side, and then you can just put anything up to the size of a large marble down the drain (my curious 2 yr old dropped a toy turtle down there just today!). But the thing that is particularly annoying about the main drain is that it is a press drain. You need to press the drain to stop it or press it again (with some force, as the suction is quite good) to let the water out. The drain opening itself is very small, perhaps a 1/16 of an inch, but it's made smaller from the suction mechanism that allows it to be stopped. Also, there is a little mote type thing, where the drain is actually higher than the tub floor. So, water collects in the little area. This is all particularly annoying because if the kids are especially dirty that day with dirt or sand, whatever is stuck to them will not go down. It doesn't really have to be a lot, it can just be from normal play. The result is that the drain is super slow, that debris gets collected in the little circle around the drain and water always collects near the drain because the drain is higher than the tub floor. Furthermore, because the mechanism is so tight, snaking the drain doesn't work (we have a little flat device that can be stuck down drains and little thorns along the side can remove whatever is clogging a drain). I have reluctantly used commercial drain declogging solutions, but I don't like using those things and they don't really even work on the drain. I am not even sure if the drain is really even clogged, as even after using heavy duty solutions overnight, the drainage doesn't really improve. Removing the drain has proved impossible thus far.

How hard is to replace drain stopper like this? Would I need a professional or is something I can do over the weekend? Would it cost a lot? I don't really want to spend hundreds on this, but am willing to spend something reasonable to get my shower/bathtub back. Fortunately this is the bathtub on the 1st floor, so we just do our bathing needs upstairs.

Thanks for any input that can help.

Please, post a photo...