The dust mask won’t serve any functional purpose, but it’ll dampen any gnarly smells that may be accumulating in the bathroom. Consider opening any bathroom windows to get some air flowing.
If you’re in charge of the urinals and you don’t have urinal cakes, consider buying some and leaving them over the drain. They can go a long way towards keeping the bathroom from stinking in between cleanings.
Some drain covers don’t have screws and rely on tension to stay in place. If you don’t see any screws, try simply pulling on the cover. Some urinals don’t have drain covers. If you’re responsible for the urinal, consider installing one to prevent blockages from accumulating in the drain in the future.
The standard, cheap plungers with a wood handle and a reddish cup may be a little too firm for the curved porcelain in a urinal. You can put a bucket down under the urinal if you’re worried about splash-back from the plunging.
If you hear the drain pipe making noise, it’s probably emptying out and you’ve removed the blockage. You may not hear anything though.
There are electric snakes that feed the cable automatically. Consider getting one if you know that you may need one in the future. There are drain augers that have a long rod instead of a drum. You cannot use this type of snake on a urinal because the pipes are too round.
An electric snake doesn’t need to be pulled out. Simply stick the part of the coil that sticks out into the drain pipe.
If you have an electric snake, all you have to do is press the button or trigger to start feeding the coil through the pipe.
Depending on the type of blockage, your coil may not have been able to pull anything out of the pipe. This doesn’t mean that you didn’t clear the blockage though. If there’s a bunch of gunk on the coil, it’s possible that you didn’t get all of it. Clean the coil off by hand and repeat the process just to be safe.
Standard drain-clearing chemicals aren’t as efficient as muriatic acid and tend to be bad for pipes. Avoid using them unless you can’t get your hands on muriatic acid. Muriatic acid is closely related to hydrochloric acid. It’s extremely abrasive, so handle it carefully. Muriatic acid only works if you have a dry blockage. If there’s water built up in your pipe that can’t escape, this won’t work.
Flush the urinal 3-4 times after doing this to wash out the acid and any other debris.
