Help - Cannot remove drain cover

[sooty61]

I have been having slow running drains for a while now and now when the bath is emptied or SWMBO has an extraordinarily long shower in the upstairs bathroom the kitchen sink can overflow. I moved into the house a couple of years ago and it has had a couple of extensions so I do not know where the internal plumbing runs. I have emptied OneShot down the plugholes numerous times and it seems to help but then backs up again. I lifted the manhole on the drive and all was fine, but this one is under the floor in the utility room and I want to check it is ok, but I can't shift two screws. I have tried a big screwdriver, heating them with a blowtorch, and just failed with an impact driver.

Any ideas before I have to roll the dice on potential cowboy plumbers?

[ALBA MELV]

Drill the heads off then worry about fixing it back down. If it needs fixing back down that is.

[YozzaUK]

Impact driver?

[motco]

Perhaps you don't need to lift it at all. Lift the one down the drive, go in and flush the loo, then dash down to see how briskly the water flows past? If it's sluggish you may have a problem. If not, look elsewhere.

Edited by motco on Monday 25th May 20:31

[Gingerbread Man]

Tried penetrating oil left to soak and soak?

A flat blade positioned at one end of the flat and tap it with a hammer to undo?

It'll need to he rescrewed to seal it from fumes.

[Megaflow]

If a blow torch and an impact driver has failed, your going to have to drill them.

[DrDeAtH]

Plusgas... In copious amounts, left to soak followed by brute force.

[sooty61]

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to mention I also tried soaking them overnight in WD40 before attempting to unscrew. I guess drilling them out is easier than chipping out the whole frame and replacing?

[DrDeAtH]

WD40is the wrong product to use.

Plusgas is a penetrating fluid.

Let it soak in

You may find heating the screw with a blowtorch, then cooling it with plusgas will release it. It will create an amount of steam/smoke when you do this.

[R1 Indy]

Try and get a crowbar down the edge and rip the buggers out??

[Too Late]

Drill and a metal cutting drill bit and drill them out?

[f1dget]

Daft question but are they screws? Is it possible that they are just locating
lugs?

[Busa mav]

Not screws , but they are screw headed bolts .

Just put a chisel on the heads and knock them off.

[Dogwatch]

This might shift the blighters.

Or not.

[sooty61]

Ordered some Plusgas so will see how it goes. thanks

[seeby]

Have you tried tightening the screws first. This may break the seal and then undo them . Just a thought