Said It Here

How to replace a shower drain cover with a broken screw hole

When a shower drain cover's mounting screw hole is broken, standard installation methods fail and leave the cover loose. This forces people to resort to makeshift fixes like holding it down manually, preventing a secure and permanent repair without proper alternative securing techniques.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Holding the drain cover down with a foot while washing pets
  2. 2
    Trying to drill a tiny hole into the top portion of the pipe for a new screw hole
  3. 3
    Using a hair catcher product like ShowerShroom instead of screwing a cover down
  4. 4
    Looking for sink drain stop replacements on Amazon to attempt a DIY fix

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/HomeMaintenance2 people · September 2026

“The hole that you would use to insert a screw to hold the cover on is broken so that will not work.”source ↗

“I basically have to hold the drain cover down with my foot while I wash him which can be a little bit tricky.”source ↗

MortisSafetyTortoise · r/HomeMaintenance · 2 upvotes

“Would it be a difficult task to replace the sink drain stop mechanism in my bfs bathroom sink? It barely pops up anymore, is gunked up & the outer ring part came off.”source ↗

“I want to try to replace it but not sure if this is something easily done or if I should look into hiring someone.”source ↗

MathematicianOld6215 · r/HomeMaintenance · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised