Help w/ Clogged Bathroom Drain

Hello,

Wow! What a great forum to get plumbing help. Much appreciated!

I have bathroom drain that is draining but very slowly. I have done a little troubleshooting and here is where I am at. First I pulled out the stopper in the sink (forcefully I might add as it was really stuck in there) and cleaned that off. I did notice that after I pulled this out, the drain was even slower (more on that in a bit). I then bought a cobra zip-it to attempt to pull out debris which I have had success with in the past however this time I noticed that the sip it cord would only go down about 80-90% of the way and was blocked. I shined a flashlight down the roughtly 1" tailpipe and notice that there was a metal piece covering most of the hole (Was this always in this position there or did I do something when I pulled out the plunger...hmmm).

So that is where I am at. Still very very slow draining and not sure what to do next. I can take a pic of my set-up when I get home if that would help but I basically have a 8-10" long metal pipe sitting in a pvc trap secured by a threaded pvc cap. After that it appears that all other PVC is connected by just fitting pieces together before heading out the back of the wall. There is also a small cap at the bottom of the pvc trap with a square pvc bolt cap on it which look slike could come off with a special tool.

I am really an amateur here but willing to get my hands a little dirty so clear and concise directions would be appreciated. Thank you so much!

The stopper things that I've worked with normally are held in place with a rod attached to the lever. Before removing this type of stopper, you're supposed to go behind the sink drain pipe and unscrew the nut holding this rod into the drain pipe. Other than that, I don't know what the zip thing is but you could try disassembling the trap and running a hand snake.

Is thepvc bolt at the bottom of the trap a clean-out? Would it make sense to try and clean out from that area first?