2/29/2024

***Post originally created March 2014. Copied to this blog 1 decade later***

**N.B. I am neither a plumber nor do I claim that any of this is the correct way to do this or up to code. With that said, I had 2 plumbers come through to change the disposal several years later and neither of them mentioned anything about the work**

Remember yesterday’s post about arm cannon work? Well I was mulling about some stuff that needs to be done around the house and remember the kitchen sink that I swore I didn’t want to touch? Thinking about our finances as a family I decided that hiring a plumber would be just too much for us to manage, especially when this is potentially something I could do myself…just the cost of the supplies of course. Health is another concern for leaving it the way it is any longer: anytime we get near the sink I start sneezing. Any plants in and around the vicinity dies inevitably. I can’t imagine leaving my dogs at home with their sensitive noses all day, knowing that they could be breathing in mold, fumes or other germs. And on top of everything, my thirst for learning new things, how things work and all things handyman requires attention!

Decision made, I took a bunch of pictures and hightailed it to a home improvement store. I personally favor Lowe’s even though it’s further out, and I’m glad I made the trek because I start looking at pipes and am completely overwhelmed. I hit up a store clerk and he was AMAZING. He looked at my pictures and started pulling things out and explaining how to do it. I left stoked and set to it right away.

2.5 hours later I hit a minor snag, and I head back to find him and the part I’m missing. At this point I was very eager to show him what I was able to accomplish. After some milling around I find him. He looked at my pictures and was just delighted. Beyond delighted! He went on and on about he got chills just seeing what I was able to accomplish because he tells people how to do things all day and many people just don’t listen. I think I made his day, but he made my day even more. I gave him a big hug and came home to finish the job. I’m not gonna lie: I was very nervous putting on the primer and cement because of the finality of everything, but I was careful to make sure everything lined up properly. PROJECT COMPLETE. For now at least…Now it’s a waiting game to make sure that my work will hold. So far so good. I’ve dumped water all over the place and nary a drip. Yet. If it wasn’t for Bill C. at Lowe’s I would never have made it that far. I am eternally grateful for the confidence he inspired in me and the learning experience.

The materials I started off with. Later I found that needed many more tools such as my rotary tool, a full sized hacksaw, utility knife, plumber’s putty, Sharpie, drain basket tool, a vacuum, among others. The most important pieces of equipment, however, were safety glasses and a face mask.

Before pic. The problems were leaking on both sides. The left, as you can see, places the lock nut to the sink basin completely warped which was the main problem. The previous home owner used electrical tape to hold the pipe in place instead of the slip nut. On the right side, the P-trap had a nice hole in it where things would leak and you can see the gunk coming from the nut. The dishwasher drain hose could use some help too, but that’s for another day.

You see how the left sink drain basket was completely disconnected and mobile, hence the leaking.

After dismantling, you can see that the real problem and the source of the entire issue was that they didn’t know what they were doing and placed the gasket on top of the sink where the flange is supposed to meet the sink with only plumber’s putty between them. This caused a leak that would in turn allow everything to deteriorate. That’s probably about the time the electrical tape came into play.

Drain basket gone.

Sawed off the pipe per Mr. Bill’s advice. In retrospect, I probably didn’t need to replace the pipes on the left side since the problem was purely the drain basket, but….

…I would never have seen this. Who knows how long this gunk had been building up. The source of the stench around the sink, I’d wager. It was RIPE let me tell you. This is why the respirator mask and glasses were so important.

Both sides sawed off and paper towel stuffed in the holes to help prevent sewage gas leakage.

Sink tailpipe. I ended up not needing the red gasket because it didn’t allow contact with the pipe.

Dry fitting the pipes. Hacksawing is hard work, for serious. Only missing one item, the disposal tailpipe before being able to finalize everything. This is when I left to find Mr. Bill again.

Primed and cemented!!! I sorely hope I did that correctly. Time was of essence, so it was do or die. I made such a mess with the primer.

A heck of a lot better-looking than before, doncha think? All the nuts where they’re supposed to be. 🙂

Water test. So far so good.

AAAAAND there you have it! A plumbing n00b like myself (I guess I technically know a little more than your average Joe merely from my bathtub fiasco) can replace sink pipes!! Still not 100% guarantee as time will tell, but I am DARN TOOTIN’ proud of myself. I think my mom will appreciate this when she comes back. She was concerned about having to call a plumber and spend money on that.

Next project would be to replace the water damaged cabinet floor and try and change out the dishwasher drain hose.

…I hope nothing explodes overnight…