Adventures in plumbing
A few weeks ago we noticed the sink in the bathroom was leaking. Instead of doing anything about it at the time we declared the sink out of use. It wasn't until a few days ago I decided to have a look to see where it was leaking from.
I though the trap was full of sink goo and water was leaking somewhere because it wasn't flowing away properly. I cleaned out the trap and a nut (I later learned that this is called a flanged back nut) that holds the pipe to the sink fell apart while I was poking at it so it seemed pretty obvious this was causing the problem. Replace the nut, fix the sink. Simple right.
I went to to a local DIY shop and bought what I thought was what I needed. it was a piece of pipe with two nuts on. It was size converter thing with two nuts as I didn't know what size to get. Got it home and quickly realised that my bright idea to get both size nuts didn't work. They were the wrong type of nut.
So back to the shop for the correct nut. This time I took a bit of the broken nut and one of the assistants knew straightaway what it was and helped my find one.
I got home and fitted the new nut. This was pretty straightforward and it was beginning to seem a bit too easy. I ran the tap for a bit whilst admiring my handiwork and as I sat there watching it water started dripping again.
I tried tightening up the nut a bit more before trying to trace the water back to where it was coming from. Nothing other than where it was dripping from seemed to be wet. I took the trap off again, and like the idiot I am, I emptied it straight back into the sink.
The trap has a chrome finish and the bottom is corroded. I put this down as external initially as a result of the water dripping from it but on poked at the corroded bit and it crumbled to a hole.
So another trip to the DIY shop was called for. All I wanted was a new trap. Turns out you can't just buy a new trap, I needed to get a whole new trap with the pipes thing. I'm sure there are proper terms for all this but I'm not a plumber so I don't know what they are. So I bought a new trap with all the trimmings. Fitting it should be easy enough, however, this new one is bigger (fatter, not longer) than the old one and the waste pipe needs trimming. It's a metal pipe and takes some getting through with my wood saw but I manage it. Finally I have fixed the sink. For the first time in ages I feel like I have achieved something. And here it is in all it's new, non leaky glory:
I though the trap was full of sink goo and water was leaking somewhere because it wasn't flowing away properly. I cleaned out the trap and a nut (I later learned that this is called a flanged back nut) that holds the pipe to the sink fell apart while I was poking at it so it seemed pretty obvious this was causing the problem. Replace the nut, fix the sink. Simple right.
I went to to a local DIY shop and bought what I thought was what I needed. it was a piece of pipe with two nuts on. It was size converter thing with two nuts as I didn't know what size to get. Got it home and quickly realised that my bright idea to get both size nuts didn't work. They were the wrong type of nut.
 |
| What I bought |
So back to the shop for the correct nut. This time I took a bit of the broken nut and one of the assistants knew straightaway what it was and helped my find one.
 |
| What I needed |
I got home and fitted the new nut. This was pretty straightforward and it was beginning to seem a bit too easy. I ran the tap for a bit whilst admiring my handiwork and as I sat there watching it water started dripping again.
I tried tightening up the nut a bit more before trying to trace the water back to where it was coming from. Nothing other than where it was dripping from seemed to be wet. I took the trap off again, and like the idiot I am, I emptied it straight back into the sink.
The trap has a chrome finish and the bottom is corroded. I put this down as external initially as a result of the water dripping from it but on poked at the corroded bit and it crumbled to a hole.
 |
| There's a hole in my trap |
So another trip to the DIY shop was called for. All I wanted was a new trap. Turns out you can't just buy a new trap, I needed to get a whole new trap with the pipes thing. I'm sure there are proper terms for all this but I'm not a plumber so I don't know what they are. So I bought a new trap with all the trimmings. Fitting it should be easy enough, however, this new one is bigger (fatter, not longer) than the old one and the waste pipe needs trimming. It's a metal pipe and takes some getting through with my wood saw but I manage it. Finally I have fixed the sink. For the first time in ages I feel like I have achieved something. And here it is in all it's new, non leaky glory:
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