subject: Replacing A Sink Or Basin - Maybe You Need To Call A Plumber [print this page] Before starling work on the sink or basin, turn off the water and drain the system as necessary.
If you're replacing an old sink or basin with another one, it is mostly far easier to saw off the old supply and waste pipes and the screws securing the fitting instead of attempting to undo them. Slackening old, corroded fittings is at best maddening and frequently most unlikely. Cut the pipes where they're straightforward to get at both at this time and later when the new basin is installed. When the old fitting is off the wall, the taps can generally be removed relatively simply if you would like to use them again.
Before starling any plumbing work, ensure the new basin or sink fits correctly. Prepare the mountings : for instance, fix wall brackets, check the position of a pedestal and drill fixing holes, check the positioning of a sink unit and cut any mandatory holes in it for pipes.
Plumbing pipes can usually be manipulated so that they end up exactly where they are wanted. But waste pipes are less amenable often their slope and position are fairly fixed. So ensure that your proposed position for the new sink or basin enables the waste to be connected properly. You can gel 'kits' of waste fittings for sinks, basins and baths; a length of flexible waste pipe will often be useful as will lengths of hand-bendable copper pipe.
Before fixing the new unit into place, do as much plumbing work to it as practicable first, fix the waste outlet. Ceramic wash basins customarily have an overflow build in, and a slotted waste outlet must be used. To seal this to the basin surface, bed it in using plumbing mastic. Position the waste outlet so the slot in it synchronizes with the slot from the overflow in the basin and hold in it place with the washers and back-nut supplied. Don't overtighten or the basin may crack. Remove any extra mastic.
Stainless steel sinks have a hole for an overflow, but the overflow pipe incorporates the waste outlet. The plastic washers supplied with the sink waste outlets are customarily adequate to seal the outlet and the overflow inlet to the sink surface.
Next fit the taps. To make the job of connecting the taps to the supply pipes simpler, it is frequently a brilliant idea to fit 'tails ' first. Tails are short lengths of hand-bendable copper pipe fixed to the laps with tap connectors. Because they will be able to be flexed, connecting the tails to the supply pipes, even once the sink or basin is in position, is straightforward.
With a pedestal sink, a standard dodge is to cross the supply pipes over behind the pedestal - the pipes stay comparatively well concealed, and there aren't too many tight bends in the pipes.
Eventually , fit the unit into place, ensuring that it is secure before connecting the water and waste pipes. A pedestal basin can be bedded into its pedestal with plumbing mastic ; some basins have a special fixing for securing the basin and pedestal together. As normal, guarantee that there's no stress on any of the pipes or connections - if there is refit or rebend the pipes as required.
Both pedestal and wall-hung basins have to be soundly fixed to the wall : fit battens on stud partition walls.
