Fixing leaking pipes under sink

mrcheez

Pipe under sink in bathroom is leaking around the connector closest to the wall (in the pic).

It seems to have completely dislodged from the pipe against the wall. Almost looks like it was glued together.

Is this a big job to fix myself, or would it be a job for a plumber? Got a pretty hefty quote for it hence it got me thinking about my options.

Dublin plumbing

That's a quick fix , you should have no problem fixing it

mrcheez

Cheers, any tips on what parts I need to ask for? Or do I need new parts at all?

Tokyo

I'm not surprised - looks like the u-bend for the sink is just shoved up against the drain.....

mrcheez

House used to be rented accommodation before I bought it, wouldn't surprise me if the landlady took plenty of shortcuts.

Bonzo Delaney

Clean the end of the pipe
Remove nut from end of p trap
Slide nut on to waste pipe
Be carefull with the black rubber washer slide that on to the pipe also
Now push pipe and p trap together as far as it will go
Tighten nut to p trap paying attention to correct treads and rubber ring fitting snuggly
hand tight usually does it run tap first to see if it's sealed if all good fill basin then empty to check against a good head of water
If all bad dry up, cuppa tea , repeat process again good luck

mrcheez

Any idea why it got loose in the first place? Or is this a normal occurrence and you have to periodically re-tighten this sort of setup?

Stheno

mrcheez wrote: »

Any idea why it got loose in the first place? Or is this a normal occurrence and you have to periodically re-tighten this sort of setup?

This happened me with the waste pipe that connected my dishwasher to the kitchen sink, essentially the pipe was having too much strain put on it, so mine cracked as opposed to coming away like yours.

Once I replaced it and took away the source of the strain it was fine

gctest50

the pipe coming up from the ground needs to be taller

( seems from the photo )

dodzy

As said, the down pipe is too short. Take off the U bend and discard. Clean off the short horizontal section of the waste pipe. Buy a flexi pipe and fit. 10 mins. As easy as it gets in DIY terms. Out of interest, what did the ripoff merchant quote you to repair?

mrcheez

Thanks, where is the best place to get this in Dublin city centre and not get ripped off? Somewhere on Capel St perhaps?

€120 was the price which I thought was a bit excessive. I would have said ok to something like €65 though.

dodzy

mrcheez wrote: »

Thanks, where is the best place to get this in Dublin city centre and not get ripped off? Somewhere on Capel St perhaps?

€120 was the price which I thought was a bit excessive. I would have said ok to something like €65 though.

€120. What a joke. Go to Lenehans on Capel street. Tell them you are looking for a bathroom sink flexi-waste. €10 should see you out. Just make sure that when you fit it, you form it into the shape of a U-bend once its in place. When you see it, you will understand.

mrcheez

dodzy wrote: »

€120. What a joke. Go to Lenehans on Capel street. Tell them you are looking for a bathroom sink flexi-waste. €10 should see you out. Just make sure that when you fit it, you form it into the shape of a U-bend once its in place. When you see it, you will understand.

This is the end result. The gap was rather small for the flexi pipe to fit so i had to cut off part of the waste pipe.

Does this look ok? Can flexi pipe handle hot water etc? I imagine the ridges catch dirt more often than the standard pipes.

mrcheez

Incidentally the top nut attaching to the sink seems to be leaking a little. I don't want to overtighten it.

Is teflon tape what i need to sort this?

dodzy

mrcheez wrote: »

Incidentally the top nut attaching to the sink seems to be leaking a little. I don't want to overtighten it.

Is teflon tape what i need to sort this?

Yep, a bit of PTFE on the threaded waste outlet will sort you out. The fitting looks good Once the U is maintained, you'll be fine. Obviously, hot water is not an issue. Just make sure that the washer which inside the plastic nut is not out of shape when you are refitting it.

mrcheez

dodzy wrote: »

The fitting looks good

good stuff, I should quit IT and get into this plumbing lark.. money sounds great!

Sleeper12

mrcheez wrote: »

good stuff, I should quit IT and get into this plumbing lark.. money sounds great!

I'm in the plumbing business & that job shouldn't have cost more than €80 inc vat. Guys like the guy you got the quote from gives us all a bad name.

mrcheez

Still good money though. Once I knew what bits to get and how they all fit together it was at most about 15 mins work, but I appreciate there is time involved in getting materials etc.

Incidentally the leak has gone, just needed to finger-tighten it.

dodzy

mrcheez wrote: »

Still good money though. Once I knew what bits to get and how they all fit together it was at most about 15 mins work, but I appreciate there is time involved in getting materials etc.

Incidentally the leak has gone, just needed to finger-tighten it.

Nice job. A win for the little guy;)

Sleeper12

mrcheez wrote: »

Still good money though. Once I knew what bits to get and how they all fit together it was at most about 15 mins work, but I appreciate there is time involved in getting materials etc.

Incidentally the leak has gone, just needed to finger-tighten it.

You did a DIY repair. There is nothing wrong with that & it'll last fine.
A plumber might spend an hour getting to you ( I put up 100 miles a lot of days) If its a return on the M50 toll its €3.90 each way for a van. He should have insurance & VAT & the cost of the trap, wavin weld, socket has to be paid out of the €85 I was suggesting.
A good plumber would have cut the up pipe & added a piece on the make it the correct height then replaced the trap with one like your old trap. This is the better job but as I say you did a good job too.:)

mrcheez

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You did a DIY repair. There is nothing wrong with that & it'll last fine.
A plumber might spend an hour getting to you ( I put up 100 miles a lot of days) If its a return on the M50 toll its €3.90 each way for a van. He should have insurance & VAT & the cost of the trap, wavin weld, socket has to be paid out of the €85 I was suggesting.

Of course, the same in any industry (including IT), but I'm sure the aim is to make a profit, and in this case I would have made a tidy packet if I had to charge for it. I'm sure a lot of the smaller plumbing jobs are like this, so I might investigate if I get bored of the desk job

But yes you also have to allow for the jobs that don't go smoothly where you might make a loss.

Sleeper12 wrote: »

A good plumber would have cut the up pipe & added a piece on the make it the correct height then replaced the trap with one like your old trap.

If I had been trained as a plumber I probably would have done the same, but it seems to be working nicely

If it took 15 minutes for me as an inexperienced DIY-er to do this, I'm sure it would take approx the same time to do it properly if I had the training. Hence what I mean about nice profit for 15-25 minutes work.

Sleeper12

mrcheez wrote: »

Of course, the same in any industry (including IT), but I'm sure the aim is to make a profit, and in this case I would have made a tidy packet if I had to charge for it. I'm sure a lot of the smaller plumbing jobs are like this, so I might investigate if I get bored of the desk job

But yes you also have to allow for the jobs that don't go smoothly where you might make a loss.



If I had been trained as a plumber I probably would have done the same, but it seems to be working nicely

You missed my whole point. I was saying a plumber would have done a better job. The job you did was fine but a plumber couldn't leave it like that. He would have used a proper trap.
Look you did a good job. Fair play to you but it's very unfair to compare it to a plumber doing a better job for €85 Inc vat.

mrcheez

Hmm I think you missed my point

jack of all

I don't want to jump on the bandwagon BUT Sleeper12 is 100% spot on- I think €85 for a pro to extend ex. pvc waste and fit a new trap (a neater, far more professional job) would be entriely reasonable and if a professional plumber tried to do the DIY solution (as you did) AND charge top dollar for same he wouldn't be getting too many referrals. No comparison in the two jobs.

mrcheez

wow two people missed my point.. hmm maybe I need to be a bit clearer.

Basically what I was saying was:

- The DIY job took me 15 mins. If I had been told how to do the "proper" job I would have done that instead (cutting pipes and fitting new ones is easy. Sure I had to cut the waste pipe as part of my flexi-pipe fitting anyway).
- The "proper" method would have taken me 1 hour
- If I was trained as a plumber the proper job would have taken 15 minutes (the DIY job probably 5 minutes)
- So €85 for 15 mins work doing the "proper" method is easy money considering the cost of the materials at trade prices etc, even adding estimate of driving to and from job at 20-40 mins

Anyway we can close this thread as I remember plumbers tended to be a bit touchy so don't want to go down that route all over again, plus the question was answered by dodzy