Removing Kitchen Sink

JohnWicklow

Hi All,
I'm getting a new kitchen fitted and am planning on removing the old stuff myself... I'm fairly handy but not that experienced with the plumbing side of things. I will probably get a plumber to plumb the new sink but i'd like to remove the old one myself if possible. My sink is about 20 years old, there is no isolation tap that I can shut off as far as I can see.

My understanding is that I should shut off the rising main (cold water supply) but also kill the hot water supply in the attic? As I understand it - I need to close off the attic tap, drain the tank down the bath and then disconnect my sink ie: the house will have no water supply what so ever while the sink is disconnected.

Does this seem right? As I say, not trying to cut corners but enjoy doing things myself and if I can do it safely, I'm happy to try. Any advise greatly appreciated.

sbsquarepants

It would be very unusual to not have a valve to turn off the hot water, are you sure there's none?
Could be hidden in box or behind a panel in the wall but I'd guess that it's most likely there.

bonzodog2

Shut off mains, tie up ballcocks in tanks, open kitchen hot and cold to remove the most amount of water left in the pipes

JohnWicklow

sbsquarepants wrote: »

It would be very unusual to not have a valve to turn off the hot water, are you sure there's none?
Could be hidden in box or behind a panel in the wall but I'd guess that it's most likely there.

thanks for that - I'll pull out the presses etc. tonight and have a better look. If I can shut off the hot under the kitchen sink. Can I then disconnect the sink but still have (tank) water in teh rest of the taps?

Calahonda52

JohnWicklow wrote: »

thanks for that - I'll pull out the presses etc. tonight and have a better look. If I can shut off the hot under the kitchen sink. Can I then disconnect the sink but still have (tank) water in teh rest of the taps?

Hot water isolation valve should be in the hot press, what it does is cut off the cold supply from the header tank in attic to bottom of HW cylinder so look for that pipe and follow it up towards attic.

[There should be another one in hot press to isolate the cold water to all taps other than kitchen cold]

[Dont open or close any other valves in HP you find unless u know what you are doing]

If you find this valve, it may be stuck and amy not close so in that case follow bonzodog2 ideas, DONT drain the header tank as there will be lots of muck on the bottom which will stir up when you refill from empty: once you disconnect the hot tap in kitchen, maybe fit a full flow penny valve on it so as you can open the isolation valve and have hot water in rest of house.

To have cold to header tank, you will have to blank off the rising main once u disconnect the kitchen tap

sbsquarepants

Yea, once that valve is closed you can remove the sink and the rest of the system should be unaffected and you can still use the other taps. You'll have the mains shut off too though so you only have whatever water is in the system - it won't be getting replenished as it's used, but for just flushing toilets, washing hands etc. you'll probably get a couple of days out of it. Probably only need a couple of hours.

JohnWicklow

Thanks for the great advice guys. As you say I don't mind being without water for a few hours. It sounds like a great idea to install the penny valve for future work though so I think I'll give that a try. I'll do a "dry run" tonight to see if I can turn all the valves etc. I'll knock off the mans and the HW and see if I can get the taps dry before I disconnect anything.

Just out of interest - as a non-expert it seems that penny valves should be installed as standard on all individual sinks/toilets and units as part of plumbing a house so that people can isolate a unit to work on it - replace washers etc.... is there any reason this is not done as standard?

listermint

JohnWicklow wrote: »

Thanks for the great advice guys. As you say I don't mind being without water for a few hours. It sounds like a great idea to install the penny valve for future work though so I think I'll give that a try. I'll do a "dry run" tonight to see if I can turn all the valves etc. I'll knock off the mans and the HW and see if I can get the taps dry before I disconnect anything.

Just out of interest - as a non-expert it seems that penny valves should be installed as standard on all individual sinks/toilets and units as part of plumbing a house so that people can isolate a unit to work on it - replace washers etc.... is there any reason this is not done as standard?

Cost. It just wasn't done