Basement Plan: Sink Removal

So it was time to begin executing the basement plan. We began with the area designated as the future storage area. After taking out all of the stuff that had been temporarily stored in that corner, the only thing left in the way was an old unvented sink.

We never (or hardly ever) used this sink, so it would be no big loss to take it out to make room for the storage bin racks that we were planning to build in this corner.

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Taking it out was fairly straightforward. Only the cold water supply was still attached. You can see the cold water supply pipe to the right of the sink. The mark on the wall that runs parallel to the cold water pipe is where the hot water supply pipe used to be. The hot water was disconnected years ago during a different project.

The valve to turn off the cold water to this point is quite old and hard to turn, and doesn’t completely shut off the water. As soon as we disconnected any part of the pipe work, water was going to start dribbling out. Taking the pipe out beginning at the sink end would have meant unscrewing each straight piece of pipe from each bend. All the while, water would have been dribbling out.

So instead, we cut through the straight piece of pipe farthest from the sink. This meant that only the last piece of pipe had to be unscrewed with water coming out. Stacey cut through the pipe with the sawzall, and I would like to show you pictures, but I didn’t get any because I was trying to stop the pipe from moving about at the time. Cut through pipes like this from the top down so the blade is in the water for the shortest time, and keep the handle end up so water doesn’t run into the motor.

Of course, there are pictures of me unscrewing the pipe with a pipe wrench. You can see where the pipe was cut, and the water trickling out of it to the left of the white dwarf.

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Once the pipe was removed, we capped off the supply with a plug. Now, the rest of the pipe could be taken out without the annoyance of water going everywhere.

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Plug wrapped with lashings of PTFE tape.

With the supply lines removed, we unscrewed the drain pipe from the sink so that the sink could be lifted off the wall. The sink was attached to the wall with two specially made brackets that have the word ‘Standard’ molded (UK: moulded) onto them.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThese brackets were screwed to the wall. Each one has sockets at both ends that lugs on the back of the sink drop into.

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This is one of the lugs on the back of the sink.

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There are five lugs on the back of the sink. Only four of them were used.

With the sink gone, all I had to do was remove the drain pipe. I used the sawzall to cut off the pipe about 1½” above the floor, leaving enough pipe to work with if it’s needed down the road. Then the drain was temporarily sealed with bubble wrap and duct tape. Eventually, we’ll plug it more formally, but we want to do that in a reversible way in case someone wants to use the existing drain line in future. That may require a trip to a plumbing supply house, so I’m pleased with the duct tape solution for now.

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