"DerbyDad03" wrote in message
...
On Dec 15, 12:22 pm, "Existential Angst" wrote:
Awl,

Goodgawd, another project from the Wife, who tore apart a perfectly good
bathroom. Really, a semi-nightmare.

Here's the problem:

First, a pedestal sink sits on a hollow column, with one side "slotted
out"
vertically, into which fits the drain hardware.
The sink itself is then screwed to the wall, so it doesn't tip over.

The problem is access to the drain nuts. Ackshooly, there are lots of
problems, but those are surmontable. Access to these nuts is crazy hard,
bec in this case the pedestal is quite close to the wall, and the p-trap
(or
j trap, or whatever) is buried perty deep into the hollow of the column.

I ackshooly saw an installation of a ped sink on TOH, but they omitted
this
part! And I have other pedestal sinks in the house that I installed, but
with a lot more room.

What I thought was the answer was to drop the sink with its threaded
tailpipe (the part that screws into the sink drain hardware) straight into
the p-trap nut -- and miraculously the sink drain hole and the p-trap hole
line up!!

But because the p-trap opening is below the height of the pipe coming out
of
the wall, wrench access (even hand access) is really a problem.

So now I'm about to get a tail pipe thingy with the swaged end, put that
in
the p-trap, then mount a very short threaded tailpipe to the sink itself,
then drop the sink/stubby tailpipe into the "extended p-trap", where at
least the final nut tightening will be semi-accessible.

Am I missing something, ito tools, hardware, plumbing?
I don't do plumbing everyday, but I've had my concentrated share, incl.
sweating hundreds of feet of 3 and 4" copper water line, boiler
installations, sinks, gas lines, stoves, washers, etc, and never saw
something that was almost *geometrically impossible* to do. All for the
want, apparently, of some aesthetic flair.

I also thought of propping the sink up on stilts with no pedestal,
plumbing
the drain, THEN sliding the pedestal in place.
Heh, nice idear, but because of lips, ledges on the basin bottom, you'd
wind
up tearing apart the drain plumbing to finagle the pedestal in.

I also thought of leaving the drain assembly off the sink entirely, plumb
all the drain tube beneath first, then drop the sink on top of that, and
assemble the flange ditty (that gets puttied in to the sink basin) LAST --
but that doesn't seem too viable.

Finally, god help me if I ever have to mechanically clean this trap.....
hooboy....

Thoughts? Experiences?
--
EA

Maybe not Rocket Science, but certainly beyond an undergraduate
degree. Even Rich Trethewey of This Old House acknowledges that fact:

"This is the graduate school of do-it-yourself projects."

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-...221693,00.html

While I like the look of the sink SWMBO chose, I cringe every time she
announces "The drain is running slow again".

First I remind her (for the gazillionth time) "If you girls would wipe
the hair out of the sink instead of rinsing it down the drain, I
wouldn't have to take it apart - again."

My drain consists of a tail pipe that houses the pop-up, which sits
down into a tail pipe extension which in turn fits into the top of the
p-trap. It sounds like I have en extra section of pipe between the
sink's tail pipe and the p-trap.

I can just get to the p-trap nut with a pair of channel locks, but it
is next to impossible to get to the upper nut. I recall that when I
first installed the sink, I spent way too much time with tiny turns
getting that nut snug. I then spent way too much time getting it loose
the first time the drain stopped up and I had to drop the trap.

Ever since then (and it's been years and a bunch of disassemblies) I
have left the upper nut for the tail pipe un-attached.

The tail pipe just sits inside the extension. I've never had a leak,
even when pulling the stopper completely out and letting a full sink
drain at a very rapid pace. The tail pipe sits deep enough into the
extension that it's never been a problem.
==================================================

This is good to know, makes me feel better -- sort of.

I was thinking, if there are any leaks, if they are small enough, to just
wrap a g-d rag around the drain, and change it every once in a while!!! Or
maybe put the pedestal in a basin, and just scoop out the water as
necessary?? LOL

So actually, this IS rocket science!!! LOL
--
EA