New sink not perfectly aligned with drain

[DanW]

Hi, I'm just wondering if the attached picture of the alignment is fine. I'm sure I can get the tail pipe on the new sink into the existing drain pipe, but the alignment is slightly off. There will be a little tension on the tail pipe. Total newb so maybe this is obvious. But is this ok?

 

[Reach4]

Not fine as is. How about a photo of the bottom area.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

We do NOT need a photo of the drain opening. We need one of the piping UNDER the sink.

 

[DanW]

The photo from above shows the amount of offset. The tail pipe is not installed in the sink. It is just the hole looking down at the drain pipe below from directly above. You can see the plastic compression nut of the drain pipe. That's how little it is off. I'll take a pic from underneath. I assume you want to see how the tail pipe aligns (or misaligns) with the drain pipe?

I'll get a couple more pics. It's all PVC...I was hoping there'd be a way to make a slight adjustment without cutting it off and redoing.

 

[Reach4]

I assume you want to see how the tail pipe aligns (or misaligns) with the drain pipe?

They want to see the area that includes the connection to the wall, the P-trap, and the bottom of the sink.

 

[Standardairconditioner]

It's all PVC...I was hoping there'd be a way to make a slight adjustment without cutting it off and redoing.

Think realistically what your choices are:

1. Move the sink.
2. Get an acetylene torch, cut out the sink hole, re-weld it accordingly (this is actually how you fix obscure engine mounting holes in cars).
3. Cut the soft PVC and re-do it.

Note: One of these three is easier than the rest.

 

[DanW]

Two sounds like the easiest!

I'm not really averse to redoing the pvc. My only issue is how to cut it. The p trap is close to the wall and in terms of alignment with sink hole front to back its fine.

First pic is left to right. Second pic is front to back. Third pic is the whole thing.

 

[Terry]

Normally we start with a new p-trap anyway. I never reuse an old trap.

 

[Jadnashua]

WHile a glued up trap has some advantages, the tubular stuff works quite well, too, and would give you easy adjustability after the fact. On a glue-up, it has to be done right the first time and likely won't work should you need to replace something later. Plus a glued-up p-trap makes it nearly impossible to retrieve something that might have gone down the drain without starting over...the tubular stuff is easy.

 

[Smooky]

You need to cut the PVC pipe about 1 inch away from the wall and glue on a trap adapter. Then install an adjustable plastic p-trap like in Terry’s photo. You can adjust it so it lines up a lot easier that the PVC trap you have now. That type of trap might be used on a bath tub drain but not on a sink by somebody that knows what they are doing.

 

[DanW]

Normally we start with a new p-trap anyway. I never reuse an old trap.

Oh now you're talking! I'd cut the whole damn glued up thing off at the first elbow. Put that puppy on the straight pipe that's left, cut accordingly. Rotate to the right position and tighten it up.

 

[DanW]

You need to cut the PVC pipe about 1 inch away from the wall and glue on a trap adapter. Then install an adjustable plastic p-trap like in Terry’s photo. You can adjust it so it lines up a lot easier that the PVC trap you have now. That type of trap might be used on a bath tub drain but not very often by somebody that knows what they are doing.

Thanks I should have known better than to look at what those bozo builders did, thinking that was the way it should be done. I'm off to lowes.

 

[Standardairconditioner]

Just in case you couldn't figure out what Terry wanted to tell you, this is what you do:

You cut off the entire trap and elbow, preserving as much horizontal 1.5" on the wall as possible.

You get a Pvc version of the black parts in Terry's pic, and purple glue that to the nub you just exposed.

The rest is all handtight parts. No more glue needed.

You need to select a trap that is 100% hand tight with no glue. Exactly as you see in Terry's pic, the elbow on traps should NOT be glued, and that is the cause of your problem from the start.

Enjoy!