Recently I discovered that there was a leak behind my kitchen sink, opened up the back of the cabinet and discovered a heavily decayed galvanized drain pipe leading to the cast-iron stack. We replaced it with PVC and closed up the back.
We did not change the height or realize at the time that it is a problem, nor could we have changed the height without extreme difficulty and probably disastrous failure. I guess we'd have had to replace a section of the cast iron pipe with PVC, all while crouched under the sink and after somehow crawling to the outer edge of the attic to brace it from above. I mean I guess it's not too late to do that, but I have no hope that this would not result in horrific catastrophe, whether in the form of property destruction or loss of a valuable finger or eye.
The previous trap under the sink was kind of grungy, so I bought a new one. It was only upon installing it that I realized that the previous configuration had used an extension tube to connect the trap to the waste outlet coming out of the back of the sink and that this was because the waste discharge of the disposal is significantly lower than where the drain enters the wall. My SO decided to configure things a bit differently to accommodate this: he put the trap backwards and used what should have been an outlet as an extension, then used the extension as the outlet, fitting it into the pipe coming from the wall. When I noticed this, I figured it would not work, but it seemed to be working, so I left it alone. Today, it started leaking from where the outlet-functioning-as-extension and trap are joined, and the reason was obvious: the standing water in the trap extended past this point.
The thing is, the disposal set-up did not leak before and drained fine, did not smell, etc. I don't know how it managed to defy gravity, but somehow it did. Occasionally you had to turn the disposal for a second or two to get the sink to drain, but this was not a problem. This disposal's predecessor did not last as long as it should have, probably from having standing water in it, but it did last around around 7 years.
What are my options here? I have seen a suggestion of using a grey-water pump to pump the water up to the outlet. Is this feasible? Has anyone seen such a set-up in action or have a pump to recommend?
I am aware that garbage disposals are bad, cause problems, etc., but not having one is not a viable option. Unfortunately, people in my family simply cannot be counted on not to just cram food down the drain or follow even the most basic instructions regarding daily living. There are no words or actions that have any hope of changing their behavior, so a disposal is essential. If I have to buy a new one, even annually, I can live with that, but I can't have water leaking under the sink.
We did not change the height or realize at the time that it is a problem, nor could we have changed the height without extreme difficulty and probably disastrous failure. I guess we'd have had to replace a section of the cast iron pipe with PVC, all while crouched under the sink and after somehow crawling to the outer edge of the attic to brace it from above. I mean I guess it's not too late to do that, but I have no hope that this would not result in horrific catastrophe, whether in the form of property destruction or loss of a valuable finger or eye.
The previous trap under the sink was kind of grungy, so I bought a new one. It was only upon installing it that I realized that the previous configuration had used an extension tube to connect the trap to the waste outlet coming out of the back of the sink and that this was because the waste discharge of the disposal is significantly lower than where the drain enters the wall. My SO decided to configure things a bit differently to accommodate this: he put the trap backwards and used what should have been an outlet as an extension, then used the extension as the outlet, fitting it into the pipe coming from the wall. When I noticed this, I figured it would not work, but it seemed to be working, so I left it alone. Today, it started leaking from where the outlet-functioning-as-extension and trap are joined, and the reason was obvious: the standing water in the trap extended past this point.
The thing is, the disposal set-up did not leak before and drained fine, did not smell, etc. I don't know how it managed to defy gravity, but somehow it did. Occasionally you had to turn the disposal for a second or two to get the sink to drain, but this was not a problem. This disposal's predecessor did not last as long as it should have, probably from having standing water in it, but it did last around around 7 years.
What are my options here? I have seen a suggestion of using a grey-water pump to pump the water up to the outlet. Is this feasible? Has anyone seen such a set-up in action or have a pump to recommend?
I am aware that garbage disposals are bad, cause problems, etc., but not having one is not a viable option. Unfortunately, people in my family simply cannot be counted on not to just cram food down the drain or follow even the most basic instructions regarding daily living. There are no words or actions that have any hope of changing their behavior, so a disposal is essential. If I have to buy a new one, even annually, I can live with that, but I can't have water leaking under the sink.