Replace a sink - plumbing.straw.sink PEP BB

I'm tiling the floor in the basement bathroom which requires removing the pedestal sink.  Sounds like a BB to me!

Last week I finished renovating the downstairs toilet / half bathroom. I had already replaced the toilet. Now it was time to replace the sink. It was going to fall off the wall and no longer drained, leaving a small puddle because it was at an angle. In addition to replacing the sink, I replaced the copper pipe which was hanging loose in the basement and leaked. I installed new taps / faucets and replaced the corroded trap with a code compliant P trap. The sink is installed in a vanity unit we bought at Habitat for Humanity. It didn’t come with any instruction. It’s mostly particle board. To make sure it was secure, I screwed on a piece of 1 by 4 and then used seven 3 1/2 inch screws to fix to the noggin. Sandwiching the particle board and dry wall between two pieces of dimensional lumber means there’s no risk of tear out. Here are my pictures:


Old sink


Stain from pooling water


It was falling off the wall because it had been installed using the dry wall and copper pipes as supports! The new sink is attached to the large noggin


Sink removed


Improvised framework to hold the vanity unit in the correct position before attaching to the wall


Lumber sandwiching particle board and drywall and fixed to noggin


Bead of caulking(?) cement ready for installing the sink


New PEX pipes


Waste water P trap


Sink installed



And level which in the old house isn’t easy

I replaced my utility sink, faucet, supply lines, and both shut off valves today. Here are the pictures of the sink and plumbing.

I was wrong, and am corrected! This previously-oddball post is submitted here for the sink & drain aspect, and will also be submitted to the "Extend supply lines" bit for that aspect. There are more photos of the copper supply lines in the "Extend" aspect, but I am happy to add any more here if required - I think I tick the boxes for this bit except #1 which would apply to an old sink:
 - the old sink at the start of the job (N/A)
 - midway through the replacement
 - the new sink installed
 - view of the drain piping and water supply
 - water coming out of the tap

Hey PEP-folks,
We have a lot of kids, and our house lacks a mudroom. Thus, a back-porch utility sink makes a lot of sense (to me anyway). The kids are no longer allowed to come in muddy... now we'll see if they remember!

This is tapped into the lines to & from my rooftop solar water heater, and I also added a bypass loop to access the planned gas water heater to replace the electric one in the pantry. This would both reduce our electric use and open up more pantry space, both good things. The gas HWH will be documented separately when completed. I've included my schematic diagram for reference, if you wonder about the scribbles, it was improved by a small person.

The sink is just for muddy water (though the kids have chia pets sprouting in it right now), so I did a very simple graywater drain to the pine tree, which is on the west side of the house, and which I want to grow for shade. There will also be a diversion course for a citrus tree, but I need to build up the berm for that. Because the drain is air-to-air and not tapping a sewer, I dispensed with the usual p-trap - it would just silt in anyhow, and I have no reason to seal the drain.

The plumbing is all copper, because it is exposed outdoors. I dearly love PEX-A, but only in concealed spaces. Thus, way too many fittings were required to clear the electrical box which services the rooftop solar heater. UnPro-tip: enough 45deg joints, and you have all the degrees-of-freedom in the world! And MAPP gas is the way to go for piping-hot pipe fittings.

Further, I did it all in 3/4in copper, since it's tapped off a line that does the whole house, thus the "angle stops" are just ball valves with a compression fitting on the outlet. It works great, and it's been up and running for several weeks now.

Sink was bought from Home Depot, here: https://www.homedepot.com/p/MUSTEE-46-in-x-34-in-Plastic-Laundry-Tub-24C/202041465.

Happy homesteading!
Mark