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Archive for the ‘drain assembly’ Category
Bath Sink Mac washer
The large, usually black rubbery washer for a bath sink repair , at the drain assembly will be know in any plumbing supply house as the mac washer. It’s sole purpose is to be squished into the bottom of your sink’s drain hole. The flat metal washer that is behind or under the mac, gets forced into the mac washer as the nut (that’s below the flat washer) is tightened on the outside threaded drain pipe.
This rubber or foam material will fail from years of hard water usage, and as it petrifies, will crack and fail causing a leak. Good to note it’s a pretty simple fix and any diy plumbing repair person need only get a replacement and swap it out. Hardware stores and home improvement centers have replacement parts galore. But be sure to take the old one with you!
Your New Bath Fixture
The faucet is it’s common name and comes with all new drain components complete, this includes the drain assembly in which you’ll find the pop-up parts for your home plumbing repair.
The ball and rod that when installed correctly allows for the opening and closing of your drain, to hold water for various usage. In the image shown here, the winged nut when tightened just right seals the lower back end of the drain and gives you the option of lifting the lever up or down from the faucet location on top of and in the upper middle back of the faucet. This lever has another piece of material with adjustable holes for placement in which the balled rod goes through and pivots the drain plug up or down, or open or closed.
Now when we grab the lever for our choice of open or closed we can feel the tightness of the winged nut. Most of these have a fine line between tight enough to not leak and too tight because the friction on the ball (pivot point) is creating too much pressure and inadvertently causing your fingers to much work to open or close the drain, and subsequently premature wear and tear.
POP UP Assembly
Sink drains when assembled properly contain an insurance policy, of a sort, that will save your rear-end when inadvertently the need arises. This policy is there only when a chance of flooding may occur. The drain in these bathroom fixtures have a back-up system that kicks in when you have forgotten to turn off the water after you’ve began to fill the basin with hot water before a shave, phone rings and next thing you know a potential disaster has been alleviated. That pop-up assembly has channels that direct the overflow (left)from the sink to the drain. That annoying hole in the top inside of the sink has a specific job and purpose.
So before we believe the new drain assembly has been installed correctly this final test is very necessary
for testing. Pull the lever up and close the drain, now turn water on until it fills the sink all the way to top or just under the drain hole. As this is in effect you now can truly check every aspect of the potential leak components and rest easy that your insurance premiums are up to date.
Sink Setting
Like any progress in any adventure there comes a time that makes the turning point to fruition. On this bathroom renovation maybe today is that day, all the rough is in the walls and complete, drywall’s been sanded and primed with 2 coats of latex paint and today we set the vanity and sink. The bath basin is a self rimming style of plumbing fixtures.
With this style of bath sink, it will sit atop the finish counter top, this helps aide in keeping extra water off the counter in the sense that it sits a little taller than the top of the counter when the kids tend to be less vigilant with their usage here. And being a porcelain material the sealant around the drain, use plumbers putty (@ left) like rolled play-doh wrap it around the pop-up assembly drain cap and be generous the excess will just ooze out and wipe off later. A lot of these today are plastic below and can be tightened by hand. Lets now take some DAP sealant and apply around sink edge where it will seal atop the counter. As we eyeball the center and slowly lower into place and applying enough pressure to push any extra sealant out. Once everything has been assembled and the water is back on thoroughly test for any leaks and try tightening a little more first if there is a drip, before redoing this process again.