Mud room sink fix

It should have been only a two hour fix.  But between my skills and this old house, the fix took five days.  I should have expected this.  My uncles Curt and Larry understand as years ago they helped me with most of my bathroom remodel and that remodel metastasized into a monster.

Recently the faucet in the mud room sink started to drip.   The faucet is very old and one I didn't like. I didn't like its shape; I didn't like the shape of its handles; the handles were hard to turn; replacing the faucet's washer looked to be a pain; etc.  Years ago I had picked up a new faucet.  It wasn't used in the bathroom remodel as the faucet's trim color was gold and Tammy (correctly) wanted burnished silver finishes on the bathroom faucets.

Gold colored faucet in the mud room... fine.  The room needs a remodel and is drab/ugly so the faucet color wouldn't be the worst.

The two hour job expanded when I realized I would have to take the cabinet holding the sink completely out.  This was not a pleasant task as there is not a lot of room in the mud room to move large objects around.  I could move the cabinet just enough to squeeze by the wash machine to get behind the cabinet.

Daisy helped me initially. Once she checked everything out around the cabinet she let me do the rest of the work.

The plumbing was done between 50 and 78 years ago.  Back before flexible steel hoses were invented for water lines.  My water lines were copper all the way to the faucet.  Each line did have a union (thankfully) so I was able to disconnect them.  But to disconnect the pipes connected to the sink I had to get in back of the cabinet.  The hole cut in the cabinet was by whoever connected the pipes long ago.

The other two odd looking holes are to allow me to pull the cabinet away from the wall and the pipes that go into the floor.  This is how the pipes come into the cabinet.  The reason for the odd shaped holes and not simple round holes is that whoever connected the pipes long ago soldered the upright portions of the pipe inside the cabinet to the unions.  I was not about to cut the pipes.

After I put the new sink faucet in place, and before I put the cabinet back, I noticed the floor's hole around the drainpipe was larger than the drainpipe.  This is how the mice get into the house from the crawlspace.  As you can see below I think I fixed that problem.  I stuffed more insulation around the pipe and cut a section of screen door screen and placed it on the floor.  Then I nailed to the floor a section of wire from an old unused live animal trap.  If that doesn't stop the mice at least it will make it difficult for them to get through.

I put the cabinet back.  I reconnected the drainpipe, the hot water link, then the cold water line.  When I got to the cold water line I was two inches short.   What?!!!   Where did it go?!  I checked the line in the crawl space but it seemed to be fixed and would not move.  I looked in the tool shed at stuff dad had for plumbing. I found a short flexible steel water line.  It would fit the faucet connection but not the union.  I found a four inch piece of copper pipe whose male and females ends would work with the union and then found a valve that would connect to the flexible hose.  It was getting late and I decided stop and call it a night after I put the valve on.  I needed the valve on as even though I had put new shutoff valves in the hot and cold water lines that went to the mud room, the cold water valve only stopped 99.8% of the water.  I would have a slow drip - even if I also closed the main shutoff valve to the house.

But as my luck would have it.. even with the extra shutoff valve just added, a very slow drip was where the shutoff valve connected to the pipe.  I put rags down and called it a night.  Obviously I was not meant to finish this project this day.

Two inch gap

Day number 2.  I went into the crawl space and turned all the water valves off, unconnected everything, took out the cabinet drawers again and took out the cabinet.  I took off the cold water pipe extension and installed the steel flexible pipe to the faucet.  I then got sidetracked with my wash machine.  For some months now the cold water flow into the machine had slowed down considerably.  So much that it took a long time to fill the machine for the rinse cycle.  With the cabinet out it was much easier to get to the back of the wash machine.

I checked the hot and cold hoses and their screen.  I found some rust/gunk in the cold water screen but not as much as I expected.  I cleaned it anyway.   The next time I wash clothes I will see if this makes a difference.  Otherwise the water inlet valve's solenoid unit is bad.  This wouldn't be surprising as dad bought this Kenmore wash machine new in the mid 1970s.

I put the cabinet back and reconnected everything. It was getting late again.  The new valve was still dripping slowly.  I quit for the night with plans to get a new valve the next day.


Day number 3.  I woke up in the morning with the realization of why the cold water pipe was two inches short.  In the crawl space I had confused the cold and hot water pipes.  The hot water pipe was fixed, but the cold water pipe would move.  I got my two inches back.  This meant I could use the union and could get rid of the extension, valve and steel flexible pipe.

Which meant... I had to turned the valves off in the crawl space, disconnect everything, take the cabinet drawers out, and then take the cabinet back out.  I put the original pipe back on the faucet and connected the pipes using the unions.

I put the cabinet back, reconnected everything and turned the water on.

The faucet handles didn't want to turn.



I hadn't tested the handles before installing the faucet, but the faucet is new and the handles should work.  I suspected I had tightened the faucet to the sink too hard and this was why the handles wouldn't turn.  Instead of using the plastic nuts to hold the faucet to the sink I had used the old faucet's steel nuts.  To keep the faucet from moving I had tightened the nuts tight.

It was getting late and I had to feed the cattle.  And I didn't want to disconnect everything and move the cabinet again so I called it a day.


Day number 4.  I disconnected everything, took out the drawers and moved the cabinet - yet again!

Yup.  I had tightened the nuts too tight.  The new faucet's shell is tin.  The old faucet was all steel.  The pressure caused the handles - mostly the right handle - to be pulled into the shell.  I spent some time to remove the indent.  This is much easier said than done.  When I tightened the nuts again I tried to not over tighten them.  If I tightened the nuts so the faucet couldn't be moved on the sink it would indent the shell.  So I had to redo everything.  In the end the faucet won't move unless a lot of force is put on it.  I think I can live with that.

Slight indent around the right handle.

Now that I can run water I next discovered the old metal drain was shot.  On the J trap, the connection to the pipe going down - wasn't.  By that I mean there were no threads.  I don't know if there never were threads or they rusted away over the years.  That part of the J trap was puttied together.  Of course my disconnection broke the old putty apart.  I was not about to putty/patch it back together.

I went to Home Depot and bought a new J trap. At home I then discovered the other side - the ring - was also bad.  I had to put the pipe in a vise and used a pipe wrench to turn the ring - and it wasn't screwed onto anything.  I tried to remove the ring from the pipe - which should be easy to do - but it wouldn't come off.  The ring was coming off or I would break the pipe doing so.  I broke the pipe and never got the ring off.


Day number 5.  I went back to Home Depot in the morning after feeding the cattle.  I returned the J trap and bought a S trap.  Everything is plastic now-a-days but it works.

After 5 days I replaced my faucet.    No wonder I don't do more home repairs!