And I thought someone had just peed on the floor.

February 12, 2020 12:20 PM

What should we do about a bathroom sink that is cracked and leaking?

Unfortunately, I dropped something in one of our* bathroom sinks, and there is a crack in it the bottom of the basin that allows water to leak onto the floor. What do we do to fix this? Can we, or does it need to be replaced?

Most of the instructions that I have seen online for how to fix sinks seem to be more about cosmetic damage, not about leaking; I am concerned that if we are not careful that any repairs that we do will cause the sink to degrade over time by getting water inside it.

As a further possibly relevant detail, we rent our apartment. So if the sink needs to be replaced, I assume it is the landlord's responsibility.


*We do have a second sink in the bathroom; it's a bit weird, but in this case really flippin' convenient.

posted by vernondalhart to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

Ask your landlord to replace the cracked sink. It may be fair of them to require you to pick up some of the cost if you broke it. See if you can gloss over that part of the story. On many sinks, they attach from underneath, which is a fairly simple and fast job.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 12:31 PM on February 12, 2020

Replacing a sink is generally not a huge or crazily expensive job. I would tell your landlord, assuming you don’t have a reason not to. I am an extremely small time landlord and replacing the sink is something I would not blink about doing if needed- the last thing I want to play around with is never ending water damage I find out about like 6 months from now. I know not all landlords are reasonable, though.
posted by charmedimsure at 12:37 PM on February 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

You could probably get it fixed it but a basic sink is pretty cheap and easy to install and I'd think that the cost for either would be fairly similar.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:37 PM on February 12, 2020

Replacing sinks, especially bathroom sinks which are often built right into the countertop, can be a somewhat difficult and expensive job, as you either have to buy an entire new vanity (can be cheap if your vanity is something you can get from a hardware store or ikea) or much more expensive if it is a custom size and you have to replace it with a custom solid surface countertop and sink. Since there is no picture, it's hard to say but could be $3k on the high end. Or higher if you have a double vanity long custom bathroom vanity.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:03 PM on February 12, 2020

Response by poster: The sink is not embedded in a counter, but stand-alone. That should probably make it easier, I would hope?
posted by vernondalhart at 2:12 PM on February 12, 2020

So is it a bowl/vessel resting on top of the counter? on a pedestal? sticking out of the wall? Maybe post a picture so we can make slightly better guesses on the relative difficulty/expense of repair or replacement.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:26 PM on February 12, 2020

Very small time landlord here.
Pottery barn rules in the standard leases. You break it, you fix it or pay to get it fixed.
Also, be polite about it. I had a bad tenant break a toilet - like broke the bowl, and immediately angrily start in on me on how *I* had to get it fixed like right now. Uh, in fact, no I don't.

We had another session of Lease reading 101.

And yes, a photo would help.
posted by rudd135 at 5:40 PM on February 12, 2020