Plumbing Problem

May 19, 2022 11:48 AM

The plumbing under this sink, which is in the basement apartment of my house, has recently started dripping slightly. The water seems to be coming from the gray ring at the top. What should I do to fix this?
posted by orange swan to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Do you mean the gray ring that's flush against the bottom of the sink?

Is it dripping all the time, or just when using the sink?

It looks like this is a kitchen-style sink and that part is the underside of the "strainer". I also interpret that the threaded pipe coming out of the bottom of it is how to loosen the basket from the sink. The strainer is pretty much always a separate part from the sink basin that's assembled during installation.

For older sinks, which this looks like because I don't recognize how they're attached, there's usually a bunch of plumber's putty packed around where the strainer comes through the sink, and that over time can deteriorate or crack and leak.

So, I suggest figuring out how to loosen the underside of the strainer, and googling videos for "replace sink strainer" -- you may not need to actually replace it, but just take it apart and put new plumber's putty or rubber gasket (do not use silicone or caulk, they're not designed for this purpose), but it may not hurt to take it apart and put in a new modern strainer for good measure.

Disclaimer: I'm a guy who fixes things around the house rather than calling plumbers, not a plumber myself
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:57 AM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Clear your drain. If water is backing up that high, it's likely that you've got accumulation down in that loop that's causing the water to not flow out quickly enough. I'm a fan of preventatively pouring in a drain cleaner every once in a while (lye, or one of the commercial products sold for this purpose).
posted by straw at 11:57 AM on May 19, 2022

If it's not leaking at the very top, that white ring looks cracked -- it's a compression joint which can be taken apart, the part replaced, and screwed back together probably without any tools. If you take it apart and take the broken parts -- there's white "screw" part and a small rubbery ring of clearish plastic inside -- to the hardware store they should be able to help pick replacements, they should be standard sizes.
posted by AzraelBrown at 12:00 PM on May 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Others have good advice (including clear your drain IMO) but can you take a better picture? There's normally a p-trap in a drain where yours just seems to be straight piped. The P-trap is normally meant to be taken apart for cleaning. They sell PVC screw-together ones that are easy to take apart to clean your drain. Maybe it's farther down, but if if there none, you need to add one.

They are really cheap and just have a gasket thing to put onto the other existing pipes, like $10.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:10 PM on May 19, 2022

The grey sink drain thing is normally separate from the sink and just a screw on with a wrench thing, so you can replace that too if that's where the leak is. You have to scrape the existing plumbers putty from the inside of the sink and then look up youtube videos for installing the new drain. That's a bit more expensive ($30), but not much.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:13 PM on May 19, 2022

there is an app, Plunjr, that lets you call and speak with a plumber to consult. Fees are very reasonable. If needed they can order parts and ship them to you so you've got exactly what you need.
posted by museum nerd at 1:03 PM on May 19, 2022

Without a better picture or definition of which is the gray part, others have it: water shouldn't be backing up that far, clear out that p-trap.

Am a plumber, sadly.
posted by booooooze at 2:15 PM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

I concur with Azrael that grey screw on fitting looks cracked. That should be a solid piece that forces a cone shaped gasket against the pipe in a way that precludes leakage. That said given that I'm pretty sure the pipe going through there is inside the pipes below it it might mean something is backing up enough that it's causing a leak.
posted by Ferreous at 2:53 PM on May 19, 2022

Oh and a trick to see where water is coming from is to use a tissue or bit of toilet paper, not your hands, to detect leaks. Much more effective at detecting slow leaks.
posted by Ferreous at 2:56 PM on May 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Those of you who suggested that the gray (it's actually white in person) plastic ring looked cracked were on the right trail. It was broken in half horizontally and needed replacing, but that was only half the problem.

Yesterday afternoon I found the leaking had become very noticeably worse since when I first looked at it. I tried to take the drainpipe out to clean it out as some suggested, and then it turned out that the threaded part extending from the sink was corroded and broke off completely. (The sink was in the house when I bought it in 2006, and I reused it when I put in the basement apartment kitchen in 2010, so who know how old it was.)

O course I can't leave my tenants without a kitchen sink for any length of time, so I put a bucket under the sink and went straight to Home Depot, where I purchased a new sink, a new white ring, and a new metal drain pipe extender. Upon getting home again, I replaced the old sink with new one, and the broken white ring with the new one. I cleaned out the drain pipe while I was at it too, although it wasn't significantly clogged or anything.

There were no leaks when I tested the sink after it was installed, so I think the problem's resolved.

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions.
posted by orange swan at 12:36 PM on June 4, 2022 [2 favorites]