Plumbing Repairs That Might Be Needed To Stop A Leak Under Your Kitchen Sink

Posted on: 4 October 2022

A leaky pipe under your kitchen sink is a major annoyance since you use the kitchen sink often throughout the day. A leak under the sink leads to water damage in the cabinet or your floor. The water can also attract pests, and you don't want roaches to invade your kitchen. The leak might be an easy plumbing repair depending on the problem, but you might need to call in a plumber. Here are steps that might be needed to stop the leak.

Put In A New Strainer   

Sometimes, the putty around the drain in the sink decays and allows water to leak. When this happens, the old strainer can be removed and a new one put in with new putty. This work has to be done from under the sink. It involves taking off the large nut that connects the drainpipe to the strainer. Then the old putty has to be scraped off.

The new strainer can then be installed along with new plumbing putty to get a watertight seal. The new strainer is attached to the drainpipe and held in place with the nut. This can be an easy or difficult job depending on whether the nut is metal and stuck in place or plastic and easy to remove.

Replace A Bad Drain 

If you frequently hit the drain with objects you store in your cabinet, you might make the pipe loose or even damage it. A leak around a nut might be fixed by simply tightening the nut. However, if a pipe is damaged, the plumber may want to replace the pipe from the wall to the strainer, including putting in a new P-trap. Even if you have metal drains now, the plumber might replace them with plastic drains since plastic is easy to work with and lasts a long time.

Replace A Water Supply Line Or Valve

An intermittent leak is probably from a drain, but you might have a constant drip instead that comes from a water supply line or shut-off valve. If so, this could be a more complex plumbing repair that involves replacing a supply line or putting in new shut-off valves.

Sometimes pipes and drains under the kitchen sink start leaking due to old age, so by getting a new drain or water supply line, the plumbing under your sink should be in good shape for a long time. Once the plumbing repairs are complete, you may need to replace the bottom of your cabinet or your floor so the materials are dry and won't attract mold or bugs.

To learn more, contact a company like Countryside.

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What's In a Contract?

Those who build things and repair things for a living are often referred to as contractors. This may seem like an odd term, but it traces back to the fact that these folks work on a contract-by-contract basis. First, they may work under a contract associated with your home. Then, they may take on another client under a new contract. Plumbers, HVAC repair teams, builders, painters — they are all contractors in some way. Construction workers are also contractors. We encourage you to read and learn more about their professions and what they involve here on this blog, where we'll post often.

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