Sink drain repair in Southeast Michigan

There are two sink drain problems in most houses and they have nothing to do with each other. One is the bathroom sink upstairs that takes a minute to empty. The other is the slow drip into the cabinet that nobody notices until the shelf paper buckles. Sink drain repair from our bathroom repair crew covers both, and in most cases it means a new drain assembly and a new P trap rather than anything behind the wall.

The slow drain, and what is actually in there

A bathroom sink that drains slowly is almost never blocked at the trap. The blockage sits on the pop up stopper rod, six inches down, where hair and soap scum bind into a mass the water has to squeeze past. Pulling the stopper and clearing that rod solves most slow bathroom sinks in ten minutes. Chemical drain cleaner does not, because it flows past the obstruction rather than through it, and it sits in the trap corroding the metal instead.

Kitchen sinks clog differently. Grease cools on the pipe wall and narrows the bore a little more each month until something finally catches. That one really is in the trap or the arm beyond it, and it needs the joint opened and cleaned rather than a plunger.

Why the cabinet is wet

A leak under a sink comes from one of four places and they are easy to tell apart once the cabinet is emptied. The drain flange where the strainer meets the basin fails when the plumber’s putty under it has dried and shrunk. The slip joints on the trap loosen or lose their washers. The tailpiece connection at the bottom of the strainer works loose. And the supply line or its shutoff valve weeps, which reads as a drain leak but is not one.

We dry everything, run water and watch, because guessing at this costs more than looking. A leak that only appears when the sink is full is a flange or a trap. A leak that is there whether or not anybody uses the sink is on the supply side, and that is closer to a faucet and valve repair than to drain work.

Chrome traps, plastic traps and the ones that dissolve quietly

Older Southeast Michigan bathrooms often have chrome plated brass traps, which look far better than plastic under a pedestal sink where everybody can see them. They also corrode from the inside, and a chrome trap that looks fine can be paper thin at the bottom of the bend. When one crumbles as we take it apart, it was days from failing anyway.

Inside a closed vanity cabinet, plastic is the better material and nobody sees it. Under a pedestal or a wall hung basin, we fit new chrome so the exposed plumbing matches the fixture. That choice is worth making deliberately rather than defaulting to whatever is on the truck.

The smell coming out of a drain nobody uses

The bend in a trap holds a small plug of water that keeps sewer gas out of the room. In a guest bathroom that goes months between uses, that water evaporates and the barrier disappears. Running the tap for thirty seconds refills it and the smell goes away. If it comes back within a week, the trap is siphoning dry because of a venting problem, and venting is a licensed plumber’s work rather than ours.

Pop up stoppers, and the mechanism that stops working

The lever behind the faucet connects to a pivot rod that runs through the back of the drain body and lifts the stopper on a strap. Three things go wrong with it. The clevis screw loosens and the stopper stops sealing, so the basin will not hold water. The pivot rod’s washer and nut fail, which leaks into the cabinet from a spot nobody thinks to check. Or the rod corrodes through entirely and the lever does nothing at all.

All three are cheap parts. The one worth attention is the pivot seal, because it drips at the back of the drain body where the cabinet wall hides it, and that is the leak that quietly ruins a vanity deck over two winters.

Disposals, and the leak at the flange

A garbage disposal hangs off the sink flange on a mounting ring, and its weight pulls on that connection for years. When water appears at the top of the unit rather than the bottom, the flange gasket has failed and the unit needs dropping and resetting. Water from the bottom housing is a different matter, because that means the internal seal above the motor has gone and the unit is finished.

We reset and reseal the mounting on a unit that is otherwise working, and we will tell you plainly when it is a replacement rather than a repair. Swapping a disposal into an existing plug or switch is our work. Adding the circuit or the switch is a licensed electrician’s.

What a drain repair visit covers

• P trap, tailpiece and slip joint washer replacement, in plastic or chrome
• Drain flange and strainer replacement, reset on fresh putty
• Pop up stopper assembly repair, including the pivot rod and clevis strap
• Clearing hair and scum blockages at the stopper and through the trap arm
• Basket strainer replacement on a kitchen sink, and disposal tailpiece connections

The damage a slow leak does to the cabinet floor

Vanity cabinet floors are usually particle board with a thin laminate skin, and particle board does not survive water. It swells, delaminates and turns to mush, and by the time you can see it the deck is structurally gone. If the leak has been running long enough, the subfloor under the cabinet is next.

We can cut in a new cabinet deck where the box itself is sound. Where the sides have gone soft too, replacing the unit is the cheaper answer in the end, and a vanity swap in the same footprint is a one visit job. Catching it before that point is what the water damage prevention check is for.

Where a licensed plumber takes over

Everything from the fixture back to the wall is ours. Beyond the wall it is not. A drain that backs up in more than one fixture, a main line that needs snaking or scoping, sewer work, venting and any new drain line requiring a permit all go to a licensed plumber. We will tell you which side of the wall the problem is on before we quote it, because that is the honest answer and it saves you a visit.

Rentals, listings and drains that fail at the worst moment

• Turnover punch lists where every trap gets checked between tenants
• Pre listing repairs, because a stained cabinet floor reads as neglect to a buyer
• Inspection report repairs worked straight off the inspector’s list
• A first pass on a house you just bought, including every trap in it
• An annual walk through that finds the slow ones early

Where we work across Southeast Michigan

We run out of Platt Road in Ypsilanti into Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Monroe counties. Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Canton are on the schedule most weeks, and the older bathrooms in the first two are where the corroded chrome traps live.

Get the drain sorted

Tell us whether it is draining slowly, leaking, or both, and whether the cabinet floor has started to swell. View our Portfolio to see the bathrooms our crews build, or contact us now for a free quote. If several fixtures are involved, book a consultation and we will walk the house.