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'We' decided that we needed a cupboard under the bathroom basin and once I built it I discovered that the basin leaked from the plug hole. We had assumed previously that the occasional drip on the floor was just a splash from using the sink.
I will simply replace a washer I thought. How naïve. It looks to me like the plug fitted isn't compatible with our basin but that sounds strange when I say it out loud.
It is a pop top plug thing which works fine and allow the sink to be filled or drained (slowly) but part way down the neck of the drain is a hole. This sort of lines up with the gap between the two layers of the sink but is not level with the bottom layer so any water that goes through the hole just sits there, outside of the metal tube. This eventually finds away past the bottom rubber washer and leads to the drips.
This shows the plug fitting slotted into place and you can see the daylight through the side hole. The water is prevented from pouring onto the floor by a rubber washer underneath the sing but that just leaves the water sitting there, and as I said before, it eventually finds a way through
What is the correct solution?
New drain fitting?
New bathroom*?
New washer?
*I suspect this might be what MrsWCA would choose
Would wrapping the threads in the waterproof PTFE tape not fix your issue?
There's nothing you can't fix with Plumber's Mait unless you have a lack of imagination or commitment.
Can be a right pain to seal, they sell a magic waste kit that is basically a very large rubber bung that goes on the thread under the basin and you screw it tight to seal. Can’t remember the exact name but I bought it from screwfix
Pfte and plumbers mate are a right faff
This is the kit
https://www.screwfix.com/p/thomas-dudley-ltd-basin-waste-seal-kit-3-piece-set/8795r?_requestid=319209
I already have the bung but I am puzzled why there is a hole there to begin with and where the water that gets trapped is meant to go.
Just slapping silicone over everything might stop the drip for a while but it doesn't solve the cause of the problem. I could just fit a small heater to the cupboard so the water evap[orates and we get pre-heated toilet paper but that also doesn't solve the issue.
Screwfix bung kit 'in the wild' didn't stop all the drips
How did you fail to get that to work lol! Are you putting the bing the correct way around?
Can’t be 100% but that slot in the basin is likely to be your overflow, water goes through the overflow at the top of the basin and then into a slotted waste. Otherwise the overflow has no where the drain
you just need a rubber ring between the bottom of the sink and the thing you're screwing it up with. The hole is there (afaik) to allow water from the overflow to get to the waste pipe
The slot is to allow water to flow from the sink overflow down the drian.
The gap in the sink is the built in overflow channel that takes water from the overflow hole down to the drain.
That all looks normal.
It just looks like you have a slight incompatibility between the longer metal waste and the thinner than usual sink.
I'd try with a fat rubber washer underneath lathered in silicon, or try buying another waste that has the slot hole higher up.
Or, if you're happy to lose the overflow capability (remember to turn your sink tap off!) then you could replace your waste with an unslotted one, like this: https://www.screwfix.com/p/mcalpine-slotted-unslotted-centre-pin-basin-waste/714hr
Also you need that area to be super clean to get a good seal, there looks like all sorts of crap there. The rubber washer needs to mate to a clean surface to seal properly. The silicone is likely making it worse.
Jeez
The slotted wastes are for sinks with overflows.
How do you think the water finds its way out from the overflow pipe imto the trap if the plugs in?
As for the leak, probably over tightening on the waste deformed the rubber seal
Throw rubbet seal away, make sausage out of plumbers mait
Roll round waste where the seal would sit. Tighten waste then remove excess plumbers mait.
Looks like the space is for the mechanism to operate the plug (some sort of sprung movement), if that's not there then you'd be after a normal fitting without the mechanism, so watertight between the plug and trap.
I had to replace my old mechanism, it was broken and just stuck a normal plug on with manual rotating plug, less faff, will replace the sink at some point as well, already done the toilet and bath, if sinks weren't such a pain in the arse to replace it'd be gone as well!
Just fixed a leaking plug as well. The slot, as said above, is for the overflow.
Throw away the seals that come with the plug and use about a ton of sealant.
It's a really crap design, mine was the 3rd attempt to fix it, the first two by 'professional' bathroom fitters.
I’ve used a couple of these pop-up wastes with no need for gloopy sticky sealants.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/mcalpine-slotted-unslotted-centre-pin-basin-waste/714hr#BVQAWidgetID
Well made and should last a good few years (I hope!)
Where does the sink overflow go currently?
I had this exact same problem a couple of weeks back fitting a new basin. Nearly drove me crazy. I thought the leak was between the bottom of the chrome waste and the trap threads. Sealed at that up... still dripped. Then I went for between the outside of the big black cone washer and the sink. Sorted that out. Still dripped. Eventually realised the drip was coming from between the big black cone washer and the threads of the chrome waste. Turned out I was over-tightening it and breaking the seal that would normally be formed.
So, if you're a bit ham fisted like me, try loosening the massive nut underneath the big black washer off slightly before going out and buying more bits.
In my defence, the waste (which came with the tap I bought) has an unusually short thread/tail on it so there was barely much thread left to get the trap screwed on to, hence me tightening it as far as I could to expose more thread. Reviews on Screwfix (read after the fct of course) back up the fact that the tail is about 5mm shorter than most others.
Had a similar problem last winter, tried all sorts. In the end tracked it down..... we have an older 50's house that has a steel waste pipe down the outside of the house and coming through the wall. In the colder weather that was getting cold and acting as somewhere for steam to condense. It had me properly fooled.
I haven't fixed it though, just put a kids beach bucket underneath.
I 've used those plug kits the washers came with them. It's a sort of thick spongey washer which nicely fills gap when tightenened. Make sure all surfaces are clean, even underneath. Use wash up liquid or Vaseline on rubber bits. Don't overtighten or you ll never get it off.
Mine calcs up so only lasts a few years, CBA to clean them so I replace.
Okay, I get that the hole is to allow the overflow water somewhere into but the water also flows out of the hole. As the bottom of the hole is higher than the bottom of the gap between the sink layers, there will be standing water there. That seems wrong to me.
The dirt around the sink you see in the photo is just the silicon I used when I last fitted the plug that I haven't fully removed. It was, and will be again, spotlessly clean.
I suspect I had over tightened the big bottom nut last time I fitted it as suggested by pocpoc.
I will try again with a less tight approach
I’d highly recommend just getting that Mac alpine one from screwfix that’s linked above. It does both slotted and un slotted styles, you leave a plastic spacer out. Dry fit it, no need for silicone
We appear to be dry!!!!
Just tightened the bottom nut by hand without the 'nip up' I gave it before and no drips from the first two tests.
No, there is a slight weep with a couple of drips showing. 4 hours AFTER it was last used.
CT1 was invented for this very problem…..
Plumbers mait is horrible stuff!
CT1 ordered from Toolstation for collection in the morning. Cheers
So you’re gonna spend 13 quid to bodge it instead of 15 to get a decent waste that will just work first time. Seems like the logical solution really
CT1 is not bodging it, merely replacing the plumbers mait with a more flexible solution.
It is probably not the waste that is the problem more likely the basin. It is a clay fired product not a machined surface that you are trying to get a flat washer to make a water tight seal on. Same with siphons in wc cisterns.
I’ve worked long enough to have started with plumbers mait, moved onto silicone and in the last few years making sanitary ware up with CT1 as I found it the most reliable way of making a waterproof seal.
If CT1 is a bodge then I’ll happily continue to bodge it!
I’m not suggesting not to use silicone on top of that style of waste but I’d hazard a guess that this leak is the water running down the external threads after escaping through the slot when the basin is drained, and gumming those threads up with silicone is a bodge!
So how do you seal the thread then if it is above the washer on the bottom of the basin? Which it must be otherwise the waste would have to be the exact length of the waste section of the basin, including a washer? This waste fits many basins too it is not specific to the basin.
The old method was plumbers mait, sometimes the cone shaped rubber washers work but not if the basin is mis shaped or rough. Better sealants than plumbers mait exist now, use them surely?
CT1 or Plumbers Gold seem like a bodge, but when you’ve fitted enough wastes to enough basins, you’ll always have found the one that just won’t seal due to poor manufacturing.
I tend to use Hansgrohe or Vado wastes as they screw together from the top with a big stainless Hex screw and have a big donut washer on the bottom, much better design IMO.
I wish this thread was here a month ago, I would have saved a lot of time!
Blazin so to avoid that one just make them all in with CT1 and no leaks or raised blood pressure trying to get the thing to seal for the fifth time!
Don’t be tempted to use it as a seal around a shower though, terrible stuff to smooth neatly compared to a good silicone!
Bear - I just mainly use the wastes I mention, always seal 1st time without gunk. If I have to fit something the customer has supplied then I’ll use the silicone at 1st attempt.
Don’t worry, as a Tiler 1st trade I’d never silicone to anything cosmetic with that stuff!
Ct1 being an adhesive, those basin waste being glued in with it aint never coming out. You will also need a new basin after breaking your one if your pop up waste calcs up with caco3 and fails requiring a screwdriver to chisel it off.