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How To Install a Utility Sink: A Step-by-Step Guide

How To Install a Utility Sink: A Step-by-Step Guide

Utility sinks help keep your laundry or crafting separate from your kitchen or bathroom sinks. Once you have a utility sink right next to your washing machine, you will wonder what you ever did without one.

If you have had your eye on a utility sink, you might be wondering how difficult they are to install. Luckily, they only require preliminary plumbing knowledge, cost a couple of hundred dollars maximum, and can be installed within a day.

If you want to take on this challenge yourself, let’s consider all the involved steps.

Connect Drain and Vent Pipes

The first thing you will want to work on is connecting the drain and vent pipes.

1. Shut Off the Water

Before you do anything at all, you need to ensure that the water is off. This step is crucial because otherwise, you will create a real mess.

First, you should see if the room you are working in has supply valves on its pipes. If so, then those are the only ones you will need to shut off. However, if that is not the case, you will have to shut off the house’s primary water supply.

Generally, you are looking for a red handle that you will want to turn clockwise until the water is off.

2. Cut the Drainpipe

Next, you will want to locate the drainpipe for the room. Once you have found it, you will want to cut it open with a hacksaw in the location in which you want to attach the sink’s pipes. To be sure you are severing the right pipe, you can consult your home’s blueprints. Generally, this pipe will run along the floor unless you are installing this sink in the basement, in which case it might be overhead.

3. Attach a WYE Fitting

Then, you need to acquire a wye fitting that will allow you to fit three pipes together. Once you have this fitting, you will want to clean it and use PVC cement to glue it to the open drainpipe.

This technique works well for most pipes; however, if your pipes are cast iron, you may want to solder a rubber wye fitting onto it instead of using PVC cement. Make sure you attach it so that the open end faces where you want your utility sink to go.

4. Repeat with the Vent Pipe

Just as you did with the drainpipe, you should sever the vent pipe with a hacksaw and attach a WYE fitting. Ensure the open end is angled toward the open end on the other WYE fitting on the drainpipe. The vent pipe splits from the drainpipe and goes toward the ceiling. Its purpose is to help the sink drain and stop sewage gas from entering your home.

5. Connect the WYE Fittings

Take a PVC pipe and connect the two WYE fittings on the drainpipe and the vent pipe.

Person Washing Their Hands Using A Stainless Steel Faucet

Set Up the Water Supply Lines

Once the drainpipe and vent pipe are all set, you can turn your attention to the water supply lines.

1. Sever the Hot and Cold Water Supply Lines

Once again, you will take your handy hacksaw to sever some pipes. This time you are looking for two copper lines running parallel to each other, one that carries hot water and the other carrying cold.

2. Add T Fittings to the Pipes

Once you have severed the water supply lines, you should wear the ends down with 120-grit emery cloth until they shine. Then brush them with flux. After those two things are done, you need to brush flux on the inside of two T fittings so that you can slide them onto the supply pipes. The open ends of the T fittings need to face the direction where the sink will go.

3. Solder the Pipes Together

Once everything is in place, you need to solder the pipes together to create a firm bond. To do this, hold a metal solder over each connection and use a blowtorch to melt the solder onto the connections.

4. Install Anchors

First, make holes in the wall using either a drill or a hammer and nail. These holes should be placed roughly a third of the way up the wall. Then, you will want to screw in the anchors and gently guide the pipes into place.

Assemble the Sink’s Plumbing

Finally, it is time to focus on the sink itself.

1. Position the Sink

Move the sink into position so that its legs are level and the faucet openings are against the wall.

2. Place the Drain Strainer

Using plumber’s putty, secure the drain strainer in the sink’s hole. Make sure to turn the strainer’s nut clockwise underneath the sink to tighten it. You may need to use pliers to do this.

3. Connect the P-Trap

You will need to connect the p-trap to the sink’s tailpiece. Once that is secure, you will need to attach the other end to the PVC pipe that will then connect to the drainpipe. You may need to add fittings to make the connection complete.

4. Secure the Faucet

Once again, using plumber’s putty, get the faucet into place and make sure it is firmly in place. Use nuts to tighten the faucet.

5. Connect the Sink to the Water Supply

To complete this step, you will need to get two braided, flexible, stainless steel supply tubes. One end of each tube will attach to the T fittings on the hot and cold water supply lines, while the other will connect to the faucet.

6.  Turn the Water Back On

The last thing you need to do is turn back on the water supply, and you are good to go!

Conclusion

If this step-by-step guide has got you feeling a little overwhelmed, you can always call a professional like us here at All Dry USA. We will be happy to take care of all of this for you so that you do not have to lift a finger. Give us a call today to set up an appointment.

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