# Removing bathroom sink drain plug (glued abs p-trap) ?



## westbank (May 4, 2010)

Hello,

I'm currently trying to remove the drain plug on a bathroom sink. The only problem is that I'm not able to remove the drain body/tailpiece from the vertical ABS pipe. The p-trap is glued (no slip nuts) so it doesn't leave me a lot of room to remove the drain body/tailpiece.

Is there a way to remove the drain body/tailpiece without cutting the ABS pipe ? 

Any recommendations would be highly appreciated.

See photo below








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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

It's time to buy a can of primer and glue and a trap adapter---

and a new 1 1/4" P-trap,

Cut the pipe near the wall so you can add the trap adapter---

What was the installer thinking when that was all glued together?


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## westbank (May 4, 2010)

I really don't know why the plumber glued everything ? 

I still can't figure out how he was able to install the drainbody/tailpiece when everything was glued. Any idea how he did it ?


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## oh'mike (Sep 18, 2009)

The only way that was done was to install the pop up drain first and then glue in the piping.

I doubt if that was done by a pro----


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## westbank (May 4, 2010)

It's a brand new house that passed inspection. I guess they don't think about maintenance when they do the inspection. 

The more I think about it ... I'm pretty sure the plumber installed all the piping (glued everything together) then he installed the drain body/tailpiece onto the sink. Then he installed the sink. That the only possible way I guess ???


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## PoleCat (Sep 2, 2009)

If the tail piece is threaded into the pop-up body then unscrew it first then you will have clearance to remove the remainder of the drain.


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## westbank (May 4, 2010)

Just looked at the drain body and the tailpiece is threaded into the drain body (I can see the teflon tape on the end of the threads). This would probably let me remove the drain body/tailpiece from the waste pipe (vertical abs pipe).

I wonder if I could do the opposite to install the new drain body ?


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## PoleCat (Sep 2, 2009)

westbank said:


> Just looked at the drain body and the tailpiece is threaded into the drain body (I can see the teflon tape on the end of the threads). This would probably let me remove the drain body/tailpiece from the waste pipe (vertical abs pipe).
> 
> I wonder if I could do the opposite to install the new drain body ?


Yup. PIA but doable.


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## TheEplumber (Jul 20, 2010)

Cut the pipe at the trap outlet, loosen the trap nut and the whole thing will drop down.

Rebuild with a pvc/abs compression trap- you may need a SJ tailpiece extension, trap adapter, abs coupling and a piece of pipe.

Are you in LA?


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## westbank (May 4, 2010)

Ok. So I guess I should really rebuild it.

I wanted to avoid redoing the abs piping because I will need to add a fitting (coupling) on the horizontal section and when we will sale our house the inspector will assume that we had an issue with the piping. 

Another question. How deep should the drain plug tailpiece go into the abs trap (vertical section) ?

Should I use this to avoid adding a coupling fitting on the horizontal 
section:









I'm not in LA


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## TheEplumber (Jul 20, 2010)

A coupling is just a fitting used to extend a pipe. It doesn't mean there has been a problem.

Your tailpiece needs to only extend beyond the traps compression nut so it seals

I was curious about LA because I believe they build traps similar to that

Sent from my iPhone using DIY Forum. Watch out for spell check


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## Ghostmaker (Mar 2, 2013)

Cut that puppy.


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