# Bathroom Sinks do not line up with drain pipe - what do I do?



## mark2741 (Aug 17, 2009)

My house is under an agreement of sale. Prior to listing it, I replaced the original bathroom vanity sinks/cabinets with new ones. Unfortunately though, the sink drain for both of them didn't line up with the drain pipe coming from the floor and the S-trap that was connected to it, so I went to the big box store and bought some of these flexible connectors. I thought it would be okay but when the buyer's inspector came through he dinged me on them, referring to them as 'temporary traps' (I'm sure he's referring to the flex pipe and not the PVC, right?). Anyways - pics are below of both. In the first pic you'll see that the S-trap is metal. I prefer to work with PVC because it's so easy an idiot like me can use it : )

How do I fix this? I'm a newbie at plumbing, so be kind : )


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## fabrk8r (Feb 12, 2010)

Buy 1-1/4" brass offsets, one for each vanity drain, at your local plumbing supply house. You may need to shorten your tailpieces and/or adjust other drain pipe to make them fit. 

In my case I had to cut the offset in two and take a section out and use a coupling to get everything to line up. I can take a picture if you need a visual.


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## mark2741 (Aug 17, 2009)

Frank,

I'm not sure what exactly an offset is, so if you could snap a pic that would much appreciated!

Now that I say that I just stopped and did a google search. Is this what you're talking about:










Thanks so much for the response!



fabrk8r said:


> Buy 1-1/4" brass offsets, one for each vanity drain, at your local plumbing supply house. You may need to shorten your tailpieces and/or adjust other drain pipe to make them fit.
> 
> In my case I had to cut the offset in two and take a section out and use a coupling to get everything to line up. I can take a picture if you need a visual.


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## fabrk8r (Feb 12, 2010)

That's the one! :thumbsup:

Like I said, I was tight for space, so I had to cut a section out of the center of the offset and use a brass coupling.

It takes some patience and a lot of double-checking dimensions to get everything to line up if you haven't had much experience running drain pipe, but it's worth the effort.

Good luck!


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## mark2741 (Aug 17, 2009)

Thanks for the tip!

I just got back from the Lowes and HD in my area. The HD guy tried giving me the flexible PVC thing again. I told him it doesn't meet code and that's why I'm back in the first place. He got grumpy and just replied, "Well in that case you're gonna have to go to a plumbing supply house!!!" and stormed away.

Lowes didn't have the 1 1/4" offset (they did have the 1 1/2" one though). They did, however, have 1 1/4" "elbow" couplings. It looked like if I connected 2 of those together it would work for at least one of the sinks. Is that acceptable?

Otherwise I would definitely have to cut the middle out of the offsets that I get from a plumbing supply place, as they are way too long for my situation.

Thanks again!


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## md2lgyk (Jan 6, 2009)

You do know that your S-trap is illegal as well?


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## mark2741 (Aug 17, 2009)

It is? It's replacing an existing S-Trap. I was under the assumption that that was legal.

The drain pipe is coming from the floor, not the wall. 

Please respond if I am incorrect and that an S-Trap is not legal in this application. If not, what is? A P-Trap? I thought those were only good if the drain is coming from the wall.


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## mark2741 (Aug 17, 2009)

Well I think I did it. I'll snap some pics tomorrow and post, as I'd like some experienced eyes to take a look.

I never could find a local plumbing shop that had the 1 and 1/4" offset parts I needed. Actually, I did find one place but they had me sitting there waiting for 30 minutes while they sold expensive sinks and fixtures for thousands of dollars to customers...I eventually gave up and walked out. 

What I wound up doing for the one sink, where there was quite a distance between, was I bought two 45 degree elbow couplings. I took one of them and connected it to the sink's drain piece. Then, I took the other 45 degree elbow and cut both ends off of it. That left a 1 to 1.5" angled piece of pipe. I put that between the top portion of the S-Trap and other 45 degree elbow coupling. It seems to work well.

As for the other sink - I just used a 6" extension. The top of the S-trap was aligned with the bottom of the sink drain piece, but it was about a half-inch out - closer to me as I was facing them. It took some muscle but the sink's tailpiece had a bit of flex to it so I was able to get them connected. It pulled the sink away from the wall though, so I'll need to re-caulk. But all in all I'm relieved I was able to get it done.


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