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Triple master contractor Ed Del Grande
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By Ed Del Grande
Q: Hello, Ed! We recently installed a new kitchen countertop with a new kitchen sink and faucet. It looks great, but the drain holes are in a different location than the old sink and none of the drains line up with the garbage disposer or sink hole. Unfortunately the PVC pipes are glued into place right back in to the wall with no spaces between fittings, so even if I cut the pipes I can't glue in a new fitting! How do we get the PVC apart and then re-pipe it? Is there a solvent that can dissolve the PVC cement so I can rework the pipes? Al (Georgia)
A: Sorry, Al, I don't know of any magic solvent that will dissolve PVC cement. When it's glued, you're ... well, the word I'm looking for rhymes with glued! I have seen this type of problem before, and it can be very frustrating when someone installs PVC drains without having spaces between fittings.
In all fairness, sometimes the turns can be very tight and there is no room for pipe and fittings. In this case, a "street" fitting is commonly used. A street fitting has a male end and a female end and allows two fittings to be joined together with no pipe in between. Sometimes a very short piece of pipe is used inside just the "bell" of the fittings to make a tight fit. (The bell is the female socket of a fitting.)
Either way, it's okay to run sink drains like this if the pipe is never changed. However, whenever you install a new kitchen sink, the drains will usually have to be re-piped to fit the new style sink.
Now that everyone is up to speed, let's talk about your problem and what you need to do. Basically you have two options, an easy one and a hard one. My guess is that you would like to try the easy one first! The easy way is to cut the line at the bell end of a fitting. The bell is a size larger than the pipe so the pipe can slide into it. As long as the bell is round and smooth, you can get what's called a Fernco rubber coupling that can fit over the larger fitting bell on one side and fit standard size PVC pipe on the other side. Once in place, built in clamps are tightened to secure the coupling. When correctly sized to your pipe, the Fernco will act as a transition fitting, so you can re-pipe your new drain.
Now, the hard way to solve your problem is to rip open the back of your cabinet and wall under the sink and find a place where you can access enough exposed PVC piping to make the tap. Then rebuild your wall and cabinet. This solution can be very costly. So try the Fernco coupling, and you should be able to re-pipe the new sink without draining your wallet!
Ed Del Grande was born and raised in a family-owned plumbing business. With more than 25 years of experience in every aspect of construction, he holds current Master licenses in pipefitting, fire protection and plumbing. If you have a question for Ed, send him an e-mail at eddelgrande@hgtvpro.com.
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