Replacing an Old Vanity and Sink

In spite of the lousy real estate market, certain improvements to a house still offers an excellent return on investment, whether it be to help sell the house or for personal pleasure of improving the esthetics of your home. One of these improvements is replacing an old outdated bathroom sink, whether it be a wall hung sink or an older vanity model. Let's look at the steps required to replace your old bathroom sink without having to hire a plumber.

The very first thing to do is measure the existing sink and available space if you want to enlarge the vanity top. Vanities today come in just about every style and size you can imagine, but you do not want to buy something that you fall in love with, then realize it will not fit between the wall and the toilet after getting it home.

There should be shut off valves for the hot and cold water located under the sink or inside the vanity base. Turn the water off at these valves, then open the faucet handles to drain any water from the shut off to the faucet, it'll drain very quickly, if not you have a problem of your valve leaking through. The only reason I mention this is to prevent you from running into a problem you will not know how to handle.

Disconnect the water supply lines at the valve.

The next step is to disconnect the drain system. Place a bucket or empty coffee can under the drain in which to catch the water retained in the P-trap. If the drain system is PVC the system is not too old and there should not be a problem unscrewing the nuts which hold the system together.

However, if the system is chrome, it may be older and will require a little more muscle power to disassemble. More importantly is to be very careful disconnecting the chrome piping as it may connect to a lead pipe joint protruding from the wall, you do not want to break this pipe.

You now have the drain system and the water supply lines disconnected and are ready to remove the old fixture. No matter what type of sink or vanity you're removing there will be a beam of caulking running along any portion of the fixture touching a wall, in order to prevent water from seeping down the wall. Take a sharp box knife and cut through the caulking which will release the fixture and allow you to remove it.

Place the vanity base and top into the intended location. This is when you verify the looks, the fit and the levelness of the vanity. If the base cabinet requires leveling or squaring, shim until correct and secure the cabinet to the wall with screws.

Install the faucet and water supply lines before installing the new fixture into the bathroom as it is much easier to perform and will not require a faucet wrench, which is doubtful you'll have. Place the top of the vanity on the base cabinet and position it correctly. Reconnect the drain pipes, which you may want to consider buying new parts since you have it apart. Reconnect the water supply lines to the shut off valves.

Assembling is now complete. Turn the water on and let it run while checking for any water leaks, which must be fixed if discovered. Finalizing everything is operating correctly and the vanity is secured and not wobbling, run a bead of caulking along any seam touching the wall. If the sink is white, use white colored caulking, if a color or design, use clear caulking. The clear caulking comes out of tube white, so you can tell where you're putting it, but dries clear.

You have just replaced your tired and worn out bathroom sink with a sparkling new and updated one.