What am I, a plumber?

Descendant X

So I gots me a bit of a drip underneath my sink. I've known about said drip for a little over three years, since we bought the house really, but since I'm a lazy cuss I failed to do anything about it save for putting a bucket under the pipe and remembering to empty the pipe once every few months,

Well, the drip done got worse.

I was washing the dishes a week or so ago and noticed that when I emptied the sink I could hear the water dripping, nay, trickling into the bucket. Clearly the problem has increased and now I have myself a plumbing issue. The problem here is that I know next to nothing about plumbing, save that this is a job that I can do myself with the proper instructions.

Here is a photo of the pipe, with a circle 'round the drippy bit:



When I pull on the black PVC pipe I can pull it down about a quarter of an inch or so. It should be noted that the pipe only drips when there is a lot of water running through it, like when I'm emptying the sink after the dishes are done.

I figure that I can buy some plumber's glue or tape or something and fix the problem quite easily. What do you think?

Esh

Can you take a non blurry picture and pull the camera back a little?

That pipe should be connected with something that screws on and creates a seal. Not just be shoved up into another pipe.

Descendant X

To tell you the God's honest Esh - and this is the Bible truth - no, and there's no reason to.

The camera we have is apparently unable to take non-blurry pictures - I know this because I took about five or six pictures on various settings and every fucking one was blurry. I think it's because I have a mild tremor, but I suspect that the camera is a POS.

The second statement holds true because this is the only part of the pipe that's leaking, and I don't feel like taking more blurry pictures that probably won't help. Not trying to be a dick here, but unless I am given a very good reason why the entire works under the sink is needed to be inspected I'm not mucking about with that damned camera any longer.

Descendant X

Esh wrote:

Can you take a non blurry picture and pull the camera back a little?

That pipe should be connected with something that screws on and creates a seal. Not just be shoved up into another pipe.

See, that's what i figured as well. Looks like I'm taking a trip to the hardware store!

Thanks Esh!

Kakodaimonos

So it's the top of the drain line into the p-trap that's leaking?

That would be the gray pipe in the image below.



That's a PVC slip joint fitting. Go to a decent hardware store and ask for one of those and they should be able to get you one. Measure before you go.

They're very easy to install, just make sure you don't remove the gaskets from the pipe.

Descendant X

Yeah, I picked one up. Now I just have to figure out how to install it. The guy at the store told me how to do it but I missed a few things. I'll be looking up a guide tomorrow when I get to fixing it.

useless4

Descendant X wrote:

To tell you the God's honest Esh - and this is the Bible truth - no, and there's no reason to.

The camera we have is apparently unable to take non-blurry pictures - I know this because I took about five or six pictures on various settings and every fucking one was blurry. I think it's because I have a mild tremor, but I suspect that the camera is a POS.

The second statement holds true because this is the only part of the pipe that's leaking, and I don't feel like taking more blurry pictures that probably won't help. Not trying to be a dick here, but unless I am given a very good reason why the entire works under the sink is needed to be inspected I'm not mucking about with that damned camera any longer.

For the camera, try lower resolution with a faster shutter time to compensate from the tremor. that may help.
If you are taking hdri pictures by some random chance, stop. With a tremor it won't work, the time it takes to do the three passes makes a steady hand important.

Midshipman

It's also quite possible that you don't really need any new piping, but that your drain is backed up a bit farther down the line. You said that it only leaks under heavy flow, so when you are exceeding the capacity of the bottleneck down the line it starts backing up and leaking. You could try disassembling the p-trap and cleaning it out.

Underdog

You could prop the camera up on something and set the timer to take a picture if you think your tremor is screwing things up. I have no advice about piping however. Good luck!

Descendant X

Midshipman wrote:

It's also quite possible that you don't really need any new piping, but that your drain is backed up a bit farther down the line. You said that it only leaks under heavy flow, so when you are exceeding the capacity of the bottleneck down the line it starts backing up and leaking. You could try disassembling the p-trap and cleaning it out.

This was my co-worker's thought as well, but once I noticed that I was able to pull the pipe assembly down without effort i realized the extent of the problem. I will be taking the p-trap apart during the process of actually affixing the pipe above the p-trap to the sink drain. I'll have a look and clean it out then.

It definitely needs to be repaired, though. I can actually pull the pipe down from the sink and it's clear that there's nothing fixing the p-trap to the sink. This needs to be remedied.

Descendant X

Well, it's all done. I had to pick up a slip joint fitting and get it all connected up to the drain. The guy who did the work before me just glued the drainpipe to the sink drain.

Anyway, thanks for the help guys.