Four weeks ago a customer who is a landlord called me to unclog a bathroom sink at one of his apartments. When I got to the unit, I discovered that the drain wasn’t clogged. The tenant didn’t realize that the stopper was up closed. It was so silly that I decided to write this week’s post about it. Here’s how you can save yourself the frustration and expense of a plumbing call for nothing!
Lavatory pop-up
A pop-up is the chrome rod located in the center of a lavatory faucet between the hot and cold handles. For a single lever faucet, it’s directly behind the single handle. Its only function is to allow the user a convenience of stopping water up in their sink bowl. It works by being manually pulled up to hold water and pushed down to drain water. Although rarely used, some people find it to be handy.
It can clog up the sink?
If the pop-up linkage is loose, the drain stopper will eventually get stuck closed, and the water won’t flow through it. An incorrectly adjusted pop-up linkage will slow down flowing waste water through the p-trap and eventually cause a backup of the sink and drain line.
To avoid having problems with your bathroom sink pop-up stopper make sure of the following:
- don’t walk away from the sink until your finished using it
- check the linkage and make sure it’s tight
- check height of stopper
If it gets stuck!
If you ever happen to experience a stuck pop-up all you have to do is:
- bail the water out of the sink
- loosen the linkage underneath the sink
- pull the chrome rod out
- pry up the stopper with a screwdriver
- apply plumbers grease on linkage ball
- reinstall linkage and nut
- check for leaks
If your bathroom sink, or any of-of your plumbing isn’t working properly or if you just want to have it all checked out. Schedule an appointment with Vince an experienced Pittsburgh plumber who knows how to fix problems right the first time.
