Bathroom vanity replacement issues..

[Do it yourselfer]

Help! I am trying to help an impatient, plumbing illiterate friend replace a bathroom vanity. I helped him remove the old vanity/faucet and get the new one set into place. The problem now is that the depth and width of the new vanity is smaller than the old one and the drain doesn't line up. The trap pipe doesn't adjust in or out from the wall so I turned the trap itself to the side and purchased a flexible/expandable piece of plastic piping thinking this would solve the problem. Unfortunately, the tailpiece from the new faucet doesn't have a threaded end on the bottom, so there is no way to affix that new piece. Any suggestions? There must be way to do this fairly simply! Why does plumbing, which seems like it should be simple, always turn out complicated?!

 

[Terry]

By turning the trap sidewise, you are now letting sewer gas and smell into the home. Your friend isn't going to be liking that.

If the trap does not line up, you can use a fitting at the wall to 45 it over.
A p-trap for a lav with have slip joint nuts and washers that will compress around the smooth pipe that extends down from the lav drain.
The lav drain will be 1-1/4"

If the pipe at the wall is 1-1/2", then pick up a p-trap that has a 1-1/2"x1-1/4? slip joint washer with it.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Jimbo]

Terry, I think what he did is swivel the trap, not actually turn it on it's side. At least, I hope that's what he said!

For doityourselfer: This is a very common, almost universal , problem when changing out sinks. But is is not difficult. If you swiveled the trap to the side, then used a flex connector to bring the tailpiece in, we do not recommend this. The flexies are SO prone to filling up those corrugations with gunk, hair, etc.

If you remove the drain assembly all the way back to the wall and start over, then in 30 minutes with less than $20 worth of parts, you can build out a new trap arm and trap to line up exactly where you need it. Like Terry said, use 22½º and 45º elbows as necessary at the wall to "point" the trap arm in the direction is needs to go. With these angles, a swivel trap, and the ability to make the new trap arm just the right length, you can quickly arrive at the finish!