I need to correct a p trap

[Rsmith99]

I unclogged my sink today. The blockage was a little past the wall.
The fittings are old, and won’t seal now. And the p trap is backwards.

Can anyone tell me the correct fittings to connect from the end of the glued pvc fitting to the sink down pipe so I can get the p trap going in the right direction.
I’m 74, and don’t really want to change the glued fittings coming from the wall.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Reach4]

What is the problem with what you have now?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Rsmith99]

What is the problem with what you have now?

It’s leaking because the gaskets need to be replaced. But the main thing is the p trap is backwards.

 

[Reach4]

Backwards can mean more than one thing. If you are concerned that the output of the U is farther from the wall than the input of the U, there may be no way to change that without some significant modification of the glued fittings. That is not a flaw.

If you are concerned that the U is too deep (more than 4 inches), you may have a reversible trap already. Try swapping the left and right sides of the U. You would have to shorten the tailpiece extension.

But to get a better view of what is glued and what is not, try taking a photo from below showing the trap arm from wall to the trap U.

From the top inside of the U to the bottom of the trap arm should be between 2 and 4 inches.

 

[Rsmith99]

Everything from the wall, to that first down elbo is glued. I’d rather not redo that if I don’t have to.

 

[wwhitney]

Everything from the wall, to that first down elbo is glued. I’d rather not redo that if I don’t have to.

Looks like the downstream joint on the trap outlet elbow is also a slip joint, so you should be able to remove the the entire trap elbow if you need to. But for the purposes of reversing the j-bend, you shouldn't need too, unless the existing vertical stack up on the left is crooked.

Anyway, on the left you have, from top down, a metal sink drain; a grey plastic part which I think is integral to the metal sink drain, but I may be mistaken; a white slip joint extension; and a backwards j-bend.

So remove the j-bend and remove the white extension. Then reverse the j-bend. If you're lucky, the grey plastic tailpiece will go into the j-bend receiver by 50%-100%, in which you're good to go.

But you may find that it wants to go in more than 100%, i.e. it bottoms out before you can make up the trap j-bend to outlet elbow joint. In that case, you can cut the grey plastic part shorter, as long as the cut still leaves sufficient plain length of plain tubular end on the grey tailpiece.

Or you might find that the grey tailpiece doesn't go into the j-bend enough or at all; then you need the white plastic extension. But adding it may put you in the previous scenario, where you have to cut the white extension and/or the grey tailpiece to get everything to fit.

Cheers, Wayne