How to repair this wall

Hi All,

We had to have our drain lines from the tub and sink replaced because they leaked where they joined into the toilet, and the tub drum trap was also leaking.

To replace the sink drain, this is what the plumber did:



When my boyfriend saw it, the first thing he said was, why did he break up the tile? Why didn't he just punch a hole in the plaster in the room in back?

So I told him (the plumber) not to do the tile work, I'll do it myself. But how? The tile is set in concrete, which is set into a metal wall of some sort. (This house is from the 1920's but this tile work looks much later than that).

Also, when removing the sink, the plumber broke one of the bolts.

I'm at a loss, and I can't afford to hire a professional to do this, so I need help! Hope you can provide it.

Thanks,
Joy

Since you'll never match the tile, you have two choices...tear out what's there and start over or get a vanity that would cover up the hole. It sounds like you have a 'mudded' wall. This is metal lath (very nasty stuff - sharp edges) with a mortar mix applied on top. This is a premium way of doing a wall not done that much today. If you tear that out, you could replace it with cbu (cement board) then tile. TO get the thickenss right, you may need more than one layer. The best way would be to do another mudded wall, but that is not something you want to try for the first time. Well, you could, but it is not that easy.

For tiling help, check out www.johnbridge.com. They specialize in tiling and you may get some other ideas and help.

As to the bolt, is this the one that sticks out of the wall to hold the sink in place? That is typically a hanger bolt that has a wood screw on one end and a machine screw on the other. There may be enough room to move the sink slightly to install new ones. To get the non-brokend one out, take two nuts and tighten them together to provide a 'head' that you can then unscrew that one. Move it over say 1/2" or so with new holes and bolts. If you want to try to remove the old one, you'd need to drill a hole in the end, then use an EasyOut. This is a tool with left-handed, hardened threads in it. When you screw it into the hole, it will grab the bolt and since it is left-handed, will tighen while loosening the right-hand threaded bolt from the wall.

drain

WE cannot tell why he did not go through the back of the wall, but your picture implies that there is a stud behind the drain that might have made it more difficult to do it that way. The hanger for the sink has many holes in it and you just have to use one of the other ones instead of the one with the bad screw. As far as patching the wall is concerned, each situation is different. A tile person would know the best way to do yours, but normally you have to make the opening larger so that it spans the area between two studs, then you rebuild that part of the wall to make it match the rest of it, and finally retile.