Leak under bathroom sink

ts99

Moved into a new place last year and thankfully haven't had any problems (until now). Found a small leak under the bathroom sink on our mainfloor. As this bathroom is hardly ever used it went unnoticed until now and only leaks if you let the water run a little bit (a quick wash of the hands produces almost no leak).

I took the J pipe to Home Depot and they were confused as to why it would be leaking, since the piece looks fine. He suggested some teflon tape which a tried after first reattaching the pipe to simply make sure it wasn't just loose. The tape hasn't worked, so hoping for another suggestion.

I will try taking it apart tonight and cleaning the threads (didn't try this yet) to see if that hopefully works. No visible damage to any of the pieces, but because I took the part off our builder won't come in to look at it (won't make that mistake again ).

I attached a picture - you can see where the leak is coming from (where the white tape is). Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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joecaption

There should never be teflon tape used there.
It may be just the picture but that drain on the right looks like it's sitting at a steep angle. If it is then there no way for the tapered seal to sit right.

Is that trap glued to the tail piece coming from the sink? If so how would you remove it to clean it out?

The one's I use look like this.
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...0993%2d%5f%2dN

ts99

There's another attachment further up that you can't see in that picture, so the pipe is fully removable. I haven't taken a close look at the pipe leading to the wall to see what angle it's at. If that's the issue then that joint will never fit properly (maybe that would put our builder back on the hook to fix it even though I removed the pipe?).

joecaption

It needs a slope but just a very slight one.

ts99

Thanks JC. Going to take the tape off when I get home tonight and try cleaning the threads in case that's the issue.

TheEplumber

Here's a couple of tricks that might help.
Loosen the compression nut at the top of the tailpiece. This might help give you some wiggle play for alignment.
Remove the tape as mentioned. Apply a small amount of pipe dope to the ground joint surfaces instead. Align the joint as best you can and tighten the nut. Now tighten the tailpiece nut. Test with hot water. Snug up the nut again.

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Thurman

I don't like the angle(s) that everything is meeting at either. Try: Remove the top compression nut completely, remove the compression nut in the photo with the tape on the threads. Clean all parts, removing all tape. Put the lower compression nut on and lightly tighten without the top compression nut attached. Then hand snug the lower compression nut up and notice the location of the top of the tailpiece where it should attach to the sink. I'm betting it's way off. Being as this is a drain line, one solution may be to cut the pipe after the lower compression connection and install a "Fernco" type coupling that would allow you some mis-alignment in your piping, but allow both compression couplings to seal (closer to) correctly.