How to Replace a Bathroom Sink and Faucet In 30 Minutes for Less Than $100 Dollars

The 30-Minute Sink and Faucet Replacement Adventure

If your setup is different from the one I describe or some unforeseeable disaster takes place, it may take you longer than 30 minutes. However, everything should go great and leave you with time to spare. Time doesn’t include shopping or silicone caulk curing time and you should have all of your tools, supplies and purchased items ready and at hand.

• Tools & Supplies
• My Sink Adventure
• Measure Your Old Sink
• Buy Your New Sink and Faucet, and Maybe Even New Drain Pipes (For Under $100)
• Turn Off the Water Valves Under the Sink
• Disconnect the Water Lines from the Sink Faucet
• Disconnect the S-Trap from the Sink Drain
• Remove the Old Sink
• Clean the Counter Top
• Insert the New Sink
• Connect the Drain
• Connect the Water Lines
• Test Everything For Leaks
• You’re Done!  Hooray!!!

Tools and Supplies

• Yard Stick or Measuring Tape – To Measure the Sink
• Channel Lock Wrench – For Pipe Connection
• Crescent Wrench or Pliers – For Water Line Connections
• Screw Driver, Scraper or Knife – For Scraping Old Caulk and Prying Old Sink Up
• Flashlight – To See the Water Line and Faucet Connections
• Caulk Gun (Optional) – You Can Buy the Squeezable Tube
• Bucket – To Catch Water
• Rags or Old Towels – To Help Catch Water

My Sink Adventure

Over the years I had mentioned to my husband that it would be nice to have a new sink. He had replaced the faucet several years ago because the old one leaked, but he didn’t really want to replace the sink. He thought it was too much trouble. To tell the truth, there are a lot of things that we need to do around here; but as long as something is functional it usually gets overlooked.

Our projects usually start out like the following story. 

The lever for the plug on the sink rusted out so the plug wouldn’t go up and down. If it closed it had to be pried open. Now the faucet that my husband replaced several years ago most likely came with a new metal mechanism for the plug, but it was probably too much trouble to install. LOL, Grin. Of course, we have no idea where it is now! The trash, maybe? Or a deep dark closet? Anyway, since the plug doesn’t work, it is now a major problem when my husband shaves.

Since my husband wants to shave, but he doesn’t want to pry the plug open every day, he wants to replace the plug. However, he doesn’t want another plug that uses a lever; he wants a pop-up plug so it won’t rust out again. That’s O.K. with me, either way we get a new working plug.

I go into the bathroom thinking about the new pop-up plug, walk over to the sink, see all the rust around the old plug and think it sure is a shame to put a new plug in this nasty sink. So I ask my husband, “Since you have to change the plug anyway, what are the chances of getting a new sink”? He wasn’t very enthusiastic. He thought they would be too expensive. But he agreed to look at them.

Here is a little secret. Home Depot and Lowe’s always have lower price fixtures hidden in the store. The fixtures in the big pretty display area are always high priced. But here is the secret; they have lower priced items either displayed in an out-of-the-way place or in boxes under the big pretty displays. You just have to look. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt. The lower priced items are there for the building and home repair contractors. The high priced items are there for the consumer that is going to buy on impulse or out of desperation. As far as I have ever been able to tell the quality is comparable. In fact, before I found that little secret, I bought some of those high priced fixtures, and they broke or leaked faster than the lower priced secret stash.

Now, we live in a remote area, the closest Home Depot and Lowe’s is at least 45 miles away, so we looked at our local and neighboring town hardware stores for a pop-up plug. I kind of glanced at the sinks too. Unfortunately, they only had the lever drain plugs and awful plastic or resin sinks. Where did they get those things? Off to the city we go, we make our little Saturday trip out of town to go shopping for a pop-up drain plug (and a sink; wink, wink).

We get to Home Depot and while my husband looks for a pop-up plug, I walk down the bathroom isle past all the high price fixtures, all the way to the end. There it was a cute little Glacier Bay self-rimming, round sink; just the right size and only $39.00! I was even made of vitreous china (porcelain with a special hard finish) not plastic or resin. Yepee!

My husband didn’t have as good of luck. The only pop-up drain plugs he could find started at $19.95. I tried my little secret, but I couldn’t find one either. Although now I see pop-up drain plugs everywhere online for about $9.99. Oh well, sigh. I didn’t mind if we got a pop-up plug, but my frugal side wasn’t going to let me pay $19.95 or more for just a drain plug. I don’t think my husband wanted to pay that much either, but he also didn’t want another lever type drain plug.

I bought my sink and off we went to Lowe’s to look for a cheaper, no less expensive but not cheap, pop-up drain plug. My husband went looking for the pop-up drain plug and I just went looking; grin. He comes back with a package containing an S-trap replacement kit. Somewhere through this adventure, he thought it would be easier and a good idea to replace the pipes under the sink while we’re at it. I agreed, the old pipes were rusty just like the old sink. They didn’t leak yet, but who knows when? Unfortunately again, he didn’t find a reasonably priced pop-up drain. I don’t know what the deal with pop-up drains was that weekend?? Luckily there was a table of sale items and I found the coolest faucet with an LED light and a goose neck spout. The spout could even turn to the side if needed. What a great bathroom feature! Animal bowls could be washed and buckets could be filled… in the bathroom sink! How convenient is that? Oh, and luck of the lucky that day, it also had a pop-up drain plug. All for a low sale price of $29.99. I looked online today and they are $49.00. I feel so lucky!

Don’t look at the picture too closely. It’s just there to remind you to measure. You will really want to have your yard stick or measuring tape starting at the edge and measuring the full diameter of the sink. The hole is actually 18 inches and the sink is a 19″ sink. Our old sink was a little over 18″. The difference is the lip that sits on top of the cabinet to keep the sink from falling through.

If you plan to get new pipes for under the sink, be sure and measure them also. Ours were 1 1/4 inch but pipes could also be 1 1/2 or possibly something else.

Buy Your New Sink and Faucet, and Maybe Even New Drain Pipes             

I purchased the items we used at Home Depot and Lowes, but there are lots of places that you can get them. I will provide Amazon Links as a convenience, in case you don’t want to brave the store during the CoronaVirus. I also may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, as an Amazon Affiliate.

Here is what I actually bought, in person at the store.

• Sink –Glacier Bay, Round, 19 inch, self-rimmed, vitreous china, drop-in sink from Home Depot for $39.99.
• Faucet – Homewerks Worldwide LED Faucet from Lowe’s for $29.99.
• Silicone Caulk – I forgot the brand at Lowes for about $5.00
• Keeney 1-1/4-in Plastic S-Trap – from Lowes for $7.25

Total (Including s-trap kit): $82.23

The faucet I bought was on sale. The current price online is $49.00

Even if you buy the same faucet at the current price (which I’m sure you can find a cheaper one), you’re total to replace the sink and faucet will be $93.99, still under $100.00 and if you include the new pipes the price will be $101.24, still a good price. Of course that doesn’t include tax because the tax rate is different in each state.

Similar items at Amazon:

Kohler Pennington Self-Rimming, Oval, Bathroom Sink – My sink was round. Make sure of what you need before you buy.

PROFLO Self-Rimming, Oval, Drop-in Sink – This sink is also oval. Check before you buy.

Homewerks Worldwide,  Center set, High-Arc Bathroom Faucet

Z-FLO 35302 White PVC S Trap Assembly Kit with Captive Nut, 1-1/2-inch – Most bathroom pipes are 1 1/4 inches. Be sure to measure yours.

GE Advanced Silicone 2, 2.8 oz tube, clear

I have heard that they need to be either fully on or fully off, or they will leak. Remember this when you turn them back on. Oh, don’t worry, I’ll remind you!

Note: If you do have old copper pipes, you might want to consider changing them out for flexible pipes right now. This will make your life easier! Just disconnect the copper pipes from above the turn off knobs, and they should lift out with the sink. If they are too long you should be able to bend them and still lift them out with the sink.

Disconnect the Water Lines from the Sink Faucet

You won’t have to do this if you are replacing copper pipes with flexible pipes as mentioned above.

Way up at the top, under the sink, where you can’t see (time for the flashlight), the water lines will be screwed to the sink faucet. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get a bucket and yourself under the sink at the same time. So, this is a good time to put some old towels or rags on the bottom around the water lines.

There is actually quite a bit of water that stays in the lines and pipes. It will have to go somewhere when everything is disconnected, and it will make a mess if you’re not prepared. Who am I kidding, it will make a mess anyway. It just won’t be as big if you’re prepared.

Get a crescent wrench and unscrew the lines from the sink faucets. Be prepared to get a little water on yourself.

Disconnect the S-Trap from the Sink Drain (You might actually have a p-trap or something different)

Now you will want to put a bucket under the S-Trap before you disconnect it. It can hold more water than the water lines you disconnected from the sink faucet, so be prepared. Take some channel locks and unscrew the S-Trap Connections. If you are replacing the whole pipe system like we did, then unscrew the main drain also. Hopefully, you won’t have to replace the whole thing, but it shouldn’t be a big deal if you do.

Now You’re Ready to Remove the Old Sink

The sink we had was not a drop in sink like the one we bought. If your old sink is a drop in sink it will be easier. Just loosen the caulk around the sink with a knife, scraper or screw driver. Be careful not to damage your countertop. Once the caulk is loosened just lift the sink, faucet and detached old water lines (if you’re replacing the water lines) up and out of the cabinet.

If your sink is ancient like ours was, it may be mounted from the bottom. The sink had a metal ring along the outside rim. That metal ring overlapped the top of the cabinet about ¼ inch and the ring and sink were attached with little brackets that screwed in under the counter. Sorry, I didn’t get a picture of the sink before we removed it.

If your sink is mounted from the bottom with little brackets, then loosen the caulk under the metal ring as best you can. The brackets are holding the sink in place so the caulk isn’t really easy to remove, again be careful that you don’t damage the countertop. To remove the sink somebody will have to remove the screws from the bottom. If you are working by yourself you need to put something under the sink to keep it from falling on you as you unscrew the brackets.

For ours, my husband laid under the cabinet to remove the screws and I stood on the outside with one hand under the cabinet holding the sink up and the other hand holding the old (still attached) faucet with lifting pressure applied and my arm and body braced against the cabinet. Fortunately it didn’t let go all at once like I had imagined. It didn’t just lift out the top once the brackets were removed either. Probably because the caulk couldn’t be loosened properly. My husband had to do a lot of wiggling and jiggling to get it to finally break loose. It was so rusted that he actually pulled it down out of the metal ring, much to my alarm, to get it to break free. Once it was free we lifted the sink and all of its attachments out of the hole. Whew, that was the hardest part!

Make sure the seal is between the faucet and the sink to keep water from getting between them. If it doesn’t have a seal (It really should), then run a bead of silicone caulk around the bottom and set the faucet in place on the sink. Slide the washers over the threaded pipe and tighten the plastic nuts from the bottom with your hands, make sure they are good and snug. You shouldn’t have to use pliers unless you don’t have a lot of hand strength.

Once the faucet is installed to the sink, go ahead and install the sink drain also. That will keep you from having to install it while laying on your back under the sink. The sink drain also contains the pop-up plug. If your sink drain is all in one piece, take the top part of the drain assemble that contains the little plate and top part of the drain off. There should be a seal that goes between the plate and the sink, if there is not a seal then use a bead of silicone caulk or some plumbers putty between the drain and the sink to make it seal.

From the bottom of the sink attach the bottom part of the sink drain by sliding the washer or seal up the pipe and then screwing the nut onto the drain. You should be able to hand tighten this also. Note: Different sink drains may have different instructions, but it should be pretty easy to understand just by looking at the assembly. And the faucet and drain will come with instructions (hopefully), if you do need to reference them.

After you have the faucet and sink drain attached to the sink, your countertop should be dry. Take the silicone caulk and place a good strong bead of silicone around the hole where the sink will go. You can wipe away any excess, but you want to make sure there is enough. Now carefully lay the sink in place. Push down on it a little to make sure it is seated well and wipe away the excess silicone.

Note: The silicone caulk needs to dry for 3-4 hours before being exposed to water and at least 24 hours to cure completely.

The pipes are using compression fittings so you don’t need plumbers tape. You will just make sure the seal is in place and tighten the fittings. Hand tighten your fittings making sure they are not cross threaded and then use channel locks to finish tightening. But don’t get heavy-handed and break them.

If you are not replacing the s-trap assembly then just put the pipes back together the way you took them apart.

If you are replacing the pipes then connect the s-trap together at the center. Then attach the top of the s-trap to the sink drain. Put the long piece of pipe down into the main drain hole and then bring it up enough to make the connection to the bottom of the s-trap. Make sure all your connections are tight, but don’t break them. After all the s-trap connections are together and tight, tighten the connection to the main drain.

If you replaced the water lines you will also need to make the connection to the main intake valves (down by knobs that turn the water connection on and off). Again, make sure you have the hot and cold water lines connected to the proper valve. DON’T TURN THE WATER ON YET!

Testing for Leaks

Before you turn the water valves back on, go to the faucet and turn both the hot and cold water knobs to the on position. If your faucet has an aerator, take the aerator off (temporarily). You want to make sure everything is open before you turn the water back on so the lines can run freely, clear all the air out and not create pressure. Once everything is turned to the on position and the aerator is removed, turn the knobs on the water valves all the way on. Remember, if they are not turned on all the way, they may leak. I told you I would remind you.

Leave the water running full blast and check the water lines for leaks. Check around the water valves and at the faucet connections. Then check the s-trap and other pipe connection and make sure they are not leaking. If you made tight connections everything should be good to go. You can turn the faucet knobs off and replace the aerator.

 If you do have a leak, turn the water off at the valves and re-tighten the connection where the leak is and go back through the Testing for Leaks steps.

Remember: The silicone caulk needs to dry for 3-4 hours before being exposed to water and at least 24 hours to cure completely. So don’t put your sink to full use immediately.

You’re all done and have a beautiful new sink!