Kitchen drains - sink baskets

[Jim K.]

After years of doing this, I still get the odd surprise. All of us who do DIY rentals understand that one of our biggest saving points compared to the hands-off investor is the kitchen drain. To hit the high points:

1. A thick vinyl or rubber mat spray-adhered in place across the bottom of the sink cabinet will save the cost of replacing the cabinet floor upfront. If you have to replace, cut around the perimeter and screw in a cut-to-size piece of plywood, covered by vinyl or rubber.

2. Forget polypropylene drains and traps. The slightly higher cost of solvent-welded Schedule 40 PVC or ABS will pay for itself over time in reduced service calls.

3. Garbage disposals are a waste of money. If you do have a garbage disposal installed, make sure you have a heavy duty top-down disposal wrench to clear out jams. Far and away the best garbage disposals for the average residence are the InSinkErators or similar disposals with an override protection switch on the bottom and a socket on the bottom that accepts their own bottom-up (inferior) disposal wrench.

4. Make up a schedule for problem kitchen drains and snake them out regularly to avoid irregular service calls.

So yesterday in the School of Hard Knocks, boys and girls of all ages...the call came in and I took my preliminary look and diagnosed a worn-out tailpiece nut on the bottom of the 20-gauge sink steel sink. I put the new nut in, turned, and...

CRACK! I actually heard it, and then the WHOLE SINK BASKET started turning in my hand.

Here's an exploded image of what an installed  sink basket looks like

It turned out the drooling idiot who installed the thing went sloppy and cheap on his plumbers putty on the topside of the seal. Tightened it too far and left an insufficient amount of putty between the strainer and the sink floor. Ordinarily, you're only supposed to hand-tighten this, to leave a good thick amount of plumbers putty under the flange to safeguard you against leaks. This guy thought tighter was better, as I suppose do most self-taught dial 1-800-BIGCASH plumbing techs, one of whom, I was informed by the former owner, installed the kitchen sink some 9 years ago.

So the slow leak that eventually got through the insufficient plumbers putty had rotted out the rubber washer and the cardboard washer underneath, and then eaten through the locknut. Only then did it attack the metal tailpiece nut and eat through that. That's when I was called in. So as soon as I went to replace the tailpiece nut, the locknut cracked and the whole assembled sink basket started turning in the sink's flange.

I ended up replacing the thing with a heavy-duty sink basket, all-brass construction under the chrome finish. The locknut is three times thicker, the tailpiece nut twice as deep, I made damned sure I got that plumber's putty right. The cost difference is about $10 for the standard-grade sink basket (Keeney brand) and $25 for the all-brass version. You can buy branded versions (Moen, Kohler) for as much as $100, but I preferred to avoid that.

$15 extra for materials cost for the heavy-duty sink basket and I'll never see that problem again.

[Jim K.]

Originally posted by @Mike Reynolds:

@Jim K.  The very number one thing I get, besides roof leaks, is a freeking garbage disposal problem. Why do people think it is ok to shove a 12" celery stalk and a half a potato down the sink when the garbage can is 4' away? 

Is there such a thing as a composting clause in a lease these days? If not, there should be. 

I don't know, Mike. My family always rented but we never used garbage disposals growing up. We always had a lidded 13-gallon lined trash receptacles that we emptied regularly, and the place that I spent the most time growing up in was a 100-year-old farmhouse in upstate New York that just didn't have a garbage disposal.

That being said, I like the InSinkErators. They have a cutoff switch and a socket on the bottom that takes a dinky proprietary Allen wrench to free up jams. The wrench is made out of brass, and is designed to deform and become useless if the jam is really stuck, well before it damages the disposal. So when the thing jams, you stick the wrench in the bottom and try to move it around to free the jam, hit the cutoff switch once you can feel it turning, and it's unstuck.

I explain this to the tenant and leave the wrench in a kitchen drawer.

Inevitably, they always stick, as you said, ridiculous thing down the disposal and the things get really stuck and they call me. I come in with my top-down garbage disposal wrench and another Allen wrench. I use both to free up the jam because you can get much, much more torque with the big-old old top-down tool working in tandem with the dinky wrench on the bottom. Hit the cutoff switch and start the disposal up again. I huff and puff and posture a bit about not jamming the garbage disposal, leave the dinky brass Allen wrench in the drawer again, and I've got a properly educated tenant who doesn't stuff massive blocks of food down the garbage disposal and will clear minor jams by themselves.

The 1/2 HP InSinkErators Badger 5 usually goes for around a hundred bucks, but they often go on sale and you get good deals. The brass proprietary Allen wrench I'm talking about goes for five bucks. That's my best solution to providing a garbage disposal to date, other than just removing the thing, clipping the cord out, taking out the switch and putting in a blank plate. A lot of them in my property class LOVE that garbage disposal, though, and see it as one of the standout things about my properties that separates me from my competition.