The P-Trap

Under every sink is a P-trap.

Its main function is to hold a small amount of water and prevent sewer gasses from getting into the room, but it also catches things like that wedding ring that falls down the sink.

They may be easy to take apart, but putting it back together can be tricky. Greg shows you how. Learn the parts and the types of joints and how to put each back together properly.

Greg covers 4 types of slip fitting washers:

• Standard nylong washer
• Rubber version of the standard washer
• A flat washer that is non-directional
• A fourth nylon version that has the seal built in with no washer required.

Remember to always put the tapered end toward the fitting.

You may also find you have a solvent joined P-trap that has to be cut to be able to remove. You can re-install it with a banded coupling that goes on the outside of the pipe.

When reassembling the P-trap, always make sure that the tailpiece coming down from the sink goes straight into the P-trap. Do not use accordian tubing as it just traps gunk and doeasn't work well. Alignment can be achieved by the telescoping nature of the horizontal trap arm section and the swivel action of the J-bend. For additional location changes, youcan add one or two 1/8th bend (45°) pieces of pipe near the wall end. Greg demos this in the video below.