Is Your Kitchen Sink Leaking?

The space beneath your kitchen sink isn’t always monitored, so it may come as a shock to find that water has been leaking there for some time. Whether it is a newly occurring problem, or if water has pooled down there, try to find the cause as soon as possible. Be thorough, as a leaking kitchen sink can happen from multiple different causes.

One of the best ways to identify the source of the leak is to plug your sink with the drain stopper, fill it up completely, then unplug it. Watch below your sink, with a flashlight and be on the lookout for potential water leakage. If you are lucky, all that needs to be done is to tighten the nuts at the point where the pipes meet. 

When water can’t work itself down the drain, it will find somewhere else to go. For instance, when your P-trap has a clog, water cannot flow properly and may cause the leaking problem. The P-trap is the curved section of the pipe below the sink, and its purpose is to make a seal with water so foul odors do not come back out from the sink.

A more likely cause of a leak is when you have worn-out washers. This is another case where a seal is not properly formed. Replacing the washers should be a high priority task and is relatively inexpensive.

However, the cause may not be where the water is leaving, but where the water comes from. In the space beneath the sink toward the back are your water supply lines. When you turn on the faucet, the water will flow up through these lines. These are typically out of sight, and therefore won’t be one of your prime suspects early on.

Corrosion can cause a leak in the waterline, but it is more likely an issue with the gasket in the connector. Replacing the gasket should stop the leak, but sometimes all you may need to do is tighten the connection to solve the problem.

Spotting the cause is not always a simple task, and sometimes the leak might be more than you can handle. When you need help fixing that leaking kitchen sink, call the professionals at Sunrise Heating and Plumbing at (616) 293-9326. We pride ourselves in providing nothing but exceptional customer service.