Kitchen & Bathroom Sink Repair Across the Bay Area
Slow drains, leaking traps, pop-ups that will not hold water, and angle stops weeping into the cabinet. We repair kitchen and bathroom sinks across 15 Bay Area cities, from clearing a blocked waste to replacing the whole assembly and re-seating a sink that has dropped away from the worktop.
If the blockage sits further down the line rather than at the sink itself, see drain cleaning for branch and main line work.
- Slow and blocked sink drains cleared
- P-trap, tailpiece and continuous waste replacement
- Pop-up assemblies and basin waste plugs
- Basket strainers resealed or replaced
- Angle stop and supply line leaks
- Sink replacement and re-seating loose or dropped bowls
- Overflow and rim seal leaks
Sink Faults We Repair
Catching these early is almost always cheaper than waiting for the failure.
Water Standing in the Bowl
A kitchen sink that drains slowly is usually grease, which cools in the trap and catches everything that follows it. A bathroom basin is usually hair bound around the pop-up rod. Both start as a slight delay and get steadily worse until the bowl stops emptying at all.
Damp or a Puddle in the Cabinet
Under sink leaks come from a handful of places: the trap joints, the tailpiece, the strainer seal, the angle stop or the supply line. Finding out which needs everything dried and the fixture run while watching. Replacing a trap because it happened to be wet fixes nothing if the stop above is weeping.
A Basin That Will Not Hold Water
The pop-up seal has perished, or the linkage has slipped out of adjustment. It is a small repair, but a basin you cannot fill is a genuine nuisance. The rod, the clevis and the spring clip beneath the basin are what set it, and they work loose over time.
Gurgling and Smells
A trap that gurgles is being pulled by pressure elsewhere in the system, usually a partly blocked vent or a restricted branch line. If it siphons dry, sewer gas comes back up through the empty trap. A smell at a sink used every day is worth investigating rather than masking.
The Sink Has Dropped or Moves
Undermount sinks are held by clips and adhesive that eventually let go, particularly under a heavy cast iron or fireclay bowl. Top mount sinks lose the rim seal and water runs down the outside of the cabinet instead. Either way it needs lifting, cleaning back and re-seating properly.
Two Fixtures Slow at Once
When a sink and the bath or the neighbouring basin slow down together, the problem is not the trap. It is the branch line they share, or something further out towards the main. Clearing the sink alone in that situation buys you a few days at most before it returns.
Parts of the Sink We Repair
P-Trap and Waste Pipe
The U-bend under every sink holds water to block sewer gas, and it catches everything that goes down. Plastic traps crack at the nut, chrome tubular traps corrode through at the bend, and both loosen with vibration from a disposal. Replacement is quick, and worth doing in matched materials rather than mixing them.
Basket Strainer and Sink Flange
The metal assembly clamping through the sink bowl. When the putty seal beneath the flange dries out, water passes around the outside of the strainer and runs down the tailpiece. It looks exactly like a trap leak and is not. Resealing means dropping the tailpiece and cleaning the bowl back properly.
Pop-Up Assembly
The drain, stopper and linkage on a bathroom basin. The seal perishes, the pivot rod ball leaks at the retaining nut, and the clevis slips so the plug no longer closes. Full replacements are inexpensive and often a better answer than repairing a corroded assembly one piece at a time.
Angle Stops and Supply Lines
The shutoffs and flexible connectors feeding the taps. Old multi-turn stops seize and weep at the stem, and supply lines harden and split. We change them for quarter turn stops and braided lines, which makes the fixture safe to isolate and removes one of the most common flood risks in the house.
How We Repair a Sink
Find the Actual Source
Everything under the sink gets dried, then we run each element in turn, filling and draining the bowl while watching the joints, the strainer and the stops. Under sink leaks are frequently blamed on the wrong component, because water tracks along pipe before it finally drips.
Quote and Approve
You get the price before anything is dismantled, including any parts we expect to replace. If we find something behind it, a corroded trap arm going into the wall for instance, we stop and give you the revised figure rather than carrying on and presenting it afterwards.
Clear or Replace
A blockage is cleared mechanically at the trap or through the clean out, rather than with drain chemicals which do more harm than good to older pipe. Failed components are replaced in matched materials, properly supported, with the correct fall maintained on the waste.
Reseal and Re-Seat
Where the strainer, the flange or the sink itself has to come out, the mating surfaces are cleaned back to bare material before any new sealant or plumber putty goes on. An undermount bowl gets fresh clips and proper support while the adhesive cures.
Fill, Drain and Watch
We fill the bowl to the overflow and release it in one go, because a full bowl loads the joints in a way a running tap never will. Then we dry everything, check again, and put your cupboard back the way we found it.
Sink Repairs, From a Slow Drain to a Dropped Bowl
Most sink work divides into two: things that block, and things that leak. Blockages at a kitchen sink are grease almost every time. It leaves the tap warm and liquid, cools in the trap, and every coffee ground and food scrap after it sticks to the wall of the pipe. Bathroom basins are hair and soap around the pop-up. Neither responds well to caustic drain chemicals, which sit in the trap generating heat and attacking the pipe while leaving the blockage exactly where it was.
Leaks under a sink are diagnosed badly more often than any other plumbing fault, because the cabinet floor is wet and the trap is the obvious suspect. Water from a weeping angle stop runs down the supply line and drips off the trap. Water passing a dried out strainer seal runs down the outside of the tailpiece and does the same thing. Drying everything and testing each element in turn is the only reliable way to know which component is actually failing.
In older Bay Area housing the trap arm going into the wall is often the weak point. Galvanized drain pipe corrodes and closes up from the inside, so a sink that keeps blocking despite a clean trap is frequently telling you the arm behind the wall has narrowed to a fraction of its original bore. No amount of clearing fixes that. Where we find it, replacing that section back to a sound connection is the repair that actually holds.
Sink replacement is less about the bowl and more about what is underneath it. An undermount sink hangs from clips and adhesive beneath the worktop, and a heavy fireclay or cast iron bowl full of water is a serious load. When one drops it usually takes the tailpiece with it and floods the cabinet. Re-seating means cleaning every trace of old adhesive off both surfaces, supporting the bowl properly while the new adhesive cures, and renewing the waste connections.
What Affects the Price
We quote every job up front, so you approve the price before anything starts. These are the things that move it:
- Whether the job is clearing a blockage or replacing failed components
- How many parts of the assembly are involved: trap, tailpiece, strainer, pop-up or stops
- Condition of the pipe in the wall, particularly older corroded galvanized drain lines
- Whether the blockage sits at the trap or further along a shared branch line
- Type of sink and mounting, since undermount bowls need supporting and curing time
- Access under the cabinet, and whether a disposal or filter unit has to come out first
- Whether the sink is being re-seated or fully replaced
Most quotes are free and can be done from photos or video you send us. Some on-site estimates carry a fee based on distance, and we tell you that before we come out.
Keeping Sinks Draining
Fat, oil and grease cause most kitchen blockages. Pour them into a container and bin them once cool. Hot water and detergent only move the problem further along the pipe, where it is considerably harder to reach.
A basket or mesh over a bathroom waste catches hair before it wraps itself around the pop-up rod. Emptying it takes a moment and it prevents the single most common cause of a slow basin.
Running the hot tap hard for a minute or two once a week helps shift the film that builds on the inside of a waste pipe. It is no substitute for keeping grease out, but it slows the build-up down.
Chemical drain openers sit against the blockage generating heat, which distorts plastic traps and attacks older metal pipe. If a plunger has not worked, the pipe needs opening rather than filling with something caustic.
Move whatever is stored under the sink twice a year and look at the base for staining or swelling. Chipboard cabinet bases show a slow leak long before it reaches the floor, and catching it there saves the cabinet.
Sink Repair — Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers, without the sales pitch.
Why does my sink keep blocking even after it is cleared?
Either the blockage was pushed along rather than removed, or the pipe itself has narrowed. Corroded galvanized drain lines in older Bay Area homes lose most of their bore, and a clear then only restores flow for a few weeks. A camera inspection of the branch line settles which it is, rather than repeating the same clear.
Is it safe to use a chemical drain cleaner first?
We would advise against it. Caustic products generate heat while they sit, which distorts plastic traps and eats into older metal pipe. If they fail to clear the blockage, the pipe is then full of caustic liquid for whoever opens it up. Mechanical clearing at the trap is both safer and more reliable.
Where is the leak under my sink actually coming from?
It could be the trap joints, the tailpiece, the strainer seal, the pop-up pivot nut, an angle stop or a supply line. Water runs along pipe before it drops, so the wet spot rarely sits under the source. Drying everything, then running and filling the bowl while watching each part, is how it is properly identified.
Can a dropped undermount sink be re-seated or does it need replacing?
If the bowl and the worktop cut-out are both undamaged, re-seating is usually possible. It means removing the sink completely, cleaning all the old adhesive from both surfaces, fitting fresh clips and supporting the bowl while the new adhesive cures. If the worktop edge is chipped or the bowl is cracked, replacement is the honest answer.
Why does my sink gurgle when the washing machine drains?
Air is being pulled through the trap because the vent is restricted or the branch line is partly blocked. It is a warning rather than a quirk, because a trap that siphons dry lets sewer gas into the room. It usually means the drain line needs clearing or the vent needs checking.
Do I need a plumber for a blocked bathroom basin?
Not always. A cup plunger with the overflow blocked off, or simply removing and cleaning the pop-up, clears a great many of them. Call us when clearing the trap does not restore flow, when more than one fixture is slow, or when the trap or the pipe into the wall looks corroded, because that is pipework rather than fixture.
Do you charge extra for nights, weekends or holidays?
No. We do not add overtime charges, ever. The rate you are quoted is the same whether we come out on a Tuesday morning or at 2am on a holiday weekend.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. Power Plumbing USA holds California contractor license #1082507 and carries full liability insurance. All work is performed to California Plumbing Code, and we pull permits where the job requires them.
Where We Provide This Service
We cover 15 Bay Area cities from our Union City base. See the full service area →