During the old times like the ’70s or ’80s, there was no specific rule or height size for installing kitchen sinks, drains, or countertops. That’s why if you research deeply you’ll find that at that time the sink pipe heights used to be pretty high. Now things are different and people are more conscious about their desired height for kitchen sinks, drain lines, and other related things.
Now if you want to renovate your old kitchen sink or just change the plumbing of your kitchen sink drain, then you might be wondering how high should a kitchen sink drain be? The standard height for any sink for specifically the kitchen sink should be around 20 to 24 inches. But this can differ a little bit from sink to sink.
Anatomy of a kitchen drain system
Before working with a kitchen sink drain observe all safety guidelines and use all appropriate safety equipment. Remember to turn off water and electricity if needed. If you haven’t already, take a moment to learn the brief instructions mentioned here. Exercise caution when attempting these, and any, home repairs or improvements!
Now it’s time to explain the anatomy of a kitchen drain system to you so that it makes some sense to you, how it operates ad maybe that’ll give you a kind of a leg up if you ever have to do a repair if and when you have to do a repair. The basics of the system are it permits the water to go through the sink down into the pipes and then it joins the trap area.
Here it enters the trap area which fills up until it fills up high enough to go back out the back of the drain down into the remainder of the drainage system ad out to the street into the sewer system. Now, that water needs to stay in there, so it keeps the sewer gases and the methane gases and things of that nature from working their way back up through the pipes and out of your sink and into your home where you might smell them and there’s some risk there.
So you want to make sure it has a trap for sure and that trap is definitely a good thing. Now all of the fittings where you see the nuts are basically a compression fitting for plastic. They basically operate really simply. There is a nut and there’s a small plastic washer and they just slid over the pipe and then when you slid the pipes together like so.
Here the nut compresses that plastic washer which compresses it against the body of the tubing and creates a seal. Now it’s not a great seal if you can still twist it with a little bit of moving. So if there are any shortcut pipes or anything like that or any sort of impact while working under your sink it could dislodge something and it might be just as simple as moving the nut and putting the gasket back in a good place and getting it taken care of that way.
So that’s the basics of how this system works. If by chance you have an old enough home, you might have some sort of cast iron or copper underneath your sink and the sooner you could get those replaced with a decent reliable system like this probably the better. But that’s the basic design and layout of a kitchen sink drain system.
How to install a kitchen sink drain?
Usually, there are an inch and a half ABS fittings and tubing underneath kitchen sinks. So you can add a coupling to the drain line to start your installation. It’s easiest to begin by connecting both begins together. Connect the ninety to the basin furthest away from the wall drain connection and the TY closest.
The section between the basins can be connected with a straight piece of tubing or with a dishwasher Y. it is important to add a dishwasher drain Y so that the Y is streaming towards the wall drain contact and upward.
I personally recommend angling the wires slightly back and towards the cabinet which makes connecting the dishwasher drain hoses easier. Make sure to add a quarter-inch per foot slope on all the drainage. Quarter-inch per foot slope is roughly when the bubble on the level just touches the line.
Now, to get the height for the p-trap use a piece of ABS tubing that uses dry fitting the connections to get the height measurement. So the main thing is to line up the p-trap angle to match the drain line coming from the wall. You may need to use a 45 fitting depending on your rough-in pipping to make the final connection. Hand tightens the union p-trap and trap adapters.
So this is the way of a pretty straightforward install that you can do on your own. But make sure you know all about how high should a kitchen sink drain be and have all the necessary tools within your reach before installing.
