Removing a wash hand basin

[Bingy man]

The basin can often be gently propped up just enough to slide pedestal out by cutting any visible silicone or by the hacksaw blade method or pad saw / pull saw . As silicone is quite dense it tends to cause a lot of resistance ( like cutting through a rubber car tyre ) when trying to cut through it. smashing it out could open up a can of worms as not all plumbers immediately reach for the silicone. Other pipes or cables could have prevented it being fixed by the usual methods .keep as much intact as possible but be prepared to replace basin and pedestal if the hits the fan .. back to your basin you should be able to remove it once ghe pedestals out of the way or even partially. Replace trap ( 32mm ) with a telescopic type if in any doubt ,,

 

[Bingy man]

FYI
I recall several years ago I had an almost identical problem as yours @Jacob . Having prodded and poked no visible fixing anywhere.and no silicone either out came the big ommer and smash out it came , the bracket had been fixed to the wall and the basin waste went through it and was secured by a brass nut the basin then sat on the pedestal and was bedded in with putty.. good luck

 

[Jacob]

I'm off to Screwfux to buy their finest sink plunger, as a last attempt before attacking the basin.
But it needs re-plumbing anyway and probably hasn't been unblocked since installed. We get a lot of lime scale here and it breaks off and settles in traps and corners.

 

[Bingy man]

I'm off to Screwfux to buy their finest sink plunger, as a last attempt before attacking the basin.
But it needs re-plumbing anyway and probably hasn't been unblocked since installed. We get a lot of lime scale here and it breaks off and settles in traps and corners.

Without teaching you or anyone else for that matter to suck eggs - don’t forget to cover/ seal the overflow while plunging . Although caution is recommended there are some decent commercial chemicals that dissolve grease hair and lime scale that could help but ultimately removing the trap or replacing it is the best solution..

 

[Doug71]

And when you've removed the trap don't pour its contents down the sink that you have just removed it from............

 

[Bingy man]

And when you've removed the trap don't pour its contents down the sink that you have just removed it from............

I’ve actually never done that ..

 

[JKM]

EDIT, I have never understood why more people don’t stash away the unused bits and pieces like tiles from work in their houses, always handy and good to hand onto the next owner of the property.

Mildly OT but....
I always hide leftover floor and wall tiles either under the kitchen cabinets, behind the plinth/toekick, or behind bath panels etc. plus any other potentially useful offcuts that will fit.
Completely out of sight in an otherwise totally dead area.

I just imagine that people buying my old houses are a bit annoyed when they rip the whole bathroom out because of a few cracked tiles, then realise there were spares all along

 

[Bingy man]

Mildly OT but....
I always hide leftover floor and wall tiles either under the kitchen cabinets, behind the plinth/toekick, or behind bath panels etc. plus any other potentially useful offcuts that will fit.
Completely out of sight in an otherwise totally dead area.

I just imagine that people buying my old houses are a bit annoyed when they rip the whole bathroom out because of a few cracked tiles, then realise there were spares all along

Re sealed a bath recently and removed the bath panel to allow air to circulate to dry out the floor due to water getting past the previous seal . Found 4 full + a half a boxof what turned out to be extremely expensive tiles that could have been returned. The half box would of been more than enough for a few spares

 

[Cabinetman]

I just stash it in the attic where it’s likely to be found.

 

[Stevekane]

Pop into your local plumbers and buy a bottle of One Shot, as long as you dont look like your going to throw it over somone they should sell it to you.
You used to be able to buy Hydrochloric Acid Spririt of salts but its not so easy nowadays. One shot works extremely well.

 

[Pedronicus]

I’ve actually never done that ..

I have - in front of the customer!!!

 

[Jacob]

I've shifted a blockage with a wet rag in the overflow and a vacuum cleaner nozzle on the outlet before now. Doesn't work every time but enough to be worth a try before breaking out the sledgehammer

I've done that in the past - helped to have a seal in the form of a 6" ish piece of Karrimat with a hole in the middle to fit the hose. Was an old Goblin wet n dry which I kept for wet jobs, but got dumped in the house move. Old Karrimats are also worth hanging on to - useful for other purposes like clamping delicate things etc.
Better plunger from Screwfix has done it here, but will still need to re-plumb at some point for access to the trap.

 

[Bingy man]

I'm off to Screwfux to buy their finest sink plunger, as a last attempt before attacking the basin.
But it needs re-plumbing anyway and probably hasn't been unblocked since installed. We get a lot of lime scale here and it breaks off and settles in traps and corners.

How goes the basin job , is it hammer time ( f1 reference) or did you manage to unblock it ..