after living with this for about a month, we finally got down to Salvage One and bought ourselves a vintage cast iron wall-mount sink.
jef cleaned the little bit of rust and dirt off and it was looking pretty good. we’ll definitely have to have it refinished. but since we’re already planning to have the bathtub and kitchen sink refinished, that’s no big deal.
installation went smoothly. we knew the wall would support the sink with no problem because the marks from the original wall-mount sink are still visible.
getting the legs exactly the right height was the most time-consuming part.
whoops — we wanted the sink a little higher than normal, evidently. nothing a trip to lowe’s can’t fix, though.
all done! just in time for a certain someone’s arrival…
Wow, you made it look easy. I’ve been putting of doing the exact same task in my bathroom because I had heard it was hard to find pipes, etc. to fit the old sinks. Seems like I was misinformed :-)
thanks for visiting, stuccohouse!
we did just fine with 1-1/4″ pipes. the folks at the salvage shops could probably give you good advice on that sort of thing.
seems to me there’s more of a difference in faucet spacings. 4″ and 8″ are the most common now, but we only came across a couple of sinks that were drilled for 4″ faucets. most had separate spouts for hot and cold, and some had an integrated spout that only needed the handles added on.
but be encouraged — it really did turn out to be an easy job.
This was probably one of the easier jobs in the house, and had the biggest payoff in relation to the work involved. Sinks are fairly flexible since they are basically a vessel and you would want to replace all the actual guts (drain, faucet, fittings) with modern stuff anyhow. There is such a vast array of options for sinks, old and new, you can’t fail.
In chicago, there is the Faucet Shoppe (http://www.thefaucetshoppe.com/) which is a small place with lots of old sinks and sells tons of old and new Chiacago faucet parts, assemblies etc. They can pair a faucet with almost any spacing you can find. They are very nice and super knowledgeable. I like Chicago Faucets (it’s a brand: http://www.chicagofaucets.com) because they are built to last for 100 years (and have) and are found in 99% of older buildings.
The only tricky part is deciding what kind of fixture you want on the sink. That is probably the way to start. Once you decide on the fixture, you know what type of spacing to get and you can go from there. We knew we wanted 4″ spacing since we already had the faucet, so finding an old sink with that size was harder since most sinks have either the two seperate hot and cold faucets or an integrated spout with specially spaced handles. The Faucet Shoppe sells new pieces for almost any sink, and can rebuild old faucets if you are in love with something you already have.
Pipes were no problem. Most home improvement stores sell 1 1/4″ drain pipes for the older plumbing. Post back if you need more help!
Thanks for the tip on finding the faucet hardware first! We do have a place in Minneapolis that is a grungier and less helpful version of Salvage One….and Franks Plumbing that deals in vintage stuff (sounds like your faucet place). I just never had the energy to figure it all out. I used a Chicago Faucet on my kitchen wall sink, so I will look at them for this too.
In my former house, I had an old sink that originally had the separate spouts. At some point, someone converted it to a central spout and used the extra hole to attach a nifty ceramic soap dish. Nust have been an old time solution.
Any, thanks for all of the advice. Your sink looks great!
you did make it look easy. The sink looks good. our pedistal sink went in pretty easy in our bathroom but that was thanks to a plumber friend of mine.
Besides, like you haven’t heard people say to you, “Look at those pipes!”