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I have a big problem at my apartment, the metal p-trap has a hole under my kitchen sink drain pipes due to corrosion, I was told I could temporarily fix it applying epoxy, but I would rather fix the problem permanently, I was told I could replace the p-trap with another one that is PVC, my question is how to adapt the PVC to the other pipes that are steel. Please help, see pictures attached.
If you notice at the top, there is a handy dandy nut (if you will) that you can unscrew. Take that off, and you're half way to removing it.
After that, you can unscrew the bottom of the p trap from the rest of the pipe.
Next you will need a PVC P trap kit. Make sure you bring your old pipe to the hardware store and check that you get the correct size (Most kitchen sinks are 1 1/2 or 1 1/4 in.)
Figure out the correct orientation of your p trap. The long pipe included should fit inside of the existing metal pipe nicely. If not, shorten it a little bit with a hack saw. Careful though, the pvc is fragile and easy to crack!
You should be able to save the original section of pipe you unscrewed first if you disconnect it from the sink. (See red arrow) The PVC part of the p trap should screw nicely into the green arrow part of the pipe. You may need to use the original nut, but if that doesn't fit, use the pvc one included in the kit. Make sure it's tight!
Have fun!
Thanks DarthCaniac for the detailed answer!! However I didn't see your answer before because I needed to get this fixed right away, so I started on my own and yes that is exactly how I started, when I unscrewed the top tailpiece nut it did come out, however the bottom nut was like sealed maybe because it's been there for years, so I ended up break in half the whole thing:
So I took the broken pipe to lowes and they guide me in the right direction. I had to cut the metal arm pipe with an electric saw, then added a rubber boot with clamps and connected all the pipes together, I'm so happy I was able to do this myself since it was my first time! So far everything looks good, no leaks yet!! This was the outcome:
