Tiling around a sink

[havingago]

I have an existing sink fixed through existing wall tiling. I want to strip the tiles off and re-tile the walls. I know this isn't strictly the best way to do it but I don't want to remove the sink to tile behind (i don't have the confidence to do this and fear a plumber would be expensive) Ideally I want to cut through the existing tiles around the sink and leave the existing tiles where the sink fixings go through. Can anyone recommend a way of doing this safely?
Would appreciate any tips or suggestions.

Thanks V much

 

[JimStorey]

I not a tiler and there's much more experienced people around here, but I have recently gutted and refitted a bathroom and can at least offer some advice.

I think that removing the sink is the easiest (and quickest) option, as cutting through tiles that are fixed to a wall is near impossible, and you're likely to damage the surface behind (e.g. plasterboard) when attempting it, and therefore turning this into a much bigger job than it should be.

From my (admittedly limited) experience, if the confidence is there to tile then there's more than enough to take a sink off. Most are just held on through a combination of fixing bolts (underneath where the soap sits), possibly additional screws and the taps. If you have isolation valves fitted to H+C pipes all the better, if not ensure that water is not running when both taps are open (either from mains or tank). If you don't have valves fitted then this could be a good opportunity to fit them (if wishing to change the tap in the future etc), but will involve cutting the pipe and remeasuring to ensure that the taps are still at the correct height and sit on the sink. To make your life easier, I'd remove the sink and then re-fit the taps back onto the exposed pipes, as this way you can then take the time with the tiling / grouting, as you'll be able to turn the household water back on without flooding.

 

[jctilingservices]

there is NO easy way mate, as pointed out in the previous post you could do damge to the structure behind ALSO you could do damage to the sink itself.

My advice would be to remove the sink ( its easy) turn off water at stopcock ( unless you have isolators, if you do just shut water off at isolators).
When water is off ( no isolators) cut both pipes, loosen screws that hold sink to wall then romove the sink ( the taps and pieces of pipe stil;l attached to sink ). NOW fit isolator valves, make sure they are turned to OFF then turn your water back on. Tile away then just simply re-fit sink then turn isolators to open, jobs done easy peasy.
If you got the knowledge / guts to tile you can certainly remove a sink no problem at all

 

[JimStorey]

Just following on from the above post, if you DO have isolators already fitted then this will make your life considerably easier as 1) you can turn both H and C feeds to the taps off without touching water to the rest of the house (as already described), but also 2) if the valves are compression fittings (i.e. look like they have a nut around the pipe either side of it) then with the valve closed you can undo the fitting above the valve (repeat - ABOVE - tap-side!!) and then when you remove the sink from the wall, you can leave the taps attached to the sink and the pipes will just slide out of the valve. All that should be on the ends of the pipes will be an olive (part of the compression fitting) with the added bonus that the nuts you've just undone will still be on the pipes as they won't slide past this olive. When you're done tiling, the pipes will just fit back into the valves and it all just tightens up.

Other things that I've learnt the hard way - if you follow jctilingservices's advice and cut the pipes to fit isolation valves (although I still maintain that if you don't have isolators, then removing taps 1st and the re-connecting to bare pipes when sink is off is the easiest), if the pipes are painted then this needs to come off. The pipes need to be pretty much back to original glory as (as mentioned above) the olive that you need has very little clearance over the pipe so any paint or dents in the pipe will stop it fitting. I use paint stripper then some fine sandpaper which works a treat. Although saying that I so have a story about trying to fit an 8mm olive to some painted central heating microbore pipework in a full system using a pipe freezing kit.....that thawed...... It should probably go in the DIY disasters section here..... like I said, I learnt the hard way!

 

[jctilingservices]

just to add
cut your pipe, use a bit of emery cloth to clean the ends up to allow ease of fitting of olive.Sorry i didnt mention that in my original reply, i just assumed you would understand that if the pipe was painted you would remove the old paint to accomodate fitting of the olive.