Plumbing – Lost small screw in sink, can I open tubing to retrieve

plumbingsink

I accidentally lost a small screw into my sink. This screw is a special screw for a toilet paper holder and cannot be replaced easily.

The sink has this L-shaped tubing with a large bottom part in it. I think it’s called a bottle trap (see picture 1). I was thinking that I could unscrew the connector nuts and get the small screw from he bottle trap. Is that feasible and if so what precautions should I take to protect the tubing and bottle trap?

toilet sink bottle trap

The connector nuts are like this:
connector nut 1
connector nut 2

Best Answer

That style of sink drain that you show has a trap at the bottom. A trap on a sink, regardless of the style you show or the traditional U style, serves two purposes:

  1. Catch things that people drop down the drain
  2. Prevent sewer gasses from coming up

This means that any water device that has a drain in a house must have some trap. IF your sink did not have the one shown in the picture, chances would have been that it is down stream somewhere. In both styles, you simply can unscrew where it attaches with a wrench of appropriate size and the trap comes off.

Note: Keep in mind that after retrieving your item to let water flow through it for a little bit again as this puts a layer of water back in the trap which is what really protects from sewer gasses.