When we moved into our old house we found the original 85 year-old utility sink stored in the basement. We also found the pipes sticking out of the wall where it had originally been installed in the service porch. Why had it been taken out of service? Perhaps because the faucets were beyond repair and no replacements that would fit the widely spaced mounting holes could be found.

Wanting to have a utility sink to facilitate clean-up after our numerous other home restoration projects, and wanting to restore as much of the house to its original 1921 state as possible, we decided to put the sink back in its original location. But we soon realized we had a challenge. We could not find a mixing faucet that had the pipes spaced far enough apart to fit the sink’s existing holes.
Our choices were to forgo the convenience of a mixing faucet and install two separate spigots, or we could craft our own custom-spaced manifold.

Never ones to take the easy way out, we decided to design and build an assemblage of pipes and fittings that would allow us to affix a contemporary faucet to our antique sink. More accurately, I suggested “Why don’t we build our own?” and Carrie pretty much took it from there.

I helped carry the quite heavy cast iron sink up the stairs into the service porch and I fashioned the backsplash board that we used to create a more stable surface upon which to hang the sink from the wall. Carrie picked out all of the component parts to reconnect the sink to the drain pipe and to attach the faucet to the hot and cold water pipes.


Here is the outcome of her handiwork. No leaks!

We’ll be putting a new floor and patching and painting the walls of the service porch, and will upgrade the cosmetic aspects of our installation then. But it is nice having a big deep sink right inside the back door.