Seasonal Backyard Sink

This project developed out of the need for a convenient way to to rinse things in the backyard (like hands, paintbrushes and utensils), without having to go inside, or fight with a 50 foot garden hose. As my backyard spent most of the time from October to April covered in snow, this is really just a seasonal need.

As it would happen, I had all the parts lying around in the backyard, and I'm very happy that I was able to use almost entirely recycled materials for this build. (I did have to spring $5 bucks for the hose nozzle;-)

Materials:

• Bathroom vanity

• Bathroom sink

• 5 gallon compound (or other) bucket

• Garden hose nozzle

I'm fortunate that I live in a neighborhood in New York City where people regularly throw away perfectly good stuff. Sometimes it's because they bought better stuff, sometimes because they are moving, and sometimes because they just didn't like whatever the stuff was. But as the old saying goes: "One man's garbage is another man's treasure!" (Some of my favorite Instructables have been made from such treasures;-)

On a regular basis I see bathroom vanities out for garbage collection. Often they are water damaged, as these things aren't usually made to last. Last fall I came across a perfectly good vanity, and stuck it in the backyard and threw a plastic tarp over it with plans of eventually using it for something. Until the day I found the perfect use for: Backyard sink!

And the sink itself came from a my contractor who was going to landfill it, after pulling it out of a client's bathroom, until I told him I could use it....

If you don't live in an area where these kinds of materials can be easily found on the street, you might check craigslist free stuff section, or your local garbage dump.

I got really lucky with this build, in that the water pipe coming out to my backyard was the perfect height for setting up a seasonal sink. If you are not so lucky, a few feet of PVC may solve the problem.

The pavement behind my house is pitched so a few shims where necessary to level out the vanity. You could certainly get fancy with this, but for the purpose of a seasonal slop sink, I don't see why you'd want to bother. (And just to make sure this Instructable is eligible for the Outdoor Workshop contest sponsored by the fine folks at Zoro, I'll mention that I did use a hammer to whack in those shims;-)

Attach your hose nozzle directly to the water supply to serve as a faucet, and point it down towards the drain, and tuck a bucket underneath to catch the drainage. Check the bucket every once and a while and treat your plants to some recycled water.

Come winter, I'll probably throw a plastic sheet over it, and if it doesn't survive the winter, I guess next spring I'lll be keeping my eyes peeled on the street for another unwanted vanity...

For my purposes, this very quick and simple project killed quite a few birds with very few stones: I now have a place to rinse off barbecue utensils, paint brushes and dirty hands; I have a place to store my hose, and I have a place to keep my bucket, and my backyard looks a little less like a junkyard;-)