Steps For Replacing Kitchen Or Bathroom Faucet

With newer, more durable, and more contemporary designs of bathroom and kitchen faucets available in the market, consumers are often spoilt for choice. They all look so tempting and beautiful and could actually make the owner want to show off his/her bathroom and kitchen. The only flip side is the fact that, every time someone wants to replace bathroom or kitchen faucets, one needs to call up the local plumber. He often refuses to come, overcharges, and leaves behind a mess for you to clean up! In such a situation you often tend to think it would be best if you could do so yourself. The problem is, that we do not often know how to do these jobs because we are completely dependent on handymen for such things. Also, we tend to think such jobs are difficult, when they are actually quite easy. For instance, here are some steps that you could follow to replace your bathroom or kitchen faucet all by yourself, without any external help.

Replacing Bathroom Or Kitchen Faucet Easily

Things Required

Replacement faucet
Plumbers' putty or caulk
Basin wrench
Adjustable end wrench
Paint scraper for removing old putty and other buildup

Procedure

After you have chosen the kind of faucet that you would like to replace in your kitchen or bathroom, the first thing that you need to do is to turn off the water supply for the area. Most often, the valves are located just beneath the sink in the bathroom or kitchen or in the lower cabinet.
For just a few minutes, turn the faucet to its ‘on’ position as this would help remove any excess water in the pipes; thus, this step is recommended.
Many faucets have an arrangement that allows the flow of hot and cold water from two separate pipes into two separate fixtures. If that is the case with your home too, then locate these two pipes and disconnect them from the tubes that lead them to the faucets
Now, move under the sink and remove the bolts that hold the faucets in place. Also, scrape away the excess caulk that you may find, that was used to hold the faucet in place.
Set your new faucets in place, go underneath the sink once more, and screw on the bolts that will hold the faucets in place again.
Attach the tubes coming from the pipes to the proper ends of the faucet and, without damaging them, tighten them as securely as you can. Now, turn on the water supply again.
Check for any leaks around the faucet or those coming from the tubes/pipes below the sink. If none are present, proceed to the next step. If leaks are present, however, remove the tubing; wrap a thin layer of teflon tape around the piping at the area where the tubing will be attached and return to the previous step.
Now, get under the sink again and fix the faucets in place with caulk, making sure to clean away the excess caulk.

Some Tips

If you find, that the tubes you disconnected from the hot and cold pipes earlier, cannot be separated from the old faucet, then you will need to attach new tubes to the pipes under the sink.
To use the teflon tape recommended for fixing leaks, wrap a small length of it around the exposed end of a pipe/tube before screwing it into place. With this in place, when you screw the pipe/tube in, the tape will fill in any small cracks or openings.

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