Old bathroom Taps

[Barncliff]

An elderly relative of mine has a dripping bathroom tap.
It's an old mixer tap.

A dripping tap would normally be easy to sort out, except they are rather old.

Has anyone any suggestions as to how they might come to pieces (I've not yet tried), or if I'm likely to be able to get spares or a replacement tap to fit the sink anywhere?

She called in one plumber who then went on holiday, and hasn't got back to her.

I'm worried that it may require new sink and bath taps, or worse still a new sink and taps...or a new bathroom suite.

Untitled

• Barncliff
• 23 Jul 2010
• 1

 

[oldbuffer]

The good news. You should be able to get a new washer without difficulty.
The bad news. These are three hole mixer taps, and I find them generally a complete pain to work on.

Dismantling should go like this.

a) Remove the very top small cap (above the cross handles). These may well be screwed into the cross handle on a fairly fine thread. (Normal, right hand thread, undo anti-clockwise looking down). They may, but it is unlikely at their age, just pop out.

b) Removing the cap should reveal a screw or nut holding the cross heads onto the spindle. The cross head is likely to have a square hole to match the square end of the spindle. Remove the nut or screw (normal direction) then pull the cross head off the spindle.

c) The shroud (covering the body of the tap above the basin) should then unscrew, again in a normal, ant-clockwise direction.

d) You should then be able to undo the main works of the tap from the body, again normal direction. The spindles on these taps tend to be quite long, as their seatings are a long way down.

If any of the threads are particularly tight, try heating the offending part with hot water (protect the porcelain). It can be useful to us de-scaling liquid to get rid of any lime scale. Can help loosen up the parts but also makes it easier to see what you are doing.

You will of course need to turn off the water before you start.

In the event you can't get the washer out, or changing it doesn't do the trick, you can still get three mixer taps. I'd say that fitting them is only a DIY job for the very experienced.

Good luck

 

[Barncliff]

Thanks for the pointers

I'll offer my services to see if it's just a washer!

If it's a new tap I'll leave it to a plumber as it's not my house.

Steve