Leaky Faucet Repair - Drip

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Today I've got a tip for you to stop your faucet from dripping. This is one of the most common problems out there in bathrooms and I get calls like this all the time. In fact, here at the orphanage I just had to do something yesterday relating to this. What we have is a situation where there's a seal, it's actually a washer, inside the faucet, that's not sealing right and that causes the faucet to drip no matter how hard you turn the handles off. Not only is this a big waste of water, but that dripping sound can certainly be annoying. If you have a repair man come out to fix something like this, you could pay anywhere between $50 and $100 to have them come out to do this. And it's something that you could do yourself and it doesn't take a lot of effort, it does take a little bit of time though. The instructions that I'm gonna give you are for a double handled compression faucet. So this isn't going to apply if you've got one of those single handles that rocks back and forth, this is just for an old fashioned double handle.

The first thing you want to do is shut the water off to that faucet. Underneath the sink or behind the pedistal there should be some shutoff valves there. You can either shut both of them off, or if you want just shut the cold water off and see if the faucet stops dripping. If it does, then you know the problem is with the cold side of the faucet. If that doesn't stop it, try the hot water and as long as your shutoff valves are working, you'll have your drip off. If you think you've located which handle is giving you the problem, what you're gonna do is remove a screw that's on top of that handle. Sometimes there's a little decal or button on there, possibly labeled H for hot or C for cold. Usually that will flip up, with something like a pocket knife. Be careful not to scratch the finish of the faucet. You can usually pop the cover off pretty easy and then unscrew it and pull the handle off.

Then you're going to use an adjustable wrench, like a crescent wrench, and loosen a nut and remove the whole stem and pull that whole assembly out. Now at the bottom of that stem is a rubber washer and that's held in place by a screw usually. Take the screw off and you're gonna take this rubber washer to the hardware store with you to make sure that you get the same size and thickness. Before you do that, feel down inside the faucet and there's what's called a seat down in there. Feel to see if that's rough. This is where the rubber washer is pushed up against when the faucet is in the off position. If the seat gets real rough, then the washer gets torn up and that's why your faucet is leaking.

If that's the case you're gonna have to either replace the seat, if it can be replaced, but if it's not removable then you're gonna have to dress it. There's a tool called a seat wrench and that can be used to remove and replace the seat, if it is removable. There's also a seat dressing tool to smooth the surface of that seat, if it's not removable. Either way you want to take care of that seat problem first, if it exists, before you try to replace that washer otherwise the new washer's just gonna get messed up too.

So then, after the seat's taken care of, we're gonna put the new washer back in place. Put that screw back on there, you've gotta save all these parts. Put them in a little container so you don't lose anything. And then put that stem back in the faucet. Tighten the packing nut. Replace the handle and put the screw back on that holds the handle in place and then if you had one of those little caps make sure you put that back on as well.

Then you should be good to go. Turn your water back on at the shut-off valve and check your faucet out. Open and close it. Make sure that everything is sealed properly and your drip should be gone.

I'm Ken Walker, this is Home-Improvement4u.com. Definately stop by and visit our forum and our website at http://www.home-improvement4u.com/.