I often hear people who let there faucet drip or leak for weeks or months before finally getting around to fixing it. I think one of the reasons many people procrastinate is they don’t know what they need or how to do it. That what we are going to talk about in this article.
Most of use dripping and leaking faucet can be fixed with a small investment of time and money. There are certainly many different types and styles of faucets, most fall into four categories. These are stem, disk, catridge, and ball faucets.
Stem or compression faucets use a hard rubber seat washers to provide a tight seal. When they drip the first thing you will want to look at is for worn washers. The other is to repace the stem and seat which are the metal parts that come in contact with the washers that seal it.
If the handle is leaking you can tighten the packing nut, or you may have to get a new packing washer. Disk, ball, and cartridge faucets drip and leak less often. They usually have single handles on them. The most important part in fixing these leaks is to know how to take the faucet apart.
When you decide that you have had enough of the leaking or dripping then here are a few things you will need to do before getting started on the faucet project. Locate the main shut off vavle in your house in case of emergencies.
You will typically only need to shut off the water valve under the faucet that you will be repairing. Drain the water out of the faucet to avoid getting sprayed or having to clean up a mess. If you can’t get the shut off valve below the faucet to shut off you will have to shut off the main water valve.
Then you can drain the system by turning on the rest of the faucets in you house which will lighten the pressure on the faucet and water valve that you will be working on. This will also prevent a vacuum from forming. Then you will need to plug the drain and and use a towel or cloth to protect teh sink from scratching or losing falling parts.
Set parts aside as you take them apart so you will know exactly how to put them back together. Now you are all set to get to work. We will be adding pages to explain exactily how to take apart and repair each type of faucet in uncoming articles.
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