How do I replace a washer between the sink mixer tap and the sink?

xxdeebeexx

Hi I have tried searching for this but don't know the correct name for things so have had no luck.

The washer between the base of the kitchen sink mixer tap and the sink itself has perished and there is a big gap which lets water down into the base unit. I would like to fix this in the easiest way possible.
Could someone point me in the right direction please?

TIA

Dx

djheath

You will have to disconnect the pipes that connect to the tap from below. They should be compression fittings and so you will need a couple of adjustable spanners to undo them. (Make sure the water is off and if you have a tank or hot water cylinder, make sure it is drained). Then the tap will be held to the sink with a long piece of threaded bar, with a long hexagonal "nut" I suppose. This needs to be undone which will allow the tap to be removed from the sink. You may have to unscrew one of the feed tails, i.e the hot or cold supply pipes, to give yourself more room to get the tap out of the hole.

Get underneath the sink and look up with a torch, you should be able to see how it all goes together.

Hope that helps.

xxdeebeexx

djheath wrote: »

You will have to disconnect the pipes that connect to the tap from below. They should be compression fittings and so you will need a couple of adjustable spanners to undo them. (Make sure the water is off and if you have a tank or hot water cylinder, make sure it is drained). Then the tap will be held to the sink with a long piece of threaded bar, with a long hexagonal "nut" I suppose. This needs to be undone which will allow the tap to be removed from the sink. You may have to unscrew one of the feed tails, i.e the hot or cold supply pipes, to give yourself more room to get the tap out of the hole.

Get underneath the sink and look up with a torch, you should be able to see how it all goes together.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for such a detailed reply.
I was hoping it would be a lot easier than this ! If I was to 'plug' the hole with something like bath sealant would that work?

TIA

Dx

djheath

It might work, but it would be a bit of a bodge. You may find, you can buy a new foam washer, loosen the bolt that holds the tap to the sink, cut the washer so it can slide under the tap, then retighten the bolt to secure the tap again. It depends if there is any "give" in the supply pipes that will allow you to do this, and you may find it still leaks a bit since the washer wont be complete seal where you would have had to cut it to make it fit.

Up to you what method you choose. Just tightening the tap could help your situation anyway.

Hope that helps.

victor2

It's definitely one of those jobs that could lead into all kinds of problems and finish up needing a plumber to sort out. I'd go with the bodge option, possibly combining a bit of sealant with cutting a new washer. As and when you look at replacing the sink/tap, it can be done properly.

keystone

You may have a different securing mechanism to that which the earlier poster describes if its an older installation, the tap may not have the small tails described and you may have isolation valves fitted for both hot and cold which will isolate the tap from the supply. Not saying it is like that or that the previous post is wrong but they ain't all the same. A pic might help if you can manage one if you can't work it out for yourself.

I wouldn't agree that you necessarily have to drain any tanks / cylinders at all. If you do have a tank in your roof feeding a hot cylinder in the airing cupboard then you only need to isolate the supply to the cylinder (there will be a gate valve or similar), close that, open the hot tap and when it stops (after the pipework is drained) you are isolated. The kitchen cold tap is usually on mains so you just need the mains off if you don't have a specific isolator.

If you are going to use anything to bodge it like that then use plumbers mait. You'll need to slacken off the securing mechanism to ensure you get enough underneath to compress and seal properly when you do the tap up again. That may require you to loosen off the tap connectors to give you the necessary working space for which purpose you wil have to isolate the tap as before and in which case then you might just as well replace the washer TBH.

HTH

Cheers

xxdeebeexx

Opted for the bodge job!!

Thanks for all the advice

Dx