At best, a leaking faucet is more than capable of being annoying. At worst, a leaking faucet is capable of being extremely wasteful. The sound of water as it continuously drips into a sink can be completely maddening over time. Luckily, the fix required for repairing a leaky faucet is relatively simple as a DIY home repair project. With a few simple tools and some basic DIY know how, there is no reason why you cannot learn what it takes to fix a leaky faucet all on your own.

First and foremost, before you attempt this fix you need to make sure that the water has been turned off. Look under the offending sink and you should find a shut off valve that will allow you to turn the water off. Older homes may not have this shut off valve beneath the sink, meaning that you would need to go into the basement to turn the water off. Once the water has been turned off, you should open up both faucets so that any water that is still in the pipes can be let out. You need to take care to make sure that a drain stopper is put down so that if you drop a loose part, you do not end up losing it down the drain while you are working on the repair process.

If you happen to have an old lever handle faucet, then it is going to require that you use a screwdriver in order to remove the screw from the top of the faucet. Newer faucet handles are not going to have any visible hardware in the top but rather you will need to undo the set screw using a standard Allen wrench. Once the screw has been removed from the faucet handle, the handle can be removed.

If you have a knob handle, then you should remove the knob from the fixture so that you can gain access to your screw. Use an adjustable type of wrench to take apart the handle's inner workings. Make sure that the pieces are lined up as they are removed so that you can replace them in the right order. Keeping them in the right order will make reassembly easier when you are done.

Remove the washer and prepare to replace it. Bring it to the hardware store as a reference when you are buying a replacement. If you use the old washer as a guide, you will make sure to buy the proper new washer. Set the newly purchased washer in, and then replace the rest of the hardware to reassemble the faucet. If you have a double handled sink and it is still leaking, then you are going to have to repeat this same process for the other faucet in order to address the problem completely and fully.

Photo Credits: Meredith_Farmer

Originally posted 2009-06-23 05:57:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Categories:

Bathtub, Fix, Handy Man, Project, Shower, Sink, faucets, plumbing

Tags:

allen wrench, diy home repair, drain stopper, faucets, Hardware Store, home repair project, inner workings, leaking faucet, leaky faucet, pipes, screw, screwdriver, shut off valve, simple tools, sound of water, visible hardware