While visiting my dad this week he casually mentioned that he couldn't use his kitchen sink anymore because it leaked and his bathroom faucet was also leaking from the hot water handle. Ten to twenty years ago he would have fixed them himself in a heartbeat, but now he is disabled and has a hard time getting around much less crawling under sinks to change faucets. And so he resigned himself to the fact that unless he spent a ton of money on a plumber, he would just have to go to the upstairs bathroom every time he wanted to wash his hands or get water. This just seemed unacceptable to me and being the new hanywoman I've become I decided this was something I could do for him myself.
He had the know how and I had the hands so we set to it.
First things first we needed to remove the old faucet. This turned out to be harder than it seemed as things were pretty stuck on from all the water deposits and rust.
Step 1: Shut off the water to the sink by turning off the valves, usually located below the sink itself.
Step 2: Unscrew the water hoses from the bottom of the faucet. I ended up using a crescent wrench to get it off and believe me it was ultra hard because the handle on the wrench was much to long to use in such a tiny little space. Much grunting and fowl language later I had the hoses removed.
Step 3: Unscrew the bolts holding the faucet on (underneath the sink). For me there was one on each side of the faucet. These took me the longest to remove because they were corroded on and instead of being a bolt were some weird butterfly plastic thingy (not actual name of part) that was hard to grip with any tool. Shortly after my dad gave up on me actually being able to do this I finally got those buggers loosened up and removed. After that it was simple enough to pull the faucet up and out.
Step 4: Go to your local hardware store and pick out a lovely faucet. Then follow the instructions on how to install. Ha ha j/k, if they were anything like mine that is easier said than done. I've noticed as I do these things that the instructions leave a little to be desired.
Step 5: To install the new faucet, remove from package and set into the hole in the sink. Then screw on the funky butterfly plastic thingys (much easier than removing them) and rehook up the water hoses. You can then optionally use some sealant to seal the faucet to the sink. This is good to do if your sink isn't level to keep water from leaking through underneath the sink.
That's it you are all done. That didn't take long at all did it? I tell you what, it was much easier than installing the bathroom fixtures. That one gave me a headache and took me three times as long.
Hopefully I don't have to change any fixtures for a few weeks. Wish me luck.
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