Hello, The hot water faucet in our bathroom sink is dripping. This, of course, is one of those small repairs that is minor enough to render calling the plumber extravagant and guilt-inducing, yet potentially involved enough to cause (me, a home repair klutz) significant stomach-churning.
The first step, as I understand it, is to remove the decorative cap that covers the screw that I have to remove to get at the bad washer. I have read on several "do it yourself" sites that I should take a putty knife (too thick, it seems) or another small knife (covered with tape to prevent scratching) and pry off this decorative cap. Well, this has proven very difficult! The cap is very, very firmly seated, and so far I can't get it to budge. I can't even really get a knife blade under the cap more than a partial millimeter.
Is there a trick to this? I suspect, actually, that this "faux brass" faucet hardware is really cheap and of poor quality. The people who owned the house before we bought it were "get rich quick" types who did a number of "home improvements" that looked ok from the outside but were really cheaply and badly done. We've been undoing the damage for ten years.
Enough complaining: any suggestions regarding getting the darned cap off the faucet screw? It seems to be attached really, really firmly
Thanks,
Doug