Loose bath tap - difficult to get at.

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Ret. 15 years ago

Two years ago I completely replaced my son's bathroom. They chose a double-ended bath with taps in the middle and at the wall side of the bath.

Realising how difficult it would be to tighten up the tap nuts once the bath was in situ - I made sure that the nuts were as tight as possible before installing the bath. Unfortunately, the nuts were nylon and just not possible to get as tight as metal nuts.

The inevitable has now happened, and one of the taps has worked loose, and the whole tap body turns with the handle.

I have removed the bath side panel and, using an adjustable 'spring loaded' tap wrench, can just about reach the tap nut by lying on my back and reaching underneath the bath - but I just cannot get it to turn. It's very difficult to see what I'm doing, of course, - although using a small mirror leaning at an angle against the wall beneath the bath, enables me to get a view up to the tap nuts.

I'm now at a loss as to how to resolve the problem. I've even thought of trying to get some type of glue underneath the base of the tap but there is a rubber washer there that would probably fox that idea - and also there will be soap residue beneath the taps that would probably prevent any glue from adhering effectively.

If my son and his wife had taken my advice and chosen a 'one piece' bath tap unit, this problem would not have arisen - but they wanted 'antique' style separate taps...

So, anyone got any ideas on how to sort this problem (without taking the bath out!!)?

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robgraham 15 years ago

A visit to your local plumber's supplier to get brass nuts and a set of tap back nut box spanners (if you don't have those already) is called for. And then you can also do what you originally should have done is to tell your 'children' that daddy knows better and fit a one piece tap set regardless of protests - or at least say that it's that or pay (!!!) their own plumber to do the job.

You will need to drop the tails to get at the nuts but at least the existing taps should be easy enough to get off now!

Rob Rob

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polly filler 15 years ago

A visit to your local plumber's supplier to get brass nuts and a set of tap back nut box spanners (if you don't have those already) is called for. And then you can also do what you originally should have done is to tell your 'children' that daddy knows better and fit a one piece tap set regardless of protests - or at least say that it's that or pay (!!!) their own plumber to do the job.

You will need to drop the tails to get at the nuts but at least the existing taps should be easy enough to get off now!

Rob Rob

A more drastic solution is cut a hole the other side of the wall through to the bathroom fix the tap, and cover hole with a removable cover for any future problems.

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Roger Mills 15 years ago

Well, I suppose you could take the wall down instead!

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Tim Watts 15 years ago

Exactly what I did :) And it made it so much more civilised.

Although I had more reason - my bath sits in an alcove so only Squidward could get his "arms" up there from the bath side!

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Ret. 15 years ago

It's an outside wall!

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Ret. 15 years ago

LOL!

Yes - it's an outside wall unfortunately. If it was a stud wall it wouldn't be so much of a problem!

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Ret. 15 years ago

Yes, I may have to do something like this. I did fit tails with isolating valves, and so I can shut off the water to the taps without having to turn off the mains water completely.

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davidm_uk 15 years ago

Outside wall - even better - all the mess you make when cutting out a hole will be outside the house :)

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Grimly Curmudgeon 15 years ago

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Ret." saying something like:

F*ck'em. Why should you sort out their problem when they went against your advice? Let them pay for a plumber.

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Loose bath tap - difficult to get at.

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