OT; Customers....

[The Medway Handyman]

Message left on Sunday morning.

"My kitchen taps need new washers, can you come around and give me an estimate".

[Brian Gaff]

One assumes you are supposed to trace the phone number to find out who left it?

Whenever somebody says come around, I usually ask if they will be knocking me out first. Brian

[Chris Hogg]

He's probably getting several!

[Bob Minchin]

Asking for a visit to quote is a bit OTT but I see no problem in asking for a price in advance. I'm sure Dave is not the type to take advantage but some would treat it as a blank cheque.

[Chris J Dixon]

Just done battle with my monoblock kitchen mixer tap, and can report success.

I was a little put out to find that quarter turn ceramics were dripping, after about 7 years, so decided that I had better try and investigate.

Luckily, it was reasonably easy to work out the dismantling sequence. Once inside, a little scale in crucial areas was simply removed, and all is now well.

At least next time I know how straightforward it is.

Chris

[Andrew Gabriel]

Dave will have way more experience in this than me, but IME, a dripping tap is often well shot in other respects - leaking joints, seat pitted by the leak, etc, and possibly so crudded up you can't actually open it to get at the washer without wrecking it. I can imagine that quoting for this range of possibilities, when you've never seen the situation, could be quite a challenge, but I guess that range of possibilities can be described over the phone or my email, SMS, etc.

[Tim Watts]

You were lucky.

The elements in my bathtaps were done up by Geoff Capes and my access panel round the back of the bath (though a wall in a bedroom) has jammed due to the MDF swelling slightly. Stupid MDF.

Anyway, until I free or destroy the panel so I can get at the back of the taps, I'm not risking trying to undo the cartridge as sod's law says the whole tap will turn and loosen the tap connector nut.

But it's good to know my tiny drip might also be down to scale.

[Chris J Dixon]

Isn't that just the job your oscillating multi-tool is waiting for?

Fingers crossed.

Chris

[Brian Gaff]

I find it a bit odd that both taps need new washers at the same time. I find my cold one wears out faster than the hot one. Brian

[Big Les Wade]

Tim Watts posted

A trick recently shown me by a friendly plumber is to put the end of a large box spanner over the horizontal part of the tap. Get the wife to hold it steady while you attack the gland nut with a spanner like the giant ones you used to see carried by aircraft mechanics in British WW2 movies.

[Tim Watts]

Yes - that is a good suggestion , but only when I can get to the back for if it goes wrong :)

TBH I might just switch the taps - these ones have a fault - actually 2 faults.

1) The have zero spout underhang, so water tracks back along them and pools around the tap and back of the bath which is annoying. 2) The splines are a bit weak - I already had problems with the kids being too rough with the basin tap (same type) and burring the spines so the handle became sloppy.

If you know of any good makes of taps, I'd like to pop them on the favoured list...

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Big Les Wade escribió:

And then marvel at the huge chunk of ceramic you've managed to snap off the sink :)

[Tim Watts]

It might come to that.

You see, I framed the 2x2ft hole in the wall (and it is lintel'd).

Then I got this really clever idea (not) to make a box rather than a panel to set in the hole.

It's next to a bed and the recessed box makes a nice place to put things

- few books, cup, stuff like that.

I made a box that was an astoundingly nice fit. Until the bastard MDF expanded by a couple of mm.

I got it out once - then fixed it by a bit of power sanding and it went back quite loose.

Guess what...

[Tim Watts]

Aye - the sink is not the problem - I could pop those taps straight off the pipework as it's all nice and open...

[Chris J Dixon]

My most frustrating tap encounter was a couple of houses (and about 40 years) ago, but still memorable. I replaced a pair of pillar taps for the kitchen sink, which were mounted on the worktop.

When I bought them I was also sold a pair of adaptors.

The initial problem was that the thread on the new taps was too short to project beyond the worktop. As the pre-formed worktop turned out to have ply on top of chipboard, I simply (!) chipped away the chipboard layer to produce a counterbore. This was not fun, but achieved the objective.

Then all I had to do was manage to get the joints leak free, the taps pointing in the right direction and firmly secured. This took quite a few attempts, with much to-ing and fro-ing to the stop taps.

It was only when I next washed up, with kitchen bowl in place, that I realised I had never actually considered the projection of the spout, relative to the mounting hole. The nice tight jet of water was aimed straight at the edge of the bowl, and I was drenched.

Pragmatism ruled - I just pared off the rim of the bowl, and all was well. A similar mod was done to any replacement.

Chris

[tim.....]

showing your age here methinks :-)

(Though I'm struggling to think of a modern day alternative)

tim

[Bill]

In message , The Medway Handyman writes

Surely it would be cheaper if he brought the taps to you? Maybe you should have suggested this in a return call at 3am the next day. It must be quite urgent for him to call you on a Sunday, so I expect that he would appreciate your effort in getting back to him as soon as it was convenient. :-)

[Andy Burns]

Lived here 25 years and never had to touch a washer ...

[alan_m]

It's TV programs such as rogue traders that encourage people to always get 3 estimates - and the plumbing expert will often point out a tap washer costs ONLY 10p and it takes no more than 10 minutes to change.

[The Medway Handyman]

Without considering;

(a) The cost of travel. (b) What more profitable use of time the plumber has.