Removing a tap top

[nothanks]

I rarely get beaten by DIY jobs, but it's looking like this one may get the better of me. I'm trying to get the crosshead top off a tap, the sort with a screw in the side of the head. The screw came out easily but I can't budge the tap head. I've tried making wedges and tapping them between the head and the body, and I've tried hot water over the head, but no success. Annoyingly I can't even budge the nut securing the tap to the basin, so I can't take the tap to the workbench. Any ideas?

There's a slight crack in the Twyfords Ceramant basin (which I think was fitted when the house was built in the 1930s) so maybe it's time to look for a replacement :-(

[newshound]

They can be bloody tight. DAMHIK. I'd put my big propane torch on it but TBH you are probably right to think about replacing the lot.

[Harry Bloomfield]

[e-mail] explained :

A loop of string/ tiewraps hooked over the head arms, then a hammer through the loop. Gently hammer up against the loop, until it moves. When it moves, knock it back down with a mallet - repeat until it comes off.

I tried wedges on my bath taps, but could not budge them - the above method worked.

[alan_m]

I once purchased a set of no-name taps from a Ebay seller which lasted about 2 years before one of them started to drip. In the end I had to replace them as no matter how much brute force applied with long handled spanners, heat and cursing, with the tap held in a vice, would persuade it to undo. i did wonder given the low cost of the taps if they had been designed/manufactured never to be serviced.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes. I remember the day in the 1960s when somebody was using the basin to have a wash, and the whole thing fell into two pieces with no warning at ll. One half held up by the drain the other went sideways and fractured the hot water pipe. Not what you want at 7 am in the morning. I It rested on two wall brackets but once the split occurred of course it kind of fell through the middle!. Rush to loft to turn off hot water feed and mopped up with much swearing. Brian

[nothanks]

That's an interesting idea - a bit like a slide hammer. The jolts might be the death knell for the basin, but I'll give it a go later.

[GB]

Turn the handle with water pump pliers and undo the gland. Throw the whole lot away and replace with

So far, that's worked every time.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Not much help to you, but. I have a kitchen tap about 8 years old. Crossheaded top. One of the"spokes" ? fell out. I tried to remove the top and could not do it. Top of tap removed and the screw removed, the crosshead top would not budge. Out come British Gas - I'm insured - not my idea. Seems that the top of the tap and the rest of the tap are all one unit and have to be replaced with a completely new assembly.

[nothanks]

That's not a bad plan if the "slide hammer" idea doesn't work. I'm currently re-laying a large number of parquet flooring blocks - identifying loose ones, scraping bitumen off blocks and concrete, applying liquid DPM, blinding DPM with fine sand, and then re-laying blocks with a modern (bitumen-compatible) SIKA adhesive. I'll go back to the tap when I'm bored with the floor.

[TMH]

[nothanks]

Thanks, but those assume that the centre of the cross handle comes out - mine don't.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Nope, he did not even try to sell me anything.

[swldxer1958]

Same thing happened to me. Moved into new house and inherited a leaky kitchen mixer tap. Bought two new tap bodies from Wilkos, but after taking out the screw found out that the spindle was seized on. After our lass went mad at me braying hell out of it, she called out a plumber at £150 a pop! He had to hammer it as well, but she did not moan at him as he knows what he is doing.

[2987fr]

Unlikely to be true of one which has a screw in the side of the head.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Indeed. But why the tap top has the usual screw going into the body of the valve puzzles me as it does not seem to be doing anything.

[2987fr]

Unlikely that it isn't actually doing anything.

[nothanks]

I decided to attack the cross head with a dremel and cutting disk - 2 minutes work and the head was in two halves, showing no obvious reason for it being jammed on the shaft. Now I need to find a couple of replacement tap tops and patch the cracked basin in the hope that it will last until we get to that room - it's on a chrome stand so I'm not too worried about it suddenly collapsing and taking a pipe with it, or landing on a foot :ouch!

[Jim K..]

Brishit Gas "operatives" condemning kit & selling you new? Shurely shome mishtake?

[Jim K..]

He replaced it for nothing? Or he did nothing?