How to Replace a Faucet: Dress Up Your Kitchen and Bathroom with a New Faucet

Whether you are trying to sell your home or just wanting things to look and work better, installing a new faucet is an easy way to improve the look of any room in a few hours. Installing a new faucet is not a difficult task, but as the area you have to work in is generally very small and cramped. For this reason you need to make yourself as comfortable as possible by removing everything from under the sink and some battery powered lights (you don’t want electric lights under dripping water).

The first step is to purchase a new faucet. You will also need a basin wrench and a couple pipe wrenches or adjustable wrenches. A basin wrench has a spring loaded jaw to grasp and a long handle to reach up under the sink. Turn off the water to the faucet and open the existing faucet to assure the water is off. Disconnect the supply lines from the faucet. Remember to turn the nut with one wrench and hold the pipe with the other to prevent damaging the pipe. A small amount of water standing in the pipes may spill out at this point. Be prepared with a small pan to catch the majority of this water and old towels or rags to pick up the excess.

Now the mounting nuts that hold the faucet onto the sink need to be removed. Generally these will be plastic and you may be able to remove these by hand. However, if not, you may need to use the basin wrench, a hammer and screw driver, or even cut or chisel the plastic nut off. Once removed the faucet is free to remove from the sink. If this is a bathroom faucet you will need to remove the pop-up by unscrewing the pivot rod and removing it.

Once the old sink is removed, you need to clean the old sink to remove residue from the old faucet, water deposits and gaskets. There are various products made to clean off old gaskets and other materials, but perhaps the best is still a plastic scraper and some elbow grease. Seat the new faucet according to the directions enclosed with it. Some faucets have gaskets that fit under them, if so they will be supplied. Tighten the mounting nuts, attach the supply lines and replace the pop-up with the new one supplied with the faucet.

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