Tips for a tap change

1). The drain cock for a property is usually found under the kitchen sink. When you have shut off the water and opened up all the taps, and catch the water in a bowl. When the water stops flowing tighten them up again. Doing this will take the remaining water below the level you’re going to be working at. Do not do this if you have switched off the water to the taps with the isolation valves.

2). If you’ve turned the water off for the whole house you need to open up all the taps and flush all the toilets to drain the system.

3). Remember that water is quite sticky stuff and will just stay, suspended in the pipes whilst all the taps are off. However, the moment a tap is opened or a toilet is flushed the suspended water will race down the pipe work to find you stuck under the sink and giving you a cold shower. Waltham Forest Plumbers are aware of all safety precautions.

4). If your tap came with copper tails you should really consider replacing them with flexible connectors, as it is really going to save you lots of time and hassle. The thread sizes at the base of your taps will be between 10-12mm so either measure them or, easier still, take one of the copper tubes to your local plumbing merchant and ask for the flexible replacement. A Waltham Forest Plumber can fit different hoses.

5). A quite often mistake that is made is to bend the flexi connectors too tightly, as this will just result in the restriction in the flow of water, rendering the tap worse than useless. So keep all the pipe bends very gentle and do not let the flexi-hose twist where you are tightening the connector.