Fitting and fixing taps and pipes

Press, 10 November 1983, Page 17

Fitting and fixing taps and pipes

While any major alterations to your domestic plumbing system must be left to a master plumber, there are a number of repairs and maintenance jobs which you can do yourself. These include fixing leaking taps, fitting new taps, lagging hot water pipes and coping with cistern overflows, and installing downpipes and guttering. When moving into a new home, one of your first inquiries should be to find the location of the water “toby” which controls the

supply of water from the street mains. In most cases, it will be just inside your boundary, and takes the form of a square iron box in the ground with a hinged lid. Inside is a tap which controls the water supply. It may have become buried, or hidden in the

undergrowth, and it may be necessary to contact the previous occupant to find it. Unless you know where it is, you will be unable to stem the flood should any emergencies occur with the plumbing system. Before attempting to do any repairs to the cold water system, first turn off

the water supply at the toby. If it is a matter of the hot water supply, turn off the tap you may find in the piping leading into the hot water cylinder, or the tap which controls the flow into the header tank in the ceiling.

If you have a mains pressure, gas-heated hot water system, the mains supply will cut off the flow. With the hot water system, you may have to wait until the system empties itself somewhat before the flow diminishes. Continual dripping or difficulty in turning off taps indicates a worn washer. The accompanying diagram shows the basic workings of a high-pressure water tap, or faucet, which are basically the same in all designs.

With the simple outside tap, screw off the upper part of the tap complete, to expose the washer which will usually be held in place with a small nut. Unscrew the nut, replace the washer and screw the tap mechanism back into its seating. Interior taps usually have

a cover sleeve just under the tap grip. Here, it may be necessary to remove the grip, or handle, first to remove the cover. The grip will usually be held in place with a small nut which will be located under a cap or disc on top of the handle. The sleeve is often held in place with a screw thread, and you should bind a piece of cloth around it before using a wrench to unscrew it. Otherwise you may mar the surface. Washers come in several sizes, and you should have a selection on hand. Most hardware stores, plumbers, or branches of the New Zealand Plumbers Merchants Society have small packets containing a range of different common sizes. If you do not happen to have the right size, it is sometimes possible to make a temporary repair by reversing the washer in its seating, turning the unused size uppermost. Hot and cold water washers used to be of different compositions but the modern washers can be used with either.