Replacing a Tap Washer: A Do-It-Yourself Project

Many people do not have the knowledge to make minor household repairs. You may be a single mother or a young man, but if you haven't had to make such repairs before, even the simplest tasks can be a challenge. In this article we will learn how to replace a tap washer. If you have a leaky tap you probably won't think it's a huge problem, until you try to sleep and hear the constant dripping sound which then seems magnified tenfold. Not only that, hundreds of gallons of fresh clean water is being wasted as it runs away down your sink. There can also be further damage caused if it is left for a long period of time, which will cost much more to fix than the original problem. You don't want, or need to call a professional handyman to do a job you can easily do for yourself. Many services charge a call out fee if it's the weekend, add to this a flat one hour rate regardless of the fact it took 15 minutes to fix your tap.

Read through this guide and even if you don't have a leaky tap now, remove a washer and take it to the hardware store to buy some spare washers. If you have several taps the same, choose one of these to take apart as odds are high it will be one of them which needs a washer first. Put these away for future need in case a problem occurs when no stores are open. Please note that once you remove a washer that isn't even broken, you will need to replace it with a new one anyway. Make sure you do this in the morning on a weekday when you have some spare time to reassemble it before the kids get home or go back to the store in case you got the wrong washers before.