46 May/June 2020
REPLACING THE FAUCET AND DRAIN ASSEMBLY
can brighten the heck out of a bath-
room, and it’s not very difficult,
although it does involve minor plumb-
ing. First, turn off the hot and cold
water valves supplying the faucet, and
use an adjustable wrench to undo the
nut that holds each supply line to its
valve. (1) Now, drop out the parts that
hold the faucet to the sink. (2) How
you’ll do this will depend on whether
you have a faucet that is a single han-
dle (a), center set (b), or spread fit (c).
Undo the nuts that clamp the faucet
body in place or that otherwise pre-
UPGRADE THE FAUCET
DIFFICULTY: ●●●●○ (FOR MINOR PLUMBING)
TOOLS AND
MATERIALS
Faucet
Drain assembly
Pop-up assembly
Plumber’s putty
Thread tape or
thread sealant
Tongue-and-
groove pliers
Screwdriver
Basin wrench
Adjustable wrench
Putty knifevent the parts from being lifted up and
out. Also undo the lift-rod assembly, all
the parts that lever the stopper up and
down. These connections will be below
and behind the sink.
(3) While you’re at this, replace
the ugly old drain assembly as well,
everything from the pop-up (or drain
stopper) all the way to the wall: These
parts consist of the cup that sits in the
drain (called a waste seat), as well as
the threaded piece of pipe below it
(the tailpiece) and the trap (a U-bend
that prevents waste gas from surging
up through the drain). Unscrew thewaste seat and tailpiece from each
other and remove the trap from the
bottom of the tailpiece. Use a house-
hold cleaner to remove all traces of
dirt, soap scum, water deposit, and
hardened plumber’s putty from the
face of the sink.
If you’ve never installed a faucet or
it’s been a few years, follow the instruc-
tions for your replacement faucet,
especially in regard to the waste seat.
You may have to use plumber’s putty to
seal the waste seat to the sink, or rely
on a soft rubber washer that may be
included. Use only one or the other.
One important tip: Don’t over-
tighten, especially any drain or faucet
parts that clamp to the sink body;
overtightening can crack the sink.
Some particularly delicate parts may
even have instructions on their bag-
gies that say: “tighten ¼ TPFT.” TPFT
means “turns past finger-tight.” A sim-
ple snugging action with a tool after
hand tightening is enough to produce a
water-tight seal.abc1 32