I want to talk you through the simple steps of replacing your kitchen taps the right way using minimal effort and know how.

The first thing you need to get is an adjustable spanner and a flat headed screw driver. Once you have these we can then begin removing your current taps ready to fit your new ones.

The first thing we do is turn off the water, this is where our flat headed screw comes in handy. You need to go into the cupboard below the sink and coming down through where the taps are should be two pipes, these supply your hot and cold water feeds.

If you follow the pipes down there should be a valve on each one, there should be a slit where you can insert your screwdriver and turn the valve to the left. This should of turned the water supply off, just runs the taps to make sure, you will get some water coming through but should stop once the pipes have emptied.

Above the valves should be a nut which you undo using your adjustable spanner, undo the nuts until the pipes become loose and free from the the rest of the system. Then undo the nut below the work surface which holds the taps in place, once you have done this you will then be able to remove your taps by simply lifting them out.

You then drop your new kitchen tap in place of the old and and reverse the process we just went through. Remember to turn the valves back on by using your screwdriver and turning the valve to the right.

Run the taps just to make sure everything is fine and then that’s it, job done.

At chrome-tapshower.co.uk we don’t just sell high end taps and showers we also provide information and tips on how to maintain your appliances. This article was written by one of our team members so if you have any questions or would like to add to this article then just leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

Ceramic disc cartridges are made with two ceramic discs each with two holes (for mixers) or 1 hole (for pillar or 2 handle taps) in it. One disc moves with the tap handle and the other disc remains in position. When these holes are aligned, the water is allowed to flow. In the off position, the holes are no longer aligned and the water stops.

These regulate the flow of water from your tap. It can happen that small particles get stuck in the disc assembly and you must clean the cartridge. In extreme cases you must replace the cartridge but obviously it is better to clean the cartridge before replacing it.

1. Turn off the water supply. Place a cloth over the waste hole to catch any small screws or parts that may accidentally drop into the basin/sink as you work.

2. Remove the cartridge

3. Examine the cartridge. Clean and rinse the seals, openings and cylinder. If a seal is damaged then replace it

4. Remove mineral deposits stuck on the ceramic discs. A drop of food coloring may reveal a cracked ceramic disc. If you see a crack you must replace the cartridge

5. Reassemble and test. Ensure the tap is in the ‘on’ position and slowly turn the water supply back on. Too much pressure too fast can harm the discs in the cartridge

6. If the tap still leaks you need to replace the old cartridge

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Kitchen Mixer Taps
Taps and Shower

These examples are extreme. But backflow is a real threat – the US Environmental Protection Agency reckons that at least 100,000 cases of cross contamination occur in the USA every day. That makes it a pressing health & safety issue, and its prevention a priority.

Backflow is caused by one of two factors

* Back siphonage, which occurs when the pressure on the supply end of a water pipe drops dramatically. This causes a vacuum which can suck fluids back through connections upstream thus contaminating the water system.

* Back pressure, the result of reversed water pressure on an outlet from a water main connection exceeding the mains supply pressure.

One solution to these problems is the reduced pressure zone (RPZ) valve. It employs spring check valves create an intermediate zone of pressure that is lower than the supply pressure. If back pressure builds up and the outlet check valve fails to hold, the intermediate zone will pressurise and cause a relief valve to open, draining the entire assembly, thus preventing possible contamination back into the supply.

Installers in the USA have used RPZ valves since the early 1970s when Watts Industries launched its 909 RPZ. Now the British Government has decided to allow their use in this country. The new Water Regulations which replace the Model Water Byelaws free installers to fit RPZ valves here for the first time.

Until these regulations, UK installers have had to install a break tank with a ball valve. However, pressure is lost from the mains with this arrangement so a pump also has to be fitted complete with a level switch to control the pump. This is complex, bulky and expensive, compared with the RPZ valve.

The RPZ valve can only be operated once its type of protective use has been approved by the local Water Regulations Inspector and its correct fitting and operation has been independently checked by one of the 150+ RPZ-licensed inspectors operating in the UK. However, its simplicity, low cost compared to break tanks and ease of installation make it an attractive option for installers

Fitting kitchen cupboards requires some carpentry skills and some common sense but most of all it requires that you know the basics of how and why you are doing what you are told to do by the instructions. This is because most units are put together the same way or at least using the same principles and as long as you are aware of this you can cope quite easily with any of the slight variances that exist between all the different suppliers.

How To Fit Kitchen Wall Units

Complete UnitsSome kitchen wall units are hung onto brackets and others are screwed through the back or sides. The ones that are supposed to be screwed through the back or sides will always have special strengthening timbers fitted or they will be made up of 15mm boards. You should never attempt to hold up a unit by screwing through a flimsy hardboard back.

How To Fit Kitchen Wall Units

In this project we install two of each kind of kitchen wall unit. Two with hanging brackets at each side and two (horizontal) units which screw directly to the wall. These are also fixed to the units which are hung. The blue colour is the protective wrapping these units come with.

The first job is to set out your units properly. Wall units are usually fitted or hung with the bottom of the unit 600mm above the worktop to give enough head height for working on the worktop. The first job with hung units is to work out where the wall brackets will go. The manufacturers instructions will show you the distance from the bottom of the unit to the hanging bracket in the unit and this can be marked on the wall, along with the distance between the brackets. If you have a lot of wall units to hang its a great idea to mark the height of the wall unit brackets at both ends of the wall and ping a line between them using a chalk line.

How To Fit Kitchen Wall Units

Once you have the height of the wall brackets marked, refer to our projects on fixing to plasterboard or fixing to masonry depending on your wall type and fix them in position.

Once the wall brackets are fixed you can fix the cupboard brackets inside the cupboard. The back board of the wall unit will have two cut outs for the hanging arm of the bracket to fit through. There are two screws at the back of the internal wall unit bracket. One adjusts the height of the bracket for fine tuning on the wall and the other pulls the unit in towards the wall to keep it tight against it.

For this project we now had to fit two horizontal units which did not come with hanging brackets. We fixed through the back after setting out the height and marking it on the wall as we did with the wall unit brackets. They were then fixed as shown in our fixing to masonry project. For additional strength we fixed screws into the horizontal units through the inside of the vertical units but to make sure this did not look unsightly we put the screws in behind the hinges.

The left hand image shows the holes which are in place for the hinge to be fixed to and we have placed a screw in between these to fix through to the vertical unit. Using simple tricks like this keeps every job neat and tidy as well as doubling up on safety and strength. Always make sure your units are plumb and level with a spirit level. If they are not it makes fitting the doors properly very hard work indeed.

How To Fit Kitchen Wall Units

Unblocking toilets etc can be a relatively easy, but still dirty job. The key here, as with 99% of jobs in the building and DIY world, is to have the right tools. It is also necessary to wear a very good pair of rubber gloves. We will not go into the diseases toilets and waste pipes can carry, but trust us, you do not want any of them!

A sink, bath, basin and shower tray can be unblocked in a few ways. An ordinary plunger can be used by placing it over the plug hole and pushing up and down on the handle. This creates a force in both directions, compression as you push down and suction as you release. The idea here is that the blockage is dislodged and breaks up allowing it to flow down the drain. For blocked drains in Luton Bedfordshire please see Drain Cleaner Luton.

How To Unblock a Toilet Or Drain

For an easier way to unblock sinks etc, you can now use what is known as a power plunger. This (centre) tool is simply “pumped up” by pumping the handle at the end and placed over the plug hole. By pressing the trigger all the compressed air is released, forcing the blockage down the pipe or breaking it into bits.

Our personal favourite at Diydoctor is the one on the right, the water injector. Put some water in the sink, basin, bath or shower tray and stand the pump in it. Pull up on the handle to fill it with water. Then place it over the plug hole and push down hard, then pull up again etc etc. The water is pushed at great force through the blockage, and then by sucking up again, the forces explained in the first example with the plunger are put into operation.

Finally, for sinks, basins, baths and showers, there is the corkscrew cable. The flexible wire is pushed into the drain pipe, wiggled about to break up the blockage, and wound back in. Very simple, very effective.

Corkscrew Cable

For unblocking toilets, the blue plunger at the top is the tool to use if you think your blockage is in the U bend at the back of the toilet. The action is exactly the same, push and pull to break up the blockage. For blockages which appear to be further down it may be necessary to open the manhole to inspect and clear. You may have a visible soil and vent pipe (SVP) coming out of your bathroom which you can follow down to the ground and look around for the nearest manhole to it. It may not be the one and further checks may be needed. There are two types of manhole for the purposes of this project. The surface water manholes which collect water from your rain gutters, and the foul water manholes which collect the waste water from the sinks, basins, baths, showers and toilets. These will smell so identification should not be too much of a problem. Although your toilet may be blocked there is a chance that some seepage is occurring through the blockage and you may need to identify this to see which manhole it is running into. This can be done by adding a little dye into the water and watching at the various manholes to trace the flow.

How To Unblock a Toilet Or Drain

Once you have traced the manhole or manholes you may well be able to rod back up towards the house. Drain rods come in lengths of one meter and are screwed together to make a long length. They are very flexible and are simply inserted into the drain pipe and pushed into the run. You will feel when you meet a blockage and you should then prod the blockage with the rod. Drain rods come with various fittings to screw on the end which, in theory, make the removal of blockages easier. We always start with nothing except the rod, prodding and poking until the obstacle (usually loads of toilet paper or nappies) clears. Occasionally we have had to use a worm screw (this comes with the set). Sometimes you may not feel a blockage as it is either too far or too soft to register. Then its time to screw on the rubber plunger. Use the rods then as a giant plunger, pushing and pulling up and down the pipe. This will create the same pressures again as mentioned above and release the blockage.

Usually a brick built structure (modern manholes are sometimes formed with precast concrete rings) with a sloping floor called benching, which slopes down into a half pipe shape called a channel. After carefully removing the manhole cover which can sometimes be very heavy, the rods should be screwed together one at a time and pushed into the drain pipe. Sometimes if your pipe is well blocked, the channel and benching may be covered in water making the drain hole difficult to see…Poke around with the rod until you find the entrance.

A word of warning: some manholes can be quite deep. These manholes are normally fitted with iron steps built into the sides of the brickwork or concrete. This is obviously for climbing down…BUT; manholes are very dangerous places as the gasses they contain can be overpowering. Do not go down into a manhole without someone at the top to make sure you are ok…Sounds very silly in your own back garden, but professional builders have drowned in manholes because they were overcome by the fumes.

Very occasionally you will meet a blockage which cannot be reached from the toilet end or from the manhole end. This means it may well be in the soil and vent pipe itself. Most of these will have access plates, which should be undone very very carefully for obvious reasons. A lot of SVP’s will be boxed in and this can cause real disruption. If you cannot unblock the drain/pipes etc by your self and you feel you have established that the blockage is in your SVP then I’m afraid it may be time to call a plumber. The mess that can be created by this kind of blockage is something you really do not want to deal with if you are not sure of what you are doing.

One last word of warning. Drain rods will screw together in a normal clockwise way. When you are rodding a drain, the rods will turn in your hand, its impossible to stop them….Make sure you deliberately turn the rods as you push and prod and make sure you are turning them clockwise. If you do not do this, and without you realising the rods are slipping anti-clockwise in your hands, they can undo themselves. Leaving a length of drain rod in your waste pipe will not help your blockage we can promise you that.

How To Unblock a Toilet Or Drain

A very popular question submitted to chrome-tapshowers.co.uk is ” How can I stop my basin/shower gurgling when I pull the plug out?”. To solve this problem its a good idea to know what causes the problem.

The water leaves the basin and begins its run into the trap underneath. This trap has water in it which stops smells coming back up through the pipes into the room through the plughole. When the water from the basin passes through the trap, it begins its run to the main waste pipe and out into the external manholes and main sewers. Some of this journey is made through (inside the building) vertical pipes and sometimes through pipes which have rather more than the 1 in 40 slope which is recommended for foul water drainage. This encourages the water to run very quickly and sometimes this causes a vacuum behind the flow. This vacuum sucks at the water which remains in the trap. Most often this “sucking” causes the water in the trap to bubble and gurgle – hence the gurgling noise. Sometimes the water is sucked out of the trap completely and this is when foul gasses can get back into the room.

Fitting an air inlet valve is easy. The pipe from the trap can be cut (as near to the trap as possible) and a Tee piece inserted. The pipes in the image above have been solvent welded together put with pipes that push-fit together the principle is exactly the same. The air inlet valve is then fixed to the top of a vertical length of pipe from the Tee piece.

When the valve is fitted the water runs away as before but instead of the vacuum sucking water from the trap it just sucks air which is admitted through the valves. This allows the water to run away noiselessly from basin, bath and shower. See our major project on air admittance valves for details of larger valves for toilets.

How To Fix The Gurgling Sound Coming From The Shower, Bath, and Sink

The most common reason for leakages behind baths and shower trays is movement in the fitting itself (along with obvious broken tiles etc) and the first thing to check is that your fitting is secure…There should be an absolute minimum of movement in either fitting and with a shower tray it is advisable to fit a resin, rather than a plastic, one…Baths can be secured, while in place, by removing the bath panel and, (if it is a steel bath) securing through the under-hanging bath lip to the wall after making sure the feet are firmly screwed to the base and all connections on the frame are firm. Please see our project on replacing a bathroom suite at theReplacing a Bathroom Suite Project. If the bath is plastic, you will need to make up some timber “bearers” ( 2inch x 1inch treated timber) . Cut the timber to lengths of 400mm and plug and screw them firmly under the edge of the bath, between the main body of the bath and the end walls. There is just room to get in at either end but it is a struggle!!  Its is also sensible to apply a liberal amount of very strong construction adhesive to the back of each bearer…A bearer can be placed under the edge of the bath at both ends as well. You will not be able to drill, plug and screw these as there is no room, but if you use the adhesive above and find a way of wedging the bearers in place until the adhesive is dry, you will get on further movement.

When the bath is secure it will no doubt need re-sealing.  It rarely works for long to keep placing new sealant over the old. Strip off the old adhesive using a sealant remover. This comes in a tube, as does the sealant, and is applied by mastic gun. When you have removed the sealant, use a rag dipped in solvent thinners or white spirit to wipe all surfaces clean. (wear gloves for this operation and open the windows to allow the vapour to disperse) This will de-grease the top of the bath or shower tray and also the tiles. Leave to dry for a few hours and then apply a high modulas sealant. You can now be sure of good adhesion and hopefully a trouble free joint.

It is also worth checking the grout to your tiles at this point. The smallest pinhole in the grout will suck water in behind the tiles, where it will filter through the adhesive and onto the floor below the bath. This kind of leak is not even visible until it has done a fair bit of damage…if you find any grout that is suspect; use a grout rake to rake off the top few mm. You can then mix and apply a new filling and be sure the joints are full. See our bathroom project for grouting instructions.

How To Fix A Leaking Bath Or Shower