New Taps

For awhile now I have been bothered by my tub taps leaking. At some point in the past someone attempted to remove the taps and did a horrible job. They used a wrench and just ripped the brass fittings. I tried just about everything I could think of and I couldn't get the faucets out to replace the 'O' rings, etc.

My sis-in-law suggested maybe I should just replace the whole tap assembly by going through the back wall. This got me to thinking that this may in fact be the easiest way to fix my leaking taps. The faucets are mounted on the wall that is in my computer room closet, so it would be an easy task to cut the gyproc out and unsolder the connection.

On my recent trip to the 'Big City' I stopped in at Centennial Plumbing and talked to one of the fellows in the store. He assured me that by using Sharkbite Accessories it would be an easy fix. Now these fittings are not cheap, but they certainly seemed easy to use so I purchased what I needed and headed for home.

I proceeded to clean out my closet of used hard drives, wires, etc to get to the back wall of the tub. With a gyproc saw I cut out a nice patch in the wall allowing me access to the copper plumbing. I then proceeded to cut the copper pipes out around the tap fittings and pulled the beast out of the wall.



Within 5 minutes I had slipped the 'Sharkbite' connectors onto the existing copper pipe hooked up to the 'Pex' tubing and fitted the new tap fixture back into the wall. I then tightened everything up and headed downstairs to turn on the main water line. Viola!, no leaks at all. What a simple way to connect you plumbing. The nice part is that there is no solder so there is no lead to leech into your water supplies.

I only had to replace the gyproc in the closet with a piece of painted plywood with 4 wood screws and I had an excellent patch as well as a very easy access if I ever need to get at the tap fixtures in the future.

The Sharkbites were a little more money than just using solder, but for a novice plumber working in a closed space like the wall, the connectors were definitely worth the extra money I had to pay.

The best part is that I don't stay awake at night listening to the drip, drip of the taps in the tub. You gotta luv that :)