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Woke up this morning to discover that the kitchen faucet was not only hammering, it was jackhammering. Turn on the water, and it came out in pulses to the accompaniment of "bang-bang-bang-bang-bang". This is not good. So a bit of research convinces me it's time to install a new kitchen faucet. This shouldn't be too bad, I've done quite a few over the years.
So me and the missus head out to the home improvement stores. We hit Home Depot and Lowes and decided on a nice-looking Delta. Better be nice-looking for $260, fer crying out loud. We have a large, deep twin basin sink, and the faucet mounting holes are offset to the right side, which limited our choices, since not all faucets would reach the left-hand sink. Also, all of the kitchen hardware has a brown "oiled bronze" finish, so that further narrowed down our options. Anyway, we found one that would work (and that we liked) so we bought it.
Now it was time to get everything installed. I'm thinking this can't be too hard, since I installed the one that was being replaced a few years ago. But I was wrong.
First, I had to remove the old faucet. But I couldn't do that until I removed the garbage disposal just to have room to get to the faucet fittings under the sink. Then after much crawling around on my back, I got the old faucet and sprayer removed. After even more crawling around on my back, I finally managed to get the new faucet in place, but not connected to the valves, because they didn't fit the supply lines on the new faucet. This of course leads to the inevitable return trip to the hardware store. Also, since the old valves didn't fully shut off the water, I figured it'd be good to replace them with some new 1/4 turn ball valves. Actually, instead of replacing them, I tried to just attach the new valves to the outlets of the old valves, since the old valves were stuck on pretty tight. But in order to get to the valves, I had to remove most of the drain lines. After that was done, I attached the new valves onto the old valves. Dangit! They leaked. So I manned up (got a bigger wrench), removed the old valves and got the new ones installed leak-free. Then I put all the drain lines back in. Unfortunately, the seal that goes between the sink strainer and the first piece of PVC drain line had gone missing. I went ahead and continued putting things back together in hopes that I wouldn't have any problems with that piece missing. Then I had to reinstall the garbage disposal, but had to take a break first because my knees, back, and temper were killing me. At this point in time I'd been beating on this project for about 3 hours...something I should have been able to finish in 30 minutes. I ended up using a car jack to raise the disposal into position while I spun the locking collar tight. Got everything buttoned up, turned on the water and voila! I had a leak in the drain lines. I guess that missing seal was more critical than I initially thought. So one more trip to Lowes (it was almost closing time for them by now) to buy a little $1.59 part. Got home and got the drain line buttoned up fairly painlessly. But then I notice a very slow leak (more of a seep) from the new valve on the hot water supply line. Got the wrenches out and was able to tighten it a bit more. Hopefully, it's finally done and I can forget about it.
And for proof, here's a (lack of) progress photo. This was right before I jacked the disposal into place...
Have I mentioned how much I love plumbing? Seems like every time I do it, two things happen: 1) I have to make at least one extra trip to the hardware store for parts, and 2) I invent several new ways to use a wide variety of "colorful" words.
So me and the missus head out to the home improvement stores. We hit Home Depot and Lowes and decided on a nice-looking Delta. Better be nice-looking for $260, fer crying out loud. We have a large, deep twin basin sink, and the faucet mounting holes are offset to the right side, which limited our choices, since not all faucets would reach the left-hand sink. Also, all of the kitchen hardware has a brown "oiled bronze" finish, so that further narrowed down our options. Anyway, we found one that would work (and that we liked) so we bought it.
Now it was time to get everything installed. I'm thinking this can't be too hard, since I installed the one that was being replaced a few years ago. But I was wrong.
First, I had to remove the old faucet. But I couldn't do that until I removed the garbage disposal just to have room to get to the faucet fittings under the sink. Then after much crawling around on my back, I got the old faucet and sprayer removed. After even more crawling around on my back, I finally managed to get the new faucet in place, but not connected to the valves, because they didn't fit the supply lines on the new faucet. This of course leads to the inevitable return trip to the hardware store. Also, since the old valves didn't fully shut off the water, I figured it'd be good to replace them with some new 1/4 turn ball valves. Actually, instead of replacing them, I tried to just attach the new valves to the outlets of the old valves, since the old valves were stuck on pretty tight. But in order to get to the valves, I had to remove most of the drain lines. After that was done, I attached the new valves onto the old valves. Dangit! They leaked. So I manned up (got a bigger wrench), removed the old valves and got the new ones installed leak-free. Then I put all the drain lines back in. Unfortunately, the seal that goes between the sink strainer and the first piece of PVC drain line had gone missing. I went ahead and continued putting things back together in hopes that I wouldn't have any problems with that piece missing. Then I had to reinstall the garbage disposal, but had to take a break first because my knees, back, and temper were killing me. At this point in time I'd been beating on this project for about 3 hours...something I should have been able to finish in 30 minutes. I ended up using a car jack to raise the disposal into position while I spun the locking collar tight. Got everything buttoned up, turned on the water and voila! I had a leak in the drain lines. I guess that missing seal was more critical than I initially thought. So one more trip to Lowes (it was almost closing time for them by now) to buy a little $1.59 part. Got home and got the drain line buttoned up fairly painlessly. But then I notice a very slow leak (more of a seep) from the new valve on the hot water supply line. Got the wrenches out and was able to tighten it a bit more. Hopefully, it's finally done and I can forget about it.
And for proof, here's a (lack of) progress photo. This was right before I jacked the disposal into place...
Have I mentioned how much I love plumbing? Seems like every time I do it, two things happen: 1) I have to make at least one extra trip to the hardware store for parts, and 2) I invent several new ways to use a wide variety of "colorful" words.