Fixing Old Style Tap Dripping All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[Grellboy]

Hiya. First time on here so excuse my ignorance. New DD from ******* & Suffolk £63 per month!!! Assuming dripping tap is behind this so will attempt to fix it.
Problems
1) No stop cock in house so have to turn off on street. How long will this method take to drain water from various tanks so I can get to tap?
2) Taps are old and weird. Turny part had a screw under handle then a bell shaped cover with a hexagonal (or maybe octagonal) edging, presumably for a spanner. If I unscrew handle, then spanner on the bell cover, will this give me access to the part I need to get to? And will it then be a simple case of replace rubber washer thingy and put it all back? Or will it be more complicated than that? Have included pics to clarify my vague terms. Thanks in advance everyone.
Dan

[KitchenGuy]

It maybe as simple as that or it may turn into something more complicated. The valve underneath the cover will look something like this and it may be easier to change the whole valve if you can find it.
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j ... 8594326606

The only difference will be that yours will have a flat on the stem to mate the screw you take out rather than the more common these days spline.


The rubber washer is at the bottom which comes off with a simple screw and washer. Just fit the right size replacement (that should be a 3/4" one)

You maybe unlucky and the valve seat is worn. You can buy a valve face cutter but it's probably not worth it for that tap. Even so as long as you are careful and don't damage anything, at worst you would just end up where you started.

As for how much draining, well it looks like a hot tap as it's on the left so it will depend on what boiler you have fitted. If you have a combi it will take literally a second or so if it's upstairs. If you have a system boiler and a tank then it may take ten minutes or more to drain. There is usually a stop cock coming off the tank if you want to speed things up a bit.

Good luck.