DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hello,

I currently have an old dripping outside tap in my garden. It's an old hous and what I have is a metal pipe coming throught the brickwall about 4 inches and then a tap fitted to that. Can you give me any advice on removing the old tap without damaging the pipe coming out of the wall? I can only seem to cut the water supply off to the whole house so it would be a disaster if I damaged the pipe since we'd have no water till it was fixed.

Thanks

Brian

Hey Brian, you dont say if you want to just replace the dripping tap or if you want to do away with the tap alltogether?...either way the advice would be similar. If you want to replace the tap its quite an easy job. Simply turn off the water to the whole house and using 2 spanners turn at the bottom of the tap to release it from the pipe. You may get a little water out of the pipe. This should soon stop if the waters off properly. Then replace with your new tap. You may need to wrap a little 'plumbers tape around the threads of the new tap to get a tight seal. If your house is old you may need to check the diameter of the pipe coming out of the house it could be 22mm or 15mm. If you want to get rid of the tap completley the repeat as above and cap the pipe off with an end seal. You will normally find most plumbers merchants helpful in buying the bits you need. An outside tap is always handy....however if its a copper pipe which connects to the rest of your system you need to make sure it doesnt freeze up in winter as it could effect all yous pipe...even burts them. Hope this makes sense and helps out...good luck mate.

all done thanks. Mole grips and a £4 tap from b and q, and 50p for some of that tape.

Cheers

Brian