Replacing Kitchen Mixer Taps - advice please

Good morning all

Our existing taps in the utility are - well, useless, so it's out with the old and in with the new

I have changed taps in the past but have never worked with the plastic pipe that's now used. Is it the same as working with copper, from a compression fitting point of view (I appreciate you can't solder it!)??

You'll see from the (sorry about the quality, phone held up at the back of the sink) photo the type of fitting - will I just need new fibre washers, please, or some compound, too. Or is it olives and compression?? I am ahead in the brownie points at the moment this weekend but that could evaporate if I start this job today and we have no water till Tuesday!

Photos of old and new taps as well

Thank you

Maphisto

Just a question (not an answer I'm afraid) do you not have stop valves under the taps? It would just save you being without water in the rest of the house.

I replaced ours a couple of weeks ago (brass pipes sorry) but what was a total bugger was undoing the nut that holds the tap to sink top. They had corroded on and with limited space ....

In the end I cut the pipes and got a box spanner on the nut. Then put hot and cold stop valves on.

In the interests of complete disclosure, I was going to do the straight swap but when I ran into problems the Father-in-Law did all the plumbing stuff while I did the "heavy lifting".

Best of luck

Maphisto

Maphisto wrote: »

Just a question (not an answer I'm afraid) do you not have stop valves under the taps? It would just save you being without water in the rest of the house

Thanks. Haven't investigated yet, but I certainly hope so. Other sinks and wash hand basin taps have flexible connectors with little in line on/off valves. It'll be just my luck....

dodzy

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks. Haven't investigated yet, but I certainly hope so. Other sinks and wash hand basin taps have flexible connectors with little in line on/off valves. It'll be just my luck....

typically you will find that the cold supply will be isolated once you turn off the mains stopcock, and the hot will be isolated from the hot press. Unlikely that you will find conveniently placed isolating valves unfortunately. That said, you are working with qualpex piping here so it is definitely more convenient for swapping out as there is a degree of flexibility with it to manoeuvre pipes allowing clearance once disconnected. Easy enough job looking at your setup. A bit of PTFE tape on the new tap inlets and you're good to go.

jameshayes

did you get this done? yes, olives will do the job btw

jameshayes

jameshayes wrote: »

did you get this done? yes, olives will do the job btw

Not yet, I thought it best to wait for replies on here. I did look at putting in some flexible tap connectors, but there's a bewildering array of them. It looks like both pipes are plastic (qualpex, according to Dodzy) - the cold one has a compression fitting (which is just out of shot on the photo) and the hot has a push fit socket. I'm going to tackle it this weekend coming

Thanks to all who replied

dodzy

Deleted User wrote: »

Not yet, I thought it best to wait for replies on here. I did look at putting in some flexible tap connectors, but there's a bewildering array of them. It looks like both pipes are plastic (qualpex, according to Dodzy) - the cold one has a compression fitting (which is just out of shot on the photo) and the hot has a push fit socket. I'm going to tackle it this weekend coming

Thanks to all who replied

Personally I wouldn't bother with the addition of isolation valves on a kitchen tap. Chances are you wont need to go near it for years. Eitherway, best of luck.

saucyleopard

It looks similar to mine which I done a couple of months ago. You need olives and plumbers tape. Taps and sinks online have a post about pipe repairs that I thought was OK.

dodzy

saucyleopard wrote: »

It looks similar to mine which I done a couple of months ago. You need olives and plumbers tape. Taps and sinks online have a post about pipe repairs that I thought was OK.

What's all this talk about requiring olives! OP doesn't need them. They are there already.

saucyleopard

Well I put new olives on my pipes as the old copper ones looked beat .