Plumbing

   The upstairs bathroom sink tap has given up the ghost and is pouring water while turned off, the more you turn it off the worse it gets. I've turned the mains water off and will tackle the plumbing jobs today. The downstairs kitchen tap should only take me a few mins to put a new washer in, as long as the washer seat doesn't need regrinding flat. I don't have the tool to do that.

  The upstairs sink tap might give me a few problems. I'm really hoping its a 5 min job, change the washer and thats it but I have a feeling the whole taps done for. I have a spare kitchen tap that I think would work in its place but first I'd need to get the old tap off and some idiot has painted the pipes and nuts.

  ETA.

  Changed the washer on the downstairs tap, very easy and quick to do. I'm not sure if its working yet as I've not switched the mains back on but the seating felt smooth so should be ok.
   The upstairs tap is a riser spindle type, I've undone the head screw at the side(the only screw there is) but can't get the handle off. Spayed WD40 around and am now waiting for it to kick in. Second problem for the upstairs tap is I don't have any vise grips and my adjustable spanners doesn't expand enough to undo the body so I might have to take the whole tap off and replace it. Sprayed more WD40 on the painted(IDIOTS) nuts and pipe work. Tried to use a G clamp and towel as vise grip but didn't work, slipping too much.

  Undid the painted nut, not too hard but was awkward to get at. It was the wrong nut to undo at this point though, I needed to undo the top nut just under the tap but didn't see it. Put some more WD40 on, why is any plumbing always confined to tiny tight hard to reach places???

   Running out of ideas, I can't get the spanner on the tap locking nut to undo it. Just done a quick search and there are wrenches just for undoing nuts on basins.

  Bought the adjustable basin wrench and two taps, now I can replace both the bathroom taps and I will also replace the hot water kitchen tap so that it matches the cold water tap which I put in last year. I didn't do the hot water last time because to get at it I'd of had to remove a cupboard and the washing machine. Now I need to block the upstairs tap to stop it leaking until I get the new taps and wrench.

  Uh oh, the upstairs tap is no longer a tap and the water is just rushing out of it. Looks like I will be living with out the convenience of running water for a few days. I hope that basin wrench gets here asap.

  Hope you all have a great day, take care folks.