Loose bath tap, stupid location

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happy2mike
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Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by happy2mike »

Hey,
The bath tap in my apartment has come loose and unfortunately the bath has been fitted and tiled and the tap is against the back wall which is an outside wall (on the 3rd floor)! - I didn't do this!! Anyone know of any easy way to fix this without ripping out the whole bath? I noted there is a small screw at the back of the tap, (not that I can get to it) but can't imagine this is the tightening screw

Thanks,

Mike
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Ktuludays
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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by Ktuludays »

Sorry, you're out of luck. There's physically no way of getting to that.

It's all part of the trend of "let's make it look nice and sod future maintenance access"

I've just finished a full house refurbishment and all pipework, taps and fittings were planned with maintenance access in mind.

There's many a time I've been asked to pop round to fix a loose tap to be met with the situation you have there.

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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by happy2mike »

That was my fear! Any danger to simply trying to glue it back down or wedge something underneath it in an effort to tighten it?
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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by wine~o »

As above. Unless you know a very thin person with very long arms...
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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by Ktuludays »

happy2mike wrote:That was my fear! Any danger to simply trying to glue it back down or wedge something underneath it in an effort to tighten it?
I'm not sure you'd find anything suitable to do that. Clear silicone would be about it but I very much doubt it would cope with the side stress when the tap is opened.

For a few quid for a tube it wouldn't hurt to try.

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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by Bob225 »

One of the issues of a large mono block mixer on a bath - what happens is people using the bath pull on the tap to get out of the bath

Even if you can get at it. you don't know if the bolt is stretched or the threads are pulled, only way to do it without removing the bath is to remove the tile behind the tap and open up a hole (easy to do if its just a stud wall)
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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by happy2mike »

Thanks Bob,
Unfortunately it's an outside wall so suspect there's no easy way of getting behind it! We made the mistake of letting our flat out to a family with kids for a month while away so that's likely the cause as you say.
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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by dewaltdisney »

I think that fittings and positioning like this should be banned, there is no way to get to it without wrecking it all. All for a bloody loose tap, it is criminal. I think you will have to bite the bullet and accept that as carefully as you work to remove it a bloody tile will crack or you will end up taking out the WC and other fittings just to get the bath out and when sorted you have the potential of having it happen again in the future. I think the way forward is to plan a new bathroom and replace it with maintenance friendly access.

It is a crying shame, sorry :thumbright:

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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by Someone-Else »

dewaltdisney wrote:I think that fittings and positioning like this should be banned,
:shock: You can't do that, they look very nice :lol:

I saw a basin tap today, it had a "stalk" that you move left / right and forwards for water and temperature. The "stalk" had snapped off :cb

As an aisde, I do see a lot of bathrooms and some look really nice, but I often wonder how on earth can the taps be fixed / repaired if you can't get to them.

My favourite looking tap has to be one with a wide handle (like the stalk one above) and a sort of waterfall for the water to flow along into the basin. (no idea why I like it, I just do)

The ones I really hate are glass hand basins :pukeleft:
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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by andy48 »

If you're going to have to remove and replace the bath, why not try:

1. Remove the front panel.
2. See if the tap is fastened down with a long but relatively small nut. Like a kitchen tap, probably a brass nut 8 to 12 mm across the flats.
3. If a small nut, get a set of monobloc tap spanners and extend as necessary to access and tighten from underneath bath.
4. If a large nut, almost certainly a no-hoper.

If it works, just replace the front panel. If not, you're no worse off. I suspect the situation of the overflow will complicate matters, but with the right spanners (and perhaps a flexible one) it might save a lot of hassle and expense.
Use of a video / camera, or even mirror(s) would help.
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Re: Loose bath tap, stupid location

Post by Ktuludays »

andy48 wrote:If you're going to have to remove and replace the bath, why not try:

1. Remove the front panel.
2. See if the tap is fastened down with a long but relatively small nut. Like a kitchen tap, probably a brass nut 8 to 12 mm across the flats.
3. If a small nut, get a set of monobloc tap spanners and extend as necessary to access and tighten from underneath bath.
4. If a large nut, almost certainly a no-hoper.

If it works, just replace the front panel. If not, you're no worse off. I suspect the situation of the overflow will complicate matters, but with the right spanners (and perhaps a flexible one) it might save a lot of hassle and expense.
Use of a video / camera, or even mirror(s) would help.
But how is he gonna reach it?



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