The hot tap on our bath seems to be getting harder and harder to turn on, to the point where now it only turns a tiny bit and hardly any water can get through. How do I fix this?
I've taken a couple of photos of the tap from above and below the fixture. If I have to remove the taps, how do I do this without flooding my house? There doesn't seem to be a convenient valve to switch this off under the bath, will I have to shut off all the water in the house?
Plumbing – How to fix a hot tap that doesn’t turn on properly anymore
bathtubplumbingtapswater
Related Solutions
1) Have a look under the kitchen sink. If OZ practice follows UK practice, this is the place in a home where you expect to find the main stopcock (regardless of whether it's the point in a home nearest the road etc). It's usually hidden behind a bottle of bleach you'd forgotten you have.
Whenever I change taps I install an isolating valve under the basin (builders leave them out to save money) so that I can subsequently work on a basin without emptying the cupboard under the sink and warning the family to cross their legs for a while.
2) Ask a neighbour
Those are supposed to be shutoff valves, but they are usually very cheap and I would not be surprised if the rubber washers are more like bricks.
If you need to do tap maintenance you will need to turn off the apartment's water. Unless you are in a condo this is really the building owner's job, not yours.
I stopped using this style of shutoff ages ago. You can get mini ball valves that are much better in every way for very small extra cost.
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Best Answer
You will need to disassemble and inspect/repair/replace the valve assembly
Your picture does not show where the flexible supply hoses originate, that would be the logical place to look for local shut-off valves. If you can't find or access local shut-off valves then YES, you will have to shut off the water to whichever side you will work on - hot, cold, or both/all.
Once the supply is shut off, you will remove the handle to access the valve assembly. There are literally hundreds of different brands/styles/types, but most are fairly intuitive to disassemble using common household tools. To repair/replace,your best bet will be to take pictures of the fixture and take those along with the handle/knob and valve assembly to a good plumbing supply shop.