Trying to get to sleep in your bedroom while listening to a dripping tap in the bathroom, in the dead of night, can be a form of water torture. Thankfully, you won’t have to fork out on eye-watering call-out fees for a plumber, because fixing a dripping tap is a relatively straightforward DIY job to remedy the problem. Unlike a painting and decorating task, this one will be done and dusted within a quarter of an hour.
Isolate the tap from the water supply; you may have to close off at the mains, but use the servicing valve on the tap’s supply pipe if there is one. To avoid losing any small bits, put the plug in the bath or sink. Prize the decorative badge off the top of the tap and undo the retaining screw beneath. To protect the tap, wrap a cloth around it and hold it firmly in place with a large adjustable spanner. Unscrew the large brass headgear nut with a second spanner; you might have to give it a good squirt of WD40 if it’s seized. The tap’s rubber washer, the culprit causing the drip, will be on the headgear’s underside. Remove it, throw it away, replace with a new one of the same size and screw the headgear back into place, taking care not to over-tighten.
If you’ve still got a drip, take the headgear off again and look into the base of the tap and remove any limescale. If there’s a scratch, you’ll need to remove it with a re-seating tool. Just attach it to the tap and rotate it until the scratch or the debris has gone.