Our BOSTON ® range incorporates an extensive assortment of washing machine and dishwasher hoses and fittings, PVC tubing, stainless steel water connectors, hose clamps, thread sealant, plugs and drain cleaners. Unfortunately, these taps aren’t well suited to every home and can be subject to a number of waterfall tap problems.

Dripping and leaking taps can lead to larger problems in your home so try not to put off any essential repairs.If the water pressure in your home is too high, this will cause problems with the water flow in the pipes and prevent water from flowing efficiently from tap to tap, and water will start to get backed up. With home care plans from YourRepair, you’ll be covered for this and more, so you won’t need to worry about plumbing disasters in the future. In a pillar tap, when the handle is turned to turn the tap on or off, the washer is either raised or lowered by the spindle on to the seat. If when inspecting the valve seat you find that there are scores and pits in its surface then these will undoubtedly cause leaks so they need to be removed using a tap valve seat grinding tool as seen in the image below.

To replace the spout, line up the marker on the spout with the groove in the tap body, and slot the spout back into position. You will need to replace either your compression valve, ceramic disc valve or O-ring to remedy the problem. Sometimes taps just stop working, which can be a real issue when it prevents you from carrying out day-to-day tasks. Water leaking out of the open end of the spout, even when both taps are turned off, is normally due to a faulty washer, ceramic valve, worn tap seat or buildup of limescale.This guide covers common problems like dripping mixer taps, waterfall tap repair, shower mixer tap repair, washer sizes, and more. To disengage the key and thus remove the spout, it is necessary to push the spout to the left (as you are facing the sink) and line it up with the body of the mixer. If you have a traditional pillar tap you can remove the entire stem of the tap via the retaining nut to access the washer inside.

However if the leak is coming from the base of the spout then this is most likely to be the O-ring seal between the spout and tap body. The quickest and easiest way to get an exact match replacement is to keep the old one and take a trip down to your local plumbers merchants and ask them for an exact replacement or a plumbers repair kit (seen below). With the pull out type, the seal or seals are normally one the outside of the stalk that runs down into the tap body.

Most washers are symmetrical and turning the old one over will give you a new surface to work with so don’t do this. Sometimes the valves come with their own plastic handle to turn, but more commonly you will need a flathead screwdriver to make the quarter turn from vertical to horizontal to switch off the flow. In some instances there won’t be a recess so you will just have to use a very small screwdriver and gently slide it under the indicator cover to prise it off, being careful not to damage it.