I asked a question on here yesterday about my kitchen faucet being loose. I was told to go under the sink and

Question

tighten the nuts under the cabinet at the base of the sink from underneath. All I see is these black things you can twist with your fingers if there wasn't so much putty on them. Yesterday the guys that were helping were saying I needed to use a special tool to tighten these nuts. Can anyone please be more specific as to where these nuts are and if I am supposed have all this putty under the sink? Also, when I was down there looking I bumped the hose and it started to leak so I had to turn off my cold water. I tried turning off the main water (the silver thing in the middle) and I got squirted. I haven't had any problems with this sink in the past and I have been here almost 3 years. Is this beyond me fixing this? Should I pay for a plummer??? (I really don't want to because I just had to buy a new air conditioner for $2500.00). Please feel free to email me, or send me links of step by steps. Thanks.

Answer 1

1st if faucet hoses are bad enough that bumping them caused them to leak you need to replace supply and faucet you dont need a plumber the new faucet will have complete set of directions and most have special tools included but most only require a small crescent wrench. the black nuts are meant to be hand tight. there should be no plumbers putty under the sink at base of faucet so sounds like all you need to do is remove old faucet by unhooking water supply and taking the nuts off a small putty knife to remove putty and if stainless steel sink a sos pad to clean area where faucet sets and then just follow directions that come with new faucet you can email me if you have any problems

Answer 2

plumber putty fills in the hairlike gaps to prevent leaks leave it there unless it looks wet if it wet scrape it off and replace it
there is a rubber gasket that might be dry and cracked & need to be scraped off under the large 3" or 4" nuts if it leaking remove the plastic drain pipes & sink traps the plastic nuts should be finger tightened I'd recommend relplacing the cheap plastic washers.
Bookstores have a great DIY books with step by step photo instructions write the names of the parts down and go to the local professional smaller hardware store. The employees will walk you through step by step.
Larger supermarket hardware stores are too busy to help sometimes
Oh yea there is copper weld glue and you wont need the skills to solder copper pipe.

Answer 3

ok the nuts in was talking about, is up past the black finger nuts, there usual nut shaped, but there right next to the underside of the sink, these hold the facuet on , to the sink,
there is a wrench called a sink basin wrench, its a small pipe wrench on a long handle, not special, just diffrent, theres too much putty remove some,

Answer 4

To tighten the nuts you need a pipe wrench. If there is alot of putty down there, there has prolly been some work done on it to get it to seal. The best thing to do would be scrap it and put in a new p-trap( The curvy pipe) and pipe from ceiling and floor. If it looks too bad, I would suggest calling a plumber, or at least someone who has done this a few times before. I am sorry for your troubles, plumbing is the worst thing to have to work on in my opinion.