Changing sink faucets - how hard?

This is probably a VERY stupid question, but as far as connections go for what I'd be doing, everything is just compression... there's no soldering, right?

It just hot... cold...and faucet... hook up to what plumbing lines are already there I'd assume, if that makes sense.

It's something that I feel like I can do, but for some reason, I seem to be trying to talk myself out of doing it.

16 splines, 1 5/16" inches tall. I actually found one that fit at Lowes, but the screw to screw it into the actual faucet was way too large.

Ok... there's just not much room under there. And the nuts aren't very wide.

All the tubing connections are green... With my luck, I'll break something when I go to disconnect.

I'll take a picture later, but it looks to me like everything from the cutoffs forward needs to be replaced. The lines from the cutoffs to the faucet and the crossover is fixed pipe, not braided like what's throughout the rest of the house. That would seem to me to make it more difficult. Or else replace the fixed with braided.

I did swimming pool repair for about 3 years in college... that plumbing was easy. This looks... not so easy.

Your biggest problem will likely be rust and deteriorated connections that are probably stuck like they are welded together.

It will take some effort to remove the old faucet and they do make special wrenches to get to those hard to reach spaces that are worth the price of buying.

OK, then. It's not an overly tough job, just sometimes tedious to get up to those fittings underneath the counter/sink to break loose to remove the old ones.
And be prepared, like I wasn't, that when you do shut off the water using the valve by the inlet in the wall, that it may not fully shut off, thus leak water until you hook up the new faucet.
Other advice: use the stainless steel braided faucet hoses and not those gray plastic tube ones. I had one of those gray ones pop out of the fitting and flood my house.

I’ve changed several faucets around the house. Not hard at all.

Spray some liquid wrench or even WD40 and let it sit for a while. It’ll be a pain getting into the tight space, but not worth paying hundreds for a plumber to do it.

also change the shut off valves, its better to just replace them both at this point, they are bound to be worn and not sealing very well if at all any more.

shut off water to whole house, drain water pressure from the lines, grip the pipe its attached to and unscrew the old valves and replace with new after wrapping the threads with teflon tap

its not hard at all "if" the old valves will unscrew and arent stuck onto the pipes, thats the only hard part to this job, if the valves dont want to come off

the faucet is easy to change but getting to the nuts that hold it on to undo them is a right PITA

quote:

---

So... if I undertake this say... Saturday... and... break something or the shutoffs won't come off or whatever... do you reckon plumbers charge extra to "fix" homeowner started jobs?

---

If you've never done this before, and I have a feeling you've not, then figure it taking you much longer to do than anyone with experience doing it.

That said, the only way you will get comfortable with doing home projects is by getting your hand dirty and learning as you go.

As for breaking anything, it likely won't happen, but if it does, fix it. As for the shutoffs not coming off, that won't happen, so don't worry about it. They will come off if you want them off.

Nobody simply wakes up and "knows" how to do these things without learning how to do them, and that takes someone showing you how they are done or learning through trial and error on your own.

You're not building a flux capacitor here, it's just a faucet.

Make sure you know how to cut the water off from the street. Just Incase that shutoff valve & pipe snaps off in the wall.
Can’t you use the old screws in the new handles?

It's extremely easy. It's fitting into the tight space that is hard.