"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...
I've had a slow drip for a while from my ancient American Standard
faucet in my bathtub. It has recently turned from a drip into a stream
and since the water is no longer cold but luke warm I suspect the hot
water side has started leaking as well. I'd love to replace it myself
but from investigating online it looks just too complicated. Right now
it has two handles and I'd like to turn it into a single handle. My
question is this: what is the best way to go about installing this,
call a plumber? Or go to a home center, pick out the style we want and
have them install it? As I said, I'd love to repair it myself but I
don't think watching 10 episodes of Ed the Plumber is going to qualify
me to taking on this task.



Assuming there's nothing bizarre going on inside your existing faucet, you
could fix the thing nicely for less than $20.00 (parts). If you're missing
certain tools, you might have to add another $20-$30. After you read what
others have said about totally replacing the faucet, you may want to
consider doing this job yourself. It's not that big a deal. The most
important thing to do first is open the yellow pages (phone book - does
anyone have those these days?), and find a real plumbing supply store, or a
real hardware store. In other words, a place you can bring an old part to,
or a couple of clear photographs, and someone says "Here, you need this,
that, and two of these, and do you have a tool that looks like this?"

Not Home Depot. Not Lowe's.

Let us know which way you're leaning (fix, or new), and I'll search through
a long list of digital pics that I should've given sensible names to. I
think I might have some nice shots of disassembled faucet valves. Naked,
sexy valves.