We have an old stainless steel sink which we can't afford to/don't
necessarily want to replace at present. Trouble is, it has two holes for
taps rather than just one. The existing two-hole mixer tap is very tatty,
not really high enough, and needs replacing. I don't want to fork out on a
new, but effectively obsolete twohole mixer. If I get a onehole mixer can I
buy a nice blanking plate for one of the tap holes? If so, where?

TIA

Keith

Keith Dunbar wrote:
We have an old stainless steel sink which we can't afford to/don't
necessarily want to replace at present. Trouble is, it has two holes for
taps rather than just one. The existing two-hole mixer tap is very tatty,
not really high enough, and needs replacing. I don't want to fork out on a
new, but effectively obsolete twohole mixer. If I get a onehole mixer can I
buy a nice blanking plate for one of the tap holes? If so, where?

TIA

Keith


stainless steel sinks are littering every skip in town, and can be had
for under £20 in most sheds.

two hole mixers are a LOT more stable than monoblocs.

On 7 Jul, 08:43, "Keith Dunbar" wrote:
We have an old stainless steel sink which we can't afford to/don't
necessarily want to replace at present. Trouble is, it has two holes for
taps rather than just one. The existing two-hole mixer tap is very tatty,
not really high enough, and needs replacing. I don't want to fork out on a
new, but effectively obsolete twohole mixer. If I get a onehole mixer can I
buy a nice blanking plate for one of the tap holes? If so, where?

TIA

Keith

Try freecycle for another sink. I recently gave one away by that
route.
Two hole mixer taps are only about £20 in the sheds. If your sink is
that old, the tap holes may not take a mono tap. Mine didn't, I had to
enlarge them. By the time you've done that and blanked off the unused
hole, you may as well get a cheap two hole mixer.

John

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 07:43:04 +0000, Keith Dunbar wrote:

We have an old stainless steel sink which we can't afford to/don't
necessarily want to replace at present. Trouble is, it has two holes for
taps rather than just one. The existing two-hole mixer tap is very tatty,
not really high enough, and needs replacing. I don't want to fork out on a
new, but effectively obsolete twohole mixer. If I get a onehole mixer can I
buy a nice blanking plate for one of the tap holes? If so, where?

You'll need to enlarge the hole to take a monobloc mixer. The ideal tool
to use for this is a sheet metal punch: IKEA do them for about £10 since
the s/s sinks they sell come without holes so you hav eto make your own.
If you ask around maybe you'll find someone who's already bought one and
can lend you theirs.

You can buy chromed blanking plugs from Toolstation (IIRC) and no doubt
other outlets if you can't improvide something satisfactory.

--
John Stumbles

Xenophobia? - sounds a bit foreign to me.

In article ,
Keith Dunbar wrote:
We have an old stainless steel sink which we can't afford to/don't
necessarily want to replace at present. Trouble is, it has two holes
for taps rather than just one. The existing two-hole mixer tap is very
tatty, not really high enough, and needs replacing. I don't want to
fork out on a new, but effectively obsolete twohole mixer. If I get a
onehole mixer can I buy a nice blanking plate for one of the tap holes?
If so, where?

Why is a two hole fitting 'obsolete'? And so what anyway - so is the sink,
according to yourself. Two hole fittings are my preference - they are much
more rigid in stainless steel. No problems finding nice looking ones
either - or at least last time I checked.

Be aware too that one hole types are designed for high pressure water. If
your hot comes from a storage system they will reduce the flow
considerably.

--
*Many people quit looking for work when they find a job *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:56:54 GMT, John Stumbles wrote:

You'll need to enlarge the hole to take a monobloc mixer. The ideal tool
to use for this is a sheet metal punch: IKEA do them for about £10
since the s/s sinks they sell come without holes so you hav eto make
your own.

Ooo, that is a usefull snippet. I *hate* the sink tops that the sheds sell
with two monoblock a tap holes to save stocking LH or RH versions. A
blanking plate not only looks ugly but is alomost bound to leak at some
point.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Keith Dunbar wrote:
We have an old stainless steel sink which we can't afford to/don't
necessarily want to replace at present. Trouble is, it has two holes
for taps rather than just one. The existing two-hole mixer tap is very
tatty, not really high enough, and needs replacing. I don't want to
fork out on a new, but effectively obsolete twohole mixer. If I get a
onehole mixer can I buy a nice blanking plate for one of the tap holes?
If so, where?

Why is a two hole fitting 'obsolete'? And so what anyway - so is the sink,
according to yourself. Two hole fittings are my preference - they are much
more rigid in stainless steel. No problems finding nice looking ones
either - or at least last time I checked.

Be aware too that one hole types are designed for high pressure water. If
your hot comes from a storage system they will reduce the flow
considerably.

I didn't want to buy a new two hole mixer (not cheap) and find I couldn't
get (or would have only a very limited choice of) a two hole sink unit when
I wanted/needed to replace the old one.

I take your point about reduced flow - that's useful to know. And also the
previous point made about stability. I guess when we can eventually afford
to renovate the kitchen I probably wouldn't go down the stainless steel
route anyway, now I think about it. Can anyone recommend a good online
source of two hole mixer taps please?

Keith

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:47:30 +0000, Keith Dunbar wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Keith Dunbar wrote:
We have an old stainless steel sink which we can't afford to/don't
necessarily want to replace at present. Trouble is, it has two holes
for taps rather than just one. The existing two-hole mixer tap is very
tatty, not really high enough, and needs replacing. I don't want to
fork out on a new, but effectively obsolete twohole mixer. If I get a
onehole mixer can I buy a nice blanking plate for one of the tap holes?
If so, where?

Why is a two hole fitting 'obsolete'? And so what anyway - so is the sink,
according to yourself. Two hole fittings are my preference - they are much
more rigid in stainless steel. No problems finding nice looking ones
either - or at least last time I checked.

Be aware too that one hole types are designed for high pressure water. If
your hot comes from a storage system they will reduce the flow
considerably.

I didn't want to buy a new two hole mixer (not cheap) and find I couldn't
get (or would have only a very limited choice of) a two hole sink unit when
I wanted/needed to replace the old one.

I take your point about reduced flow - that's useful to know. And also the
previous point made about stability. I guess when we can eventually afford
to renovate the kitchen I probably wouldn't go down the stainless steel
route anyway, now I think about it. Can anyone recommend a good online
source of two hole mixer taps please?

Keith

It depends on what you mean by 'expensive' the basic two hole kitchen
mixer tap is £21 from screwfix.



--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html
Gas Fitting Standards Docs he http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFittingStandards

In article om,
"Dave Liquorice" writes:
On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 08:56:54 GMT, John Stumbles wrote:
You'll need to enlarge the hole to take a monobloc mixer. The ideal tool
to use for this is a sheet metal punch: IKEA do them for about £10 since the s/s sinks they sell come without holes so you hav eto make
your own.
Ooo, that is a usefull snippet. I *hate* the sink tops that the sheds sell
with two monoblock a tap holes to save stocking LH or RH versions. A
blanking plate not only looks ugly but is alomost bound to leak at some point.

I mounted [an IKEA] sink as far forward as I could, and drilled the
tap hole in the worktop behind the sink. Much prefer this to drilling
the hole in the sink itself; being fixed to the worktop, the tap is
rock solid and doesn't wobble around at all. Makes the sink slightly
easier to clean too.

Somewhere, I have an IKEA metal punch for making the tap hole, still
sealed in it's packaging.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:47:30 +0000, Keith Dunbar wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Keith Dunbar wrote:
We have an old stainless steel sink which we can't afford to/don't
necessarily want to replace at present. Trouble is, it has two holes
for taps rather than just one. The existing two-hole mixer tap is very
tatty, not really high enough, and needs replacing. I don't want to
fork out on a new, but effectively obsolete twohole mixer. If I get a
onehole mixer can I buy a nice blanking plate for one of the tap holes?
If so, where?

Why is a two hole fitting 'obsolete'? And so what anyway - so is the
sink,
according to yourself. Two hole fittings are my preference - they are
much
more rigid in stainless steel. No problems finding nice looking ones
either - or at least last time I checked.

Be aware too that one hole types are designed for high pressure water.
If
your hot comes from a storage system they will reduce the flow
considerably.

I didn't want to buy a new two hole mixer (not cheap) and find I couldn't
get (or would have only a very limited choice of) a two hole sink unit
when
I wanted/needed to replace the old one.

I take your point about reduced flow - that's useful to know. And also
the
previous point made about stability. I guess when we can eventually
afford
to renovate the kitchen I probably wouldn't go down the stainless steel
route anyway, now I think about it. Can anyone recommend a good online
source of two hole mixer taps please?

Keith

It depends on what you mean by 'expensive' the basic two hole kitchen
mixer tap is £21 from screwfix.

I didn't realise they were so cheap - I must have missed that page when I
was searching! I was hoping to get something with a bit more height
though - and they do come rather more expensive, but not as expensive as I
thought.

Keith

Keith

On Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:24:37 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

Two hole fittings are my preference - they are
much more rigid in stainless steel.

They can still wobble around on bacofoil sink units. Copper rather than
flexible pipe tails helps, though it strains the tap connectors.

--
John Stumbles

What do you mean, talking about it isn't oral sex?

In article ,
John Stumbles wrote:
Two hole fittings are my preference - they are
much more rigid in stainless steel.

They can still wobble around on bacofoil sink units. Copper rather than
flexible pipe tails helps, though it strains the tap connectors.

Surely most twin hole fittings have 1/2 in connectors? Those coupled to
well supported pipe give a *very* rigid mounting.

That's the problem with mono block types - the tiny pipes used give no
support.

--
*A woman drove me to drink and I didn't have the decency to thank her

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.