How to Install a Pull-Out Kitchen Faucet

In this video, This Old House plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey shows how to upgrade to a faucet and sprayer in one.

Steps:

1. Go into the basement or utility room and turn off the cold- and hot-water lines leading to the kitchen sink.

2. If there’s a garbage disposer attached to the sink, remove it to gain more space to work. Disconnect the disposer’s drain line, then loosen the locking ring to free the disposer.

3. Use a hacksaw to cut through the existing hot- and cold-water supply lines leading from the faucet to the shut-off valves.

4. Loosen the nuts holding the faucet to the sink with a basin wrench. Once the nuts are removed, pull the old faucet from the sink.

5. Roll a ball of plumber’s putty into a thick rope, then wrap it around the mounting flange of the new faucet.

6. Set the mounting flange into place on top of the sink deck, then tighten the retaining nuts from below. Remove any putty that squeezes out from under the flange.

7. Use a propane torch to melt the solder holding the two existing shut-off valves in place.

8. With pliers, pull off the old valves. Be careful the valves will be hot.

9. Buff-clean the ends of the hot- and cold-water pipes with a strip of emery cloth.

10. Attach two new compression-fit shut-off valves to the water pipes. Tighten the compression fittings with two open-end wrenches.

11. Assemble the faucet, then fasten it to the mounting flange installed earlier.

12. Make the water connections between the faucet and the shut-off valves with rigid lav supplies. Use a bending spring to careful bend the supplies into shape.

13. Tighten the lav supply connections with two open-end wrenches.

14. Install the new soap dispenser into the old sprayer hole in the sink deck.

15. Re-install the garbage disposer, and test the operation of the faucet.