Watch more How to Make Plumbing Repairs videos: http://www.howcast.com/videos/460906-Best-Plumbing-Fittings-and-Fixtures-Plumbing-Repairs
Plumbers are expensive. Learning how to do a few simple home plumbing repairs can save you a ton of money. In this video, master plumber Tim Flynn gives advice on picking plumbing fittings and fixtures.
I’m Tim Flynn and I’m the owner of Winters Plumbing and Heating in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Winters Company offers plumbing, heating, cooling. If you need service today; we’re the business to call. My website is wintershomeservices.com. I’ll be talking to you today about plumbing. Choosing plumbing fixtures, faucets, they’re gonna be something where you want to go and visit and look. If you have a faucet that a friend had, that’s a great way to get a recommendation of how something works. You always want to make sure that the person who’s going to be using that faucet – what are they going to use it for? Do they want a pull-out spray that they can fill pots? How do they use their kitchen? How do they use their bathroom? Do they want a hand shower? Do they want a single-handle shower? Do they want multiple shower-heads? So, if you’re going to go out and buy a fixture, the first thing you want to do is measure the space, especially for a toilet. You want to measure the space from the back of the wall to the bolts. If you want to buy a new faucet, you want to measure between the centers of each handle. That’ll make sure you’ll know what kind of faucet to get — a 4-inch, an 8-inch, a widespread, whatever you choose. I think as far as buying fixtures is concerned, you want to buy fixtures that are made out of brass. Plastic tends to breakdown. You want to buy from a known manufacturer. So, I tend to buy mostly big-name brands that have always been tested, tried and true. One of the best things to keep in mind when you’re gonna go buy a fixture is measure everything twice. I remember one day we had to install a toilet and we didn’t measure the distance from the back of the wall to the door that swang as it swung inside the bathroom. So when we bought a toilet, the door would open and hit the toilet. Or the door wouldn’t close. One way or the other. The one thing you want to avoid is cutting a half-moon out of your bathroom door. Doesn’t give a lot of privacy.