How to Change Your Kitchen Faucet

Last Updated on March 13, 2021 by Ellen Christian

I am the designated DIY person in our home. I am far from an expert but I learn more with each project I do.  When I have questions, I ask either my father (who has years of DIY experience), my husband (who is disabled but has the “how to” knowledge of how to do these projects) or I Google the information.  Don’t be intimidated by DIY projects around your house. If I can learn how to change your kitchen faucet, you can too. I received a Delta Touch20 faucet is part of a sponsored opportunity with Glam and Delta.  You can read all about why I love my Delta Touch20 faucet.  No one asked me to share this post with you but I wanted to let you know how to change your kitchen faucet in case you decide to try it yourself.

How to Change Your Kitchen Faucet

This post assumes you have a faucet in your sink currently and want to remove it and put in a new one. It is based on my taking out a standard Delta faucet and replacing it with a Delta Touch20 faucet. My home was built in 1865 and many of the upgrades and repairs that were done before we bought it were not necessarily done the correct way.  That can make DIY projects a bit of a challenge but I’m always up for learning something new.

• Turn off the water.  There should be two pipes under your sink.  Each will have a shut off valve. In an ideal world, one will be red and one will be blue.  Red is hot. Blue is cold. In my home, both are red. Turn on the faucet to test that the water flow is really off.
• If you have a separate kitchen sprayer and will be eliminating it to use a faucet like the Delta Touch20 faucet where the sprayer comes out of the spout, you need to remove the sprayer first. Just loosen the nut that connects the sprayer hose under the sink. Drain any water that might be standing in the hose and remove the sprayer from the top of the sink. That will leave the spray base still in the sink.  You will need to remove that by tugging gently. Now you have a hole in the sink that can be covered with a snap in faucet hole cover.

• Under the sink, loosen the nuts that connect the supply hose from your faucet to the hot and cold water pipes that come up from under the sink. You may need to use WD40 to loosen the nuts depending on how long they have been on.  NOTE: use one wrench to hold the top of the copper water pipes and the other wrench to loosen the nut. You do not want to break or bend the copper water pipes.
• Drain any water left in the supply hoses into a bucket.
• I have a top mount faucet so in order to remove the faucet from the sink, I need to loosen the nuts that hold it to the sink.  These are under the sink to the left and right of the faucet tailpiece. Mine are made of plastic and could be untightened by hand. If yours are stuck, try WD40. Remove the nuts.  Gently pull the faucet up and out. Set aside.

• Clean the area where the faucet attached to the sink well.
• Place the estucheon over the sink holes.  That’s the decorative base that the faucet sits on.  It should have a rubber or plastic gasket on the bottom but if it doesn’t, apply plumber putty or silicone caulk to make sure you get a good fit.

• Carefully lower the new faucet assembly and all the hoses and wires through the center hole of the estucheon. Connect it with the washer, mounting nut and bolts so that it sits firmly in the sink.

• This is a general description of what follows as the specifics will depend on what model faucet you have. Please refer to your specific manual to see what you need to do. Whatever your manual tells you to do, it will involve lots of laying on the ground trying to reach things that are never in the most convenient place. Depending on the set up of your sink, it may involve you saying words your children shouldn’t hear you say.  Occupy them with a video game before you start.

• Place the sprayer hose through the top of the faucet. Attach the wand assembly to the sprayer hose.
• The Linden model of the Delta Touch20 faucet has a motor assembly that runs the touch portion of the faucet. This needs to be installed and connected according to the directions at this point.
• Attach the check valves to the water pipes. The connection may be directly on the shut off valve depending on your set up. If you live in an  old house, you may need to add in an adapter to get everything to fit properly.  Thankfully, the ladies at Aubuchon are amazing and helped me find an adapter that would work.  Pick up where you left off and finger tighten the nut.  Give one additional turn of the wrench to tighten.
• Attach the hoses to the check valves.  Red to the hot water pipe and blue to the cold water pipe.   Finger tighten the nuts and finish with one turn with the wrench.
• Turn the water back on.  Check for any leaks. If you have leaks, shut the water off. Find the leak and tighten the nuts more if necessary.  Depending on how your plumbing is set up, you may need to wrap the threads with Teflon tape to get a good seal. If you’re like me and don’t have any Teflon tape, drive to the hardware store to get some and then resume.  Dry everything off.  Turn the water back on and try again until you have no leaks at all.
• Remove the wand assembly from the kitchen faucet.  Let the water run through the sprayer hose for one minute.  Replace the wand assembly and you’re done. Now you can enjoy your new kitchen faucet.