Loose kitchen faucet

[Tom K]

Hi there. We have an American Standard exposed wall mount sink faucet 7295 series. It is installed in the built in backsplash of our vintage sink (see photo). Recently the whole faucet assembly has started pulling away from the wall and now it moves back and forth every time we turn the faucet on or off. It keeps getting worse. As you can see from the photo each escutcheon is now about a quarter inch from the backsplash. It seems like this should be a simple fix but I’m not quite sure what to do - would someone be able to walk me through the steps here? Thanks!

 

[Jadnashua]

The back ESCUTCHEON tightens down on the nipple to close that gap. But, if the nipple isn't properly supported behind the wall, that won't prevent the whole thing from pulling out from the back. IOW, the nipple must screw into a fitting in the wall, and that fitting must be properly anchored so it can't move.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Dj2]

Your problem is inside the wall.
Usually, the plumber will secure the supply pipes and the rough in body to a wood block spanning between the adjacent studs. To do that, you would work from the wall behind the kitchen.

 

[Tom K]

Thanks both. This is really helpful.

Part of the problem is it’s a huge vintage cast iron sink set into built in cabinets so there’s no way to access behind the sink. And the wall in back is a chimney stack with a fireplace on the other side.

From underneath the sink I can see the nipples are attached to a scrap piece of wood that was nailed into the wall in back but it looks like that may have came loose. There’s only a few inches of space so there’s no way to access the wood to reattach it. I’m thinking best I could do would be to attach the supply pipes to something further down in the cabinet under the sink where there is access (they come out if he wall a few inches below the bottom of the sink bowl).

I will also try snug up the escutcheons. It looks like there was something crumbly inside one of them - should I be filling with plumbers putty or something else?

If any other ideas please let me know!

The back ESCUTCHEON tightens down on the nipple to close that gap. But, if the nipple isn't properly supported behind the wall, that won't prevent the whole thing from pulling out from the back. IOW, the nipple must screw into a fitting in the wall, and that fitting must be properly anchored so it can't move.

 

[Plumber Man]

If the pipes are still connected securely to the scrap piece of wood they used to anchor it to the wall I would try to cut some wood blocks to put between the sink and the scrap piece of wood to push it back against the wall. You should be able to get it close and then tighten the escutcheons on the front side of sink.

 

[Tom K]

Great idea. I was able to slide a piece of scrap wood between the blocks and the sinks and that fixes the problem. Thanks for the advice!