15

My bathroom faucet is loose on the countertop. It wobbles and rotates when lifting and turning on the water.

Faucet sitting flush on tile

Underneath it looks like the following pictures. (It's above and behind some drywall, so most of the pictures are using an endoscope; sorry about the low resolution.)

water lines headed over drywall and into a ring with two large and two thin threaded rods

The inset-hex bolt here is the only obvious thing I could tighten, but it appears to just be holding the two rings together. close up of the ring with a bolt with inset hex head holding two pieces together

The threaded rods are clearly what I should be tightening, but I cannot see how to tighten them from underneath. (This photo looks like the large threaded rod might have spiderwebs filling a hex hole on the end; I later went back and scraped the end of the rod to find that it is solid and flat.) close up of large and small threaded rods on one side

Sticking the endoscope up the hole does not produce useful (to me) information: inside the hole leading to the faucet, threaded rods appear to pass through holes in a brass ring/clamp


Update: the answer by @Ecnerwal may be correct: I am now in the process of figuring out how to disassemble this (I find) Brizo faucet. I've popped out the hot/cold indicator under the handle…

close up of hot/cold indicator under handle indicator removed

…to reveal a hole with a 3mm inset hex set screw:
enter image description here

Loosening that allows me to lift off the faucet top…to show nothing interesting:
enter image description here

However, I can then unscrew the ring that was under the cap, to reveal a large brass nut:

enter image description here

Now I need to go to a hardware store to find something to loosen this nut, as none of my crescent wrenches are large enough.


Update 2: I now own a honking big crescent wrench, but did not find what I was looking for. Removing the brass nut gives access to the cartridge for the faucet, but nothing related to affixing it to the counter.

crescent wrench, brass nut, and cartridge with o-rings

interior of the faucet with two holes for water inlet, and two indentations for aligning the cartridge

Phrogz
  • 1,145
  • 2
  • 16
  • 30

3 Answers3

26

Turns out the two smaller "threaded" bolts are actually springs. Red herrings.

Luckily my architect remembered the (discontinued) line "Brizo Quiessence" and was able to find the installation manual for the model 6514521.

Which showed me (facepalm) two more pop-off screw covers on the sides of the faucet (I only looked at front and back). Removing those allowed me to pull off the entire faucet, and thus exposed the two screw heads for the large threaded rods. That's all it took, tightening those from above.

popping out the screw cover to reveal an inset-hex-head bolt base with exposed screw heads

Phrogz
  • 1,145
  • 2
  • 16
  • 30
8

The implication of what you found is that the above counter trim must be removable to expose a part of the bolt that can be tightened. It will, of course, be subtle as to HOW it's to be disassembled unless you can sort out the make and model of faucet to refer to documentation.

Ecnerwal
  • 235,314
  • 11
  • 293
  • 637
2

I can rest assure you the valve came in one pice, and did not need to be disassembled to be installed.

You do not have to disassemble the valve to remove it.

The installer first installed the two flanges. Using the bigger bolts screwed from the top, without valve in place.

Then the valve with the two smaller blots was inserted. The smaller bolts were screwed (tightened) to the lover flange from underneeth.

To tighten the valve and the flange, remove the smaller bolts form underneath. Then pull the valve up. You might have to disconnect the water hoses.

Tighten the flanges from the top.

Insert the valve and tighten it with the smaller nuts from underneeth.

DIY75
  • 20,686
  • 3
  • 23
  • 47