Faucet seat sleeve, re-rounding inner edge, or double washer?

[Garn]

I'm trying to stop a fairly slow drip through the spout of a compression bathtub faucet that has been in place since 1988. Replacing the flat washers worked for as much as six months in the past, but the seat surface has needed to be dressed periodically, and any more dressing will make it too short for the washer to reach adequately. I've already reached the point where I'm using beveled washers, but they're not lasting long, as the seats are wearing them away quickly. I don't want to try to replace the seats, because everything is this house is cheaply built, and I'm afraid something will break and require opening up the wall to replace the whole valve assembly.

The seats are a couple of inches long, and there used to be seat sleeves you could slip into place to provide a new mating surface, but I can't seem to find them anywhere. Do you know where they can still be found?

If I can't get seat sleeves, I was thinking of using a cone-shaped grinding stone to gently round off the inside edges of the seats, which are currently pretty sharp and cutting into the beveled washers. Is this a reasonable idea?

One other idea is to find longer bibb screws that would allow me to install two flat washers per stem to reach the shortened seats. The flat washers lasted longer than the beveled. I don't know whether the distances would work out. Might this work?

 

[Reach4]

Why not remove the seats and replace them? Look for a hex or square hole through the seat.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Garn]

Why not remove the seats and replace them? Look for a hex or square hole through the seat.

I don't want to try to replace the seats, because everything is this house is cheaply built, and I'm afraid something will break and require opening up the wall to replace the whole valve assembly.

 

[Reach4]

I don't want to try to replace the seats, because everything is this house is cheaply built, and I'm afraid something will break and require opening up the wall to replace the whole valve assembly.

You have been grinding the seats. If you look into where you are putting the seat tool, see if you can see a square or hex. No destruction required. You unscrew the old seat, and screw in a new seat.

 

[Garn]

Thank you, but I know there's a square into which I could insert a seat wrench. I just don't trust that the seat will unscrew rather than break or break what it's screwed into. Everything in this house is built to the barest minimum, and the seat has been in extremely hard water for 34 years. I'm not even sure I could find a replacement, as whatever the cheapest no-name brand available back then was, it may not have survived this long. Removing the seat would be a last resort; I'm hoping one of the alternatives I asked about will work instead.

 

[SimonJ]

Garn, just want to fist-bump another 'man, this is cheap plumbing' person trying to make it work a bit longer. I feel your pain.

 

[Jeff H Young]

well try your grinder what's the worst could happen? might be able to get years more of service, if it doesn't work just change the valve no biggie. when you have a house like that a remodel plate around the valve won't look bad. from 88 its not going to be galvanized its copper or plastic