# Resurfacing Valve Seats



## woberkrom (Nov 19, 2010)

Has anybody resurfaced a valve seat?

I have filed on a tub/shower valve seat to remove a nick if I didn't have a replacement seat or if I wasn't otherwise going to the parts store.

I always removed the seat from the tub/shower valve to do this though.

I don't think I have ever resurfaced a valve seat in place with a specialty tool. Just curious if anybody else had.

--Will


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

I have re-surfaced tub valve seats in the valve with a re-seating tool and also I have removed seats to re-surface. An old timer told me once that he has soldered seats to fill a nick, now that's cool! :thumbsup:


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## U666A (Dec 11, 2010)

Can't say as I've done outside of trade school.
One thing I will mention is if xhanging a cartridge, I change both. New cartridge= new seats also. Everytime.


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## ap plumbing (Nov 9, 2010)

never had:blink:..... but its something to think about if i can't get the seat out.....that has happen b4 pain in the :whistling2:


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## easttexasplumb (Oct 13, 2010)

You have got the be careful, give the tool a few turns and the look at and feel the seat. The tools work good, but should be used as a last resort type of deal, refinishing the seat is not the best way of fixing it.


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## PLUMBER_BILL (Oct 23, 2009)

woberkrom said:


> Has anybody resurfaced a valve seat?
> 
> I have filed on a tub/shower valve seat to remove a nick if I didn't have a replacement seat or if I wasn't otherwise going to the parts store.
> 
> ...


One of these reply's mentions the "old timers" This old timer cut his eye teeth on faucet valve reseating. In my early days in this trade most faucets had non-removable seats. A proper repair meant reseating with a tool designed for the job. I believe the tool I still use sometimes was made by either Wood-Ward Wanger or Sexauer. When you dissassembled a faucet you would look down or in and if you did not see a hexogon, square or a 4 or 6 sided broach. You could pretty much guess that the seat had to be refaced. Sure there were the early Speakmans, Crane, American Standard's and Wolverine Brass Faucets that had re-newable seats. I was taught never to reface a renewable seat. Go in a little to deep and you would ruin the faucet. Of course on a faucet that had to be refaced you could also ruin the faucet if there was not enough brass left to ream. Now when you did not have the correct seat somtimes you had to file. *Here was the trick to filing the seat. * Take it out of the faucet, lay it on a flat mill file (not a ******* file) and start filing -- after each stroke back and forth you had to rotate the seat clockwise a bit before the next stroke forward. By rotating as such the seat would stay flat. A crooked seat wasn't worth the room it took up. Yes we somtimes filed a groove in the brass and filled it with solder. First though we covered the threads wih plumbers soil ... One seat that was quite frequently filed like the above was the seat in a Crane DialEase. 
Bet you didn't know there was a seat in a DialEase.


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## plbgbiz (Aug 27, 2010)

Was yours like this one Bill?

http://www.plumbingzone.com/f10/name-tool-10547/index2/#post141240


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## easttexasplumb (Oct 13, 2010)

The plumber that taught me just about every thing I know had a Sexaur master stem rebuild kit. He was pretty good at indentifing and rebuilding many different faucets. After a while of him quizing me, I started paying attention to the ways to indentify faucets. After working with other plumbers as an apprentice, I figured out that I had learned from him things those older than me,did not know.


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## RW Plumbing (Aug 16, 2010)

How long does it take to refinish these seats or obtain replacement ones? I usually don't repair stuff that takes more than an hour except in special circumstances. I would rather replace the faucet, it takes about the same amount of time and the cost is comparable if you can get back behind a closet or something. Being able to repair stuff is great but, you still have a 30+ year old faucet with 30+ year old trim.


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## breid1903 (Feb 8, 2009)

www.sexauer.com. breid...........:rockon:


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## G3farms (Oct 29, 2010)

Never done a water spigot seat, but have "lapped" many brass to brass water seats on old fire sprinkler valves to make them hold again.
Use valve grinding compound, the oil based green clover was the best.

For fillling in a water groove (where the seat was leaking for so long it actually cut a small groove in the bottom seat) a drop of silver solder works really good.


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## lpayne1234 (Sep 20, 2008)

Alot of times Emory cloth will get a water groove out of a seat.:thumbup:


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

RW Plumbing said:


> How long does it take to refinish these seats or obtain replacement ones? I usually don't repair stuff that takes more than an hour except in special circumstances. I would rather replace the faucet, it takes about the same amount of time and the cost is comparable if you can get back behind a closet or something. Being able to repair stuff is great but, you still have a 30+ year old faucet with 30+ year old trim.


 




Some tub valves I've seen are so old that replacement stems and seats aren't available (at least not readily). So, if the HO doesn't want me to open wall to replace the valve, I re-build the stems and re-finish the seats. Granted, this isn't often, but there were times when I wasn't able to locate stems and seats. The one time that stands out to me was a mansion in Palm Beach, FL on the ocean that was like 80+ years old.


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## PlumberDave (Jan 4, 2009)

if you can pull the seat, lay some sand cloth on a flat surface and sand the the seat flat rotating as you go. New washer, bib screw, teflon packing rope and stem lube. Haven't had a problem 12 years now. We have a lot of the P.P. 3 handles here the first trick I picked up was get the stepped square seat wrench and cut the last step off to keep from hitting the back of the valve body before the right sized step could engage the seat fully.


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## PLUMBER_BILL (Oct 23, 2009)

*Why ... Is it an improper word*



PLUMBER_BILL said:


> you had to file.
> *Here was the trick to filing the seat. *
> Take it out of the faucet,
> lay it on a flat mill file (not a ******* file)
> ...


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## RW Plumbing (Aug 16, 2010)

Tommy plumber said:


> Some tub valves I've seen are so old that replacement stems and seats aren't available (at least not readily). So, if the HO doesn't want me to open wall to replace the valve, I re-build the stems and re-finish the seats. Granted, this isn't often, but there were times when I wasn't able to locate stems and seats. The one time that stands out to me was a mansion in Palm Beach, FL on the ocean that was like 80+ years old.


 See stuff like that always worries me. No matter how good you are, there is always a chance you won't be able to rebuild it and might even brake something worse. You turn a drip into a steady stream of water leaking through or something. 

I know it's turning down work but, jobs like that I usually pass on. When the faucet holds some sort of value to the customer and they don't want to change it, and parts aren't available. All it takes is the one time wrecking a valve like that to be in all sorts of hot water. I usually make a customer sign something in a case like that or I just pass on that job.


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## woberkrom (Nov 19, 2010)

Well, I started this thread because I was looking around on a different website and came across an article talking about resurfacing valve seats. Well, it has been half a year, at least since I have even changed a seat, and then today, I pulled a seat and sanded it down. I used my file initially, but I guess it is pretty well traveled at this point and I wasn't having much success with it. I took out a piece of open mesh sanding cloth and laid it on the floor. Then I took the seat and sanded it down, rotating it every so often. Doing this, I was able to repair a nice, solid brass faucet (circa 1963). The faucet was working great when I left.

I guess I shouldn't start any threads on cleaning replacing an ejector pit pump...

--Will


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## plumbpro (Mar 10, 2010)

I have a re-seating tool I have used in a faucet, I have also pulled a seat and used a wet stone to re surface a seat. I prefer either replacing the seat or the whole faucet, but we don't always get what we want.


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## plbgbiz (Aug 27, 2010)

RW Plumbing said:


> See stuff like that always worries me. No matter how good you are, there is always a chance you won't be able to rebuild it and might even brake something worse. You turn a drip into a steady stream of water leaking through or something.
> 
> I know it's turning down work but, jobs like that I usually pass on. When the faucet holds some sort of value to the customer and they don't want to change it, and parts aren't available. All it takes is the one time wrecking a valve like that to be in all sorts of hot water. I usually make a customer sign something in a case like that or I just pass on that job.


 
Knowing everything you can do is important...knowing when not to do it is more important.:thumbsup:


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