A: Thanks, Linda. I'm glad you took my advice about job preparation. As I say in the book, you can head off big problems by doing some "homework before you do some home work." I'm always amazed when people tell me that they have no isolation valves next to a plumbing fixture.

Isolation or "stop" valves at every plumbing fixture are required by code in most areas of the country and are key for doing repair work without disrupting the entire house. Yet, in many older homes or in new homes for reasons unknown to me, the fixture stop valves may be missing. This can turn simple repair jobs into much bigger projects. Without stop valves at places like your bathroom and kitchen sinks, you now have to turn off water to the entire house, drain the plumbing system and then refill and purge the system just to replace the faucet or make faucet repairs. Worse yet, if you have an uncontrollable emergency leak at a fixture without stops, once again you have to shut down the water for the entire house until the leak can be repaired!

Now in your case, since there are no faucet stops and since you need to replace your old faucet anyway, I would recommend installing new stop valves along with the new faucet. This can be done one of two ways. If you're lucky, the water pipes under the sink will be threaded and once the old faucet is disconnected, new valves can be screwed onto the existing pipes. Then the new faucet will attach to the new stop valves.

If you're not lucky, you'll have copper or PVC piping. If so, the water pipes will have to be cut and prepped up for the new stops to be soldered or glued into place before you install the faucet. Either way can be a tricky job and you may be opening up a can of worms, so I would consult a licensed plumber to do this job.

However, now you can explain the problem to the plumber over the phone so the plumber can come over with all the necessary materials needed to install the fixture stops. That is will be a big help to them.

Good job! Checking things out first not only saved you from getting into big trouble; it may also save you a little money when the plumber finally fixes your "non-stop" problem!