4) You will need to have on hand water heater tape, small gas torch, solder, flux, plumbing sandpaper, pipe cutter, gas tape (to seal gas line) and maybe some pipe glue. Ask the sales person at the hardware store for a more defined list.
Examine the washer and replace it with a new one. Also replace screws in water line repair case they are old and damaged too. The new ones you buy should be durable and of good quality.
The first thing you need to do after leakage starts is to shut the water supply before you remove the faucet. You can either shut the valve in the sink or the main valve of your home. After that ensure that the water in the water line is drained and also the air pressure s released. This will also help in saving a lot of water that might have been wasted due to the leakage.
The next step in this process is to determine what type of method is available for fixing the problem. You cannot just caulk a crack or fill it in with cement and hope for the best. Unfortunately, there is more work than this because you have to fix the problem from both the inside out and the outside in. This takes a professional in most cases to determine the best method for repair.
Here are some general cautions. Do not begin jobs on holidays, weekends, or at times when plumbers raise their rates or are difficult to reach. Do start early leaving plenty of daylight to call a plumber if something goes wrong. Study the situation carefully. Think about what might happen if something suddenly broke and what the effects would be. Old corroded copper tubing might break in the wall when you are wrenching an angle stop that supplies the water line repair to your toilet. A flood in the wall could be costly. If the angle stop, on the other hand, is new and shuts off easily and you have another toilet in the house then it might make sense to repair the toilet yourself. Be honest, too. Are you handy with tools? Did you do well in shop classes in school?
And the way to know what's sufficient? Well, until the work is done an the bill paid you won't know for certain, but this is the best that can be suggested and normally works very well.
Especially with older plumbing systems, a leaky pipe is like an alarm, signaling that other pipes may also be on the brink of failure. To get a grip on whether your plumbing system can last, a professional plumber may send a remote camera through your network. If any pipes are about to break, the camera will give you a heads up. If your entire plumbing system is outdated and weak, it may be best to simply replace the whole thing. Although this can be a costly enterprise, with a price tag of at least a couple of thousand dollars, the upside is that a new sewer line will reliably perform its duty for decades to come.