Tap Washers and Olives

A dripping basin in a Durban student room is usually a washer, an olive, or a tap that should have been replaced last turnover. It is not a reason to open the geyser cupboard and invent a new system. ManjeProp keeps a small tin of the parts that actually fit the houses we run, and we photograph the failed piece when we deduct or when we order.

If a retail link appears on this page, it may be an affiliate link. We may earn a commission if you buy. You do not pay more. This is not a ranked review and not a licence to flood a room.

What the two words mean

A washer is the flat or slightly bevelled disc that the tap spindle presses onto the seat. Rubber, fibre, or a modern compound. When it hardens or splits, the tap weeps into the basin or the shower. Most two-handle basin taps in older student stock still use one.

An olive is the soft metal (usually brass or copper) ring that compresses onto a pipe when you tighten a compression fitting — the joint under the basin, on a stopcock, on a mixer tail. When someone overtightens, or when a previous “fix” used PTFE tape as a substitute for an olive, the joint weeps into the cupboard.

They are not interchangeable. A washer will not seal a compression joint. An extra olive will not stop a worn tap seat.

What we keep on the shelf

A mixed card of common basin and sink washer sizes, in a labelled tin, not a heap
A few 15 mm olives (the usual copper-tail size on basins and cisterns)
A 15 mm fibre or rubber washer for cistern tails if that house uses them
A short note in Materials: which house, which tap pattern, what actually fitted last time

We do not keep every exotic ceramic-cartridge spare for a mixer we do not own. If the tap is a cartridge mixer and the cartridge is dead, we replace the tap at turnover or we send a plumber. We do not dismantle a chrome novelty that a tenant bought at a market and plumbed onto our copper.

The job, in order

Confirm it is a drip, not a leak in the wall. A wet cupboard back or a brown ceiling is a leak, not a washer. Stop and ticket.
Isolate the stopcock. If the stopcock does not work, that is the job. Do not hope.
Photograph the tap and the wet, in daylight if you can.
Open only what you understand. A washer change on a two-handle tap is a caretaker job if you have done it on that pattern. A seized mixer is not.
Fit the matching size. A too-small washer spins and fails by Friday.
Open the stopcock, test, photograph the dry result.
Log the part on Materials if it came off our shelf. Log the ticket.

Do not use more PTFE tape than thread exists. Do not use silicone as a washer. Do not overtighten an olive until the pipe deforms — the next person will have to cut it.

What tenants should do

Report the drip. Use Report a fault. Category Water / leak. Photograph the tap and the puddle, not your student card. Do not take the tap apart. Do not put a towel over a spreading cupboard leak and wait for the weekend. Do not buy a random washer assortment and leave the leftovers in the medicine cabinet.

You will not be charged for ordinary wear of a house tap. You may be charged if the tap is broken off or if a “fix” with glue is what we find at inspection. Photographs matter.

Buying

Any hardware counter. A marketplace pack of assorted washers is fine for the tin if you will sort it and throw the sizes you never use. A marketplace pack of “universal olives” is only useful if they are the diameter of your pipe — measure. 15 mm is common on our basins; it is not the only size in the world.

Prefer brass olives over mystery soft metal that splits. Prefer a named washer card over a bag of perished rubber that already smells of shed.

This article names no winning brand and no price. The right washer is the one that matches the seat you photographed.

What this is not

It is not a tenant-data product. We do not need an app that logs who showered. We do not fit smart taps. We do not put a name on the Materials line when a number and a room will do.

It is not permission to ignore a geyser or a wet ceiling. Those have their own articles and they get a plumber.

If you are an owner buying for a single room, buy the washer card, the olives that match your pipe, and a cloth. If the drip is in the wall, stop.