Now that you’ve established your perfect grooming regimen for your newly minted face decorations, it’s time to add even more maintenance to your routine. Your valves, faucets, and (retainer) nuts, need a little TLC just like your beard. This DIY guide is here to give you a step-by-step walkthrough of how to check all your pipes and make sure everything is running smoothly.

Let’s begin by identifying all the parts under the sink to familiarize ourselves with all the components. Take your time with this process, it’s an important step to the walkthrough. If for any reason you need to go back a step, go back under the sink and start again. Once you’re familiar with everything and confident in your abilities, the next step is to test the water pressure. Begin with checking the hot inlet, adjust the temperature, not too hot, just warm enough. The warm water will help you manipulate the retainer nuts as you check for proper function.

With the water on, take one retainer nut between your thumb and fingers to get to know what is normal, then repeat with the other one, (most kits come with two, some kits only contain one). You should be checking for any irregularities or inconsistencies between the two. If for any reason you notice any type of change, stay calm but contact a professional for a follow-up visit. You should check your retainer nuts about once a month for good measure.

Seasoned faucets, on the other hand, have different maintenance needs. Your faucet should be checked by a professional about every four years once the faucet has reached 45, make sure to discuss the history of your faucet to know when to start your check-ups. Early detection of a change in valves, pipes, and retainer nuts can maximize the lifespan of your faucet.

Knowing all the components under the sink intimately will allow this process to become second nature. These steps are very important to follow to increase the longevity of newer parts and keep your faucet in good working order.

If the idea of adding even more things to keep track of sounds daunting, don’t worry you can sign up for reminders.