How do you tighten a loose tap?
The short answer
A tap that wobbles has a loose backnut underneath the basin. Turn the water off, get under there with a basin wrench, and tighten the nut that clamps the tap down onto the surface. On a thin basin or a sink with a large hole, it often also needs a top-hat washer or stabilising plate to give the nut something solid to pull against.
Worth fixing sooner rather than later. A tap that moves every time it's used works the flexible connectors beneath it back and forth, and those braided hoses are one of the most common causes of a serious indoor flood when they eventually fail.
The awkwardness of this job is entirely about access. The nut is directly under the tap, at the back of a basin, in a space designed for nobody's arms. A basin wrench — the long-handled tool with a hinged jaw at the end — is the thing that makes it possible, and it's why plumbers own one.
If the nut simply spins and never tightens, the tap tail is probably bottoming out on an over-large hole or a thin surface. That's what a top-hat washer or a stabilising plate is for: it packs the gap so the nut has something to bite on.
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