Taps and Fixtures: the Small Jobs That Reveal Bigger Ones
A dripping tap is a cartridge. A tap that drips again three months later is a pressure problem. The fixture is often the symptom, not the fault.
A seized shut-off valve under the sink turns a fifteen-minute job into a house-wide shutdown. Worth replacing while you are there.
Everyday faults
What each symptom points at
Dripping from the spout. The cartridge or the seats and springs, depending on the tap type. On a modern single-lever mixer it is a cartridge, an inexpensive part, and often available specific to the brand. On older compression taps it is washers and seats. Either way the repair is short and the outcome is complete.
Weeping at the base of the spout. O-rings, not the cartridge. A pull-out or swivel spout has seals that perish, and water tracks down onto the worktop or into the cabinet below, which is how a cheap seal becomes a swollen cabinet base.
Water under the sink. Could be the supply connections, the tap tailpieces, the waste and trap, or the sink rim seal. Dry everything, put paper down, and run water in stages (tap, then filling the bowl, then draining) and the source usually identifies itself.
Low flow at one tap. Almost always the aerator. Unscrew it, rinse the screen, refit. Second suspect is a partly closed angle stop. This is the most commonly over-diagnosed complaint in plumbing and often needs no plumber at all.
Stiff or grinding handle. Mineral build-up in the cartridge. Sometimes freed by cleaning, usually solved by replacing it. Forcing a seized handle is how a tap body cracks.
Repeat cartridge failures. If you are replacing the same cartridge every year or two, the pressure is likely high. Test it with a gauge before buying another part. See water pressure regulator.
The unglamorous part
Shut-off valves, and why they matter more than the tap
Every sink and toilet should have working local shut-offs so one fixture can be isolated without shutting down the house. In practice, in older Georgia houses, a great many of them are seized solid, weep when moved, or were never fitted at all.
The consequence shows up at the worst time. A burst supply line under a sink, with a seized stop, means running for the main shut-off, assuming you know where it is and it turns. Meanwhile the water keeps coming.
Old multi-turn stops with a rubber washer seize with age and disuse, and often will not reseal once disturbed. Quarter-turn ball stops are the modern replacement: they either work or they visibly do not, and they do not seize in the same way. Swapping them while a fixture is already off is inexpensive and it is one of the highest-value small upgrades in a house.
Two more worth doing at the same time: replacing old rubber or plastic supply lines with braided stainless, and, critically, the washing machine hoses, which are the single most common cause of catastrophic indoor water damage. If yours are more than five years old or bulging anywhere, replace them today.
Find and test your main shut-off this week
Every adult in the house should know where it is and be able to close it. Test it once a year so it does not seize. Where the house has a buried meter box, keep a meter key with it. That knowledge is worth more than any fixture upgrade.
Before you buy
Checks that prevent a wasted purchase
Count them, and their spacing
Sinks and worktops come with one, two, three or four holes at 4-inch centreset or 8-inch widespread spacing. A single-hole mixer on a three-hole sink needs a deck plate. A widespread set will not fit a centreset sink. Measure before buying, not after.
Spout height and projection
A tall gooseneck over a shallow sink splashes. A short spout over a deep farmhouse sink will not clear the bowl for filling a pot. Check the projection reaches past the bowl centre, and mind wall cabinets above for handle clearance.
Availability in ten years
The cheapest fixtures are the ones whose cartridges cannot be bought in five years, at which point the whole tap is disposable. Established brands with published parts and a warranty cost more once and less over the life of the fixture.
Durability, and matching what is there
Chrome and brushed nickel are hard and forgiving. Matte black and living finishes are attractive and less tolerant of abrasive cleaners and hard water spotting. If you are replacing one fixture in a room, matching an existing finish exactly across brands is difficult.
Buying the fixture yourself is fine, send a photo of the sink and we will confirm it fits.
Check Before You BuyThe work
What a fair installation covers
Isolate and remove. Water off at the stops, or the main, if the stops have seized. Old fixture out, which on a corroded thirty-year-old tap in the back of a cabinet is genuinely awkward work and the reason the job takes longer than the manufacturer's instructions suggest.
Clean the deck. Old putty, sealant and mineral crust removed so the new fixture seats flat and its seal actually seals. Skipping this is why some new taps weep at the base from the first week.
Fit and seal. New fixture set with the correct gasket or a bead of sealant, aligned square to the sink, and secured, properly tight without distorting a thin sink deck.
Supplies and stops. New braided stainless supply lines, and quarter-turn stops fitted if the old ones are suspect. This is where a good install differs from a fast one.
Waste and trap where relevant. A new sink or a new waste means the trap arm, tailpiece and P-trap made up properly with correct fall, and no flexible corrugated traps. They collect debris and block.
Test properly. Both supplies run, aerator flushed of debris disturbed during the work, hot and cold checked for correct sides, and every joint dried and re-checked under the sink after a few minutes of running.
Then look around. While the cabinet is empty and lit, a plumber should notice a swollen cabinet base, a slow trap weep, a corroded stop or a supply line at the end of its life. Finding those is part of the value of having someone competent in there.
One to two hours per fixture
A straightforward tap swap with working stops is often under an hour. Seized stops, corroded fittings, no access, a stone worktop or a sink change extend it. Doing several fixtures in one visit is meaningfully cheaper per fixture than separate call-outs.
Reading the signs
When a fixture problem is really something else
- Cartridges failing repeatedly across the house. Pressure above 80 psi. Test it and fix the cause, or keep buying cartridges.
- Low flow at every fixture, worsening over years. Corroded galvanised supply pipe or a failing service line. See whole-home repiping.
- Grit and debris in aerators after any plumbing work. Normal once. Continuing means something upstream is shedding, scale from a heater, or a deteriorating pipe.
- Discoloured water at one tap only on first draw. Usually that fixture's supply line or a rarely used branch. From every tap on the hot side, it is the water heater.
- A slow drain at a new sink. If it drained fine before the work and not after, suspect the trap arm's fall or a corrugated flexible trap. If it was always slow, the branch line needs clearing. See drain cleaning.
- A cabinet base that is soft or swollen. Something has been leaking for months. Find it before replacing the cabinet, or you will replace it twice.
Several fixtures at once? Batch them into one visit and the cost per fixture drops.
Book Fixture WorkQuestions we get on the phone
Answered plainly
Repair, if it is a decent fixture and parts are available, a cartridge or a set of seats and springs is inexpensive and the fix is complete. Replace when the tap body is corroded, the finish has failed, parts are no longer made, or you have already rebuilt it once. Cheap fixtures with no parts supply are effectively disposable.
Nine times out of ten the aerator. Unscrew it from the end of the spout, rinse the screen, and refit. This alone solves most single-fixture flow complaints. Next suspect is a partly closed shut-off valve under the sink, then a failing cartridge. It is not a whole-house pressure problem if only one fixture is affected.
Yes, and plenty of customers do. Check the hole count and spacing on your sink or worktop first, and check the spout projection reaches past the bowl centre. Send a photo of the existing setup and we will confirm it fits before you commit, a returned fixture is nobody’s idea of a good afternoon.
Almost always yes, if they are old multi-turn stops. They seize with disuse and frequently will not reseal once disturbed, and the cost of doing them while the fixture is already off is small. Quarter-turn ball stops either work or visibly do not, which is what you want on the day a supply line bursts.
Usually the seal was compromised at installation, old putty and mineral crust left on the sink deck, a gasket seated unevenly, or the fixture over-tightened and distorting a thin deck. On a pull-out or swivel spout, worn or nipped O-rings do the same thing. It is correctable, and worth doing before the cabinet below takes the water.
Yes, noticeably. Much of the cost of a small plumbing job is arriving, setting up and packing down. Four taps, two toilet supplies and a set of new shut-offs in one visit costs far less than four separate call-outs, so it is worth making a list before booking.
Dripping, weeping, or ready for new fixtures?
Make a list and we will do them in one visit, including the shut-off valves nobody thinks about until they matter.
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