Faucet Repair

Almost every faucet complaint is one of four faults in one of four mechanisms, and working out which pair you have takes about a minute at the sink.

Briefly

A drip from the spout and a drip from the handle are different faults with different parts, and the mechanism can be identified from the handle alone. Separately, until 4 January 2014 a faucet could lawfully contain up to 8 percent lead in its wetted surfaces.

Source: US EPA, Use of Lead Free Pipes, Fittings, Fixtures, Solder and Flux for Drinking Water.

FaucetMend is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. We carry out no work, we sell no fixtures, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call. Nothing here is a statement about the water at any address; only a test of that water can tell you about it.

Start with where the water is

From the spout with the handle off is the shut-off failing. From around the handle is the seal on the moving stem. From the base, only while it runs is the spout O-rings — and that one is going into your cabinet rather than down the drain.

Water in the cabinet and nothing above is usually not the faucet at all.

Then work out what is inside it

Compression, ball, cartridge or ceramic disc — and you can tell which from how the handle moves. It decides whether the repair is a rebuild or a swap, and whether the part is a commodity or specific to one manufacturer.

The handle test, and what each mechanism wears out.

The date almost nobody is told

Until 4 January 2014, a faucet could lawfully contain up to 8.0 percent lead in the brass its water touched. Since that date, lead free has meant a weighted average of 0.25 percent across wetted surfaces.

That is a fact about when a fixture was made, and it belongs in a replace decision for a kitchen tap. What changed and what it does not mean.

Source: US EPA, Use of Lead Free Pipes, Fittings, Fixtures, Solder and Flux for Drinking Water; US EPA, How the Safe Drinking Water Act limits lead in pipes, fittings, fixtures, faucets, solder and flux.

And what we will not tell you

Nothing about the water at any address. Not a range, not a typical figure, not an implication. That needs a test by a certified laboratory and a website cannot substitute for one.

That refusal has its own page, along with the price and the repair-or-replace verdict we also decline to invent.

What this site does

We connect homeowners with independent contractors who cover their area, and the contractors pay us when we route them a call. You are never charged, and the first thing this site tells you to do about a slow tap is unscrew the aerator, which costs nothing.

How that works in full, and where we route.

The rest of the site

Know the maker? Say so on the call.Cartridges are specific to a manufacturer, and the name on the handle is frequently the difference between one visit and two. We route you to a contractor covering your area, chosen on the ZIP code you give, free of charge to you. Faucets are simply our subject; the number itself handles any plumbing request.

Call (888) 754-1330