Faucet Installation & Repair in Phoenix & Scottsdale, priced before we start.
What actually stops the water when you close a faucet? In older homes, a rubber washer pressed against a brass seat, which is why a lot of garages still have a coffee can full of washers in them. Most faucets sold now use a cartridge instead: two polished ceramic discs with matching openings, one fixed and one turned by the handle. Line the openings up and water flows. Turn them apart and the discs seal against each other, flat enough that nothing gets through.
Flat enough, that is, until Valley water leaves a grain of scale between them. Calcium doesn’t care how finely the disc was polished. A few particles on the sealing face and the faucet drips; enough of them and the handle grinds, stiffens, or won’t swing fully to hot. The rubber O-rings on the cartridge dry and harden, especially on a laundry sink in a 110°F garage, and the leak moves from the spout to the base of the handle. The aerator at the tip, meanwhile, catches the flakes and turns a clean stream into a spray.
Before calling anyone, unscrew the aerator and look. White grit or orange flakes in the screen explain a weak or sputtering stream, and a night in vinegar usually fixes it. Then look under the sink. The shutoff valves should turn by hand, and the braided supply lines should be free of kinks, bulges, and rust at the crimped ends. A faucet can be perfect and still flood the cabinet if the line feeding it lets go, and in many Valley homes the lines are older than the faucet.
Repair is the right call when the faucet is a known brand, the body is sound, and the cartridge is still made. That covers most of what we see. Replacement is the right call when the finish is failing, the spout is loose in the body, parts are discontinued, or you have been looking at the same fixture for fifteen years and would like to stop. When you do replace, replace the shutoffs and supply lines with it. They cost little next to the faucet, and they’re the parts most likely to flood the cabinet.
Scale is behind most faucet calls here, and a new faucet doesn’t change the water. A household that replaces cartridges every couple of years is paying the hard-water bill in small installments, and the Field Report’s look at the quiet tax on every appliance shows where else it’s being collected. None of that is required reading to fix a drip. It’s worth knowing before you buy the next faucet.
Signs it’s time
A drip you can time
A steady drip from the spout with the handle fully off means the cartridge seal or seat is scaled or worn. Leave a cup under it overnight. The result is usually more persuasive than any estimate.
Water pooling at the base of the handle
Worn O-rings on the cartridge or spout. It often shows up as a damp countertop around the faucet or a slow stain inside the cabinet directly below.
The handle feels gritty and stiff
Scale on the cartridge. It gets stiffer, not better, and eventually sticks or snaps. Replacing the cartridge before it seizes is the easier job.
Sputtering, sideways spray
Debris or scale in the aerator. Clean it and watch. If the grit returns quickly, something upstream is shedding it, often a failing water heater or corroding galvanized pipe.
Shutoffs that won’t budge
A valve that won’t turn, or weeps at the stem when it does, can’t protect you in an emergency. It’s a small replacement, best done alongside the faucet work, and a common find in homes with their original stops.
What’s leaking behind the pull-down sprayer?
The hose has usually worn through where it rubs the cabinet or the counterweight. Hoses are replaceable on most brands, and the leak they cause lands inside the cabinet, where nobody looks.
From drip to done
- 01
Identify the faucet
Brand and model decide which cartridge fits, and there are a great many. A photo of the faucet and the markings on the old cartridge usually settle it.
- 02
Price first, photos throughout
You get a flat price before we start and photos of the worn parts, so the diagnosis isn’t a matter of taking our word for it.
- 03
Water off, at the stops or the main
If the stops under the sink won’t hold, we close the main and replace them first. There’s no sense setting a new faucet on valves that can’t be trusted.
- 04
Rebuilt or replaced
Cartridge, O-rings, and seats for a repair. For a new faucet, the old one comes out, the deck is cleaned, and the new one is set level and sealed on fresh braided supply lines.
- 05
Flushed before the aerator goes on
Running the lines first keeps installation debris from clogging a brand-new aerator on day one. Then hot, cold, the sprayer, and every connection under the sink get checked with a dry towel.
Pricing
A flat quote, given at the sink
The biggest variable is the faucet itself. You can supply one or have us source it, and a basic single-handle model and a touchless kitchen faucet with its own power supply are different jobs. Beyond that, the price moves with the condition of the shutoffs, how cramped the space behind the sink bowl is, and whether the countertop needs a hole added or covered for a new configuration. It’s fixed once you agree to it.
Financing is available on larger jobsA dripping faucet is the rare plumbing problem that announces its own cost, one drop at a time. For the rest of the sink, see kitchen plumbing.
Faucets: questions we get asked
Straight answers, the same ones we give on the phone.
