A faucet fails in a handful of ways
A faucet has only a few moving parts, so when it acts up it is usually one of a small set of predictable failures. A steady drip from the spout is a worn cartridge or seat. A handle that is hard to turn is grit or mineral in the valve. Weak flow from one faucet is very often just a clogged aerator, the little screen on the end of the spout. A puddle in the cabinet below is a supply connection or, less often, a cracked body.
The useful thing about that short list is that most of it is genuinely repairable, and cheaply. A dripping faucet is not a reason to buy a new one; it is usually a cartridge swap. A good plumber will tell you which failure you have and whether it is a repair rather than defaulting to a sale, which is the whole spirit of honest faucet repair.
| Symptom | Usual verdict |
|---|---|
| Steady drip from the spout | Repair, a cartridge or seat |
| Hard-to-turn handle | Repair, clean or replace the valve |
| Weak flow, one faucet | Repair, usually a clogged aerator |
| Cracked body or discontinued parts | Replace the fixture |
| Decade-old fixture, repeated issues | Replace, it is the cheaper path |
When replacing actually makes more sense
Repair is usually the right first move, but not always, and there are clear cases where a new faucet is the better spend. If the faucet is a decade or more old, if the manufacturer no longer makes replacement cartridges for it, or if the body itself is cracked or badly corroded, you are throwing good money after bad by repairing it. At that point a quality replacement is cheaper over its life.
When you do replace, a proper install redoes the whole connection, new supply lines and, where needed, new shutoff valves, so you are not putting a new faucet on tired old parts. And it is worth spending a little more on a fixture with a standard, serviceable cartridge from a brand that stocks parts, because the bargain-bin faucets with proprietary plastic internals are the ones a plumber is back to replace in a couple of years.
The Chapel Hill wrinkle under the sink
There is a local twist that turns a ten-minute job into a longer one, and it is worth knowing before you start. In the older housing near campus and in Carrboro, the angle stops, the little shutoff valves feeding the faucet, are frequently as old as the house and seized solid. When they will not turn or will not seal, a simple cartridge swap first requires replacing the stops, because you cannot safely work on the faucet without shutting off its water.
This is not a plumber padding the bill; it is the reality of old-house plumbing, and it shows up across wider bathroom and kitchen work too. The silver lining is that Chapel Hill's soft OWASA water is gentle on faucets, so without heavy scale, cartridges and aerators last longer here than in a hard-water town. A faucet that is failing is usually failing from age or a weak part, not mineral destruction, which often means a repair genuinely restores it.
A few things you can check before calling
Before you decide anything, a couple of harmless checks can tell you a lot. If the flow from one faucet is weak, unscrew the aerator at the tip of the spout and rinse out the debris caught in the screen, that alone fixes a surprising number of "low pressure" complaints. If a handle is stiff, it is usually mineral or grit in the valve rather than anything broken. And if you see a puddle in the cabinet, dry it, run the water, and watch to learn whether it is coming from the supply connection, the drain, or the faucet body, which tells the plumber exactly where to look.
What is worth leaving alone is a cartridge you cannot identify or a shutoff valve that will not turn. Forcing an old, seized angle stop is how a small job becomes a bigger one, since a stop that snaps or will not reseal then has to be replaced before anything else can happen. If the simple checks do not solve it, that is the point to call rather than to force a part, and in an older Chapel Hill home the seized shutoff is common enough that it is worth having replaced properly alongside the faucet work anyway.
Questions we get
Yes. Beyond the wasted water, a constant drip wears the seat further and can stain the fixture, and if it drips into the cabinet rather than the sink it can rot the base. A cartridge repair is a small job that heads off a larger one.
Repair simple failures, drips, stiff handles, weak flow, on a sound fixture. Replace when the faucet is a decade or more old, its parts are discontinued, or the body is cracked or corroded. We will tell you honestly which side of that line your faucet is on.
Usually the connection, not the faucet, often because it was installed on old, seized shutoff valves or reused supply lines. A proper install replaces the supply lines and any failing stops at the same time so the whole connection is fresh.
Soft OWASA water is gentle on a faucet, so wear here is usually age or a weak internal part rather than scale. That is good news, it means a repair often fully restores it instead of the mineral damage you would fight in a hard-water area.
Look for a standard, serviceable cartridge from a brand that stocks parts, and solid metal internals rather than plastic. Those are the faucets we can keep running for years with a cheap cartridge swap. The bargain fixtures with proprietary plastic parts are the ones that become a forced replacement when a part is discontinued.
Almost always a clogged aerator, the little screen on the end of the spout, or a partially closed or failing supply valve under the sink. Low pressure at a single faucet is usually a quick, cheap fix rather than a whole-house pressure problem, which is worth ruling out first.
Faucet dripping or hard to turn?
We will tell you honestly whether it is a cheap repair or worth replacing.