FAUCETS, CHAPEL HILL
Faucet Repair & Installation in Chapel Hill, NC
A dripping faucet is almost always a cheap repair, not a reason to replace the whole fixture. We tell you honestly which one your faucet needs.
A faucet has only a handful of moving parts, so when it acts up the cause is usually one of a short, predictable list. A steady drip from the spout is typically a worn cartridge or seat. A stiff handle is grit or mineral in the valve. Weak flow from a single faucet is very often just a clogged aerator, the small screen on the end of the spout.
Most of that list is genuinely repairable, and cheaply. A dripping faucet is not on its own a reason to buy a new fixture, and we will tell you which repair applies rather than defaulting to a sale.
What each symptom usually means
- A steady drip from the spout: worn cartridge or seat
- A stiff or hard-to-turn handle: grit or mineral buildup in the valve
- Weak flow from one faucet only: a clogged aerator
- A puddle in the cabinet below: a supply connection, not the faucet body
- A fixture over a decade old with repeated issues: often past the point repair pays off
Repair or replace, honestly
Repair is the right call for a sound fixture with a worn part. Replacement makes more sense once a faucet is a decade or more old, once the manufacturer no longer stocks its cartridge, or once the body itself is cracked or badly corroded, at which point repairing it is spending money that will not last.
When we do replace a faucet, we redo the whole connection rather than putting a new fixture on tired old parts, new supply lines and, where needed, new shutoff valves. It is worth spending a little more on a fixture with a standard, serviceable cartridge from a brand that actually stocks parts, since the bargain fixtures with proprietary plastic internals are the ones we are back to replace within a couple of years.
Need a faucet repair & installation plumber in Chapel Hill today?
CALL NOW(984) 237-6514The seized shutoff, a common local wrinkle
In the older housing near campus and through Carrboro, the little shutoff valves feeding a faucet are frequently as old as the house and seized solid. A simple cartridge swap can end up requiring those stops be replaced first, since you cannot safely work on the faucet without a valve that actually shuts the water off. It is not padding the job, it is the reality of old-house plumbing, and the upside is that soft OWASA water is gentle on faucets, so without heavy scale buildup, parts here tend to last longer than they would in a hard water region.
What to check before you call
A couple of harmless checks can save a call. Unscrewing the aerator at the spout tip and rinsing out trapped debris fixes a surprising number of weak-flow complaints on its own. A stiff handle is usually mineral or grit, not damage. What is not worth forcing is an old shutoff valve that will not turn easily, since a stop that snaps has to be replaced before anything else can proceed, and that is exactly the kind of call worth making rather than pushing through.
Questions we get
Is a dripping faucet worth fixing right away?
Yes. Beyond the wasted water, a constant drip wears the seat further, and if it drips into the cabinet rather than the sink it can eventually damage the cabinet base. A cartridge repair is a small job that heads off a bigger one.
How do I know whether to repair or replace?
Repair simple failures on a sound fixture. Replace once 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 yours is on.
Why did my faucet start leaking again right after a repair?
Usually a connection issue rather than the repair itself, often an old, seized shutoff valve or a reused supply line that was already near failure. A proper repair replaces those at the same time.
My water is soft. Why did the faucet still wear out?
Soft OWASA water is gentle on faucets, so wear here is usually age or a weak internal part rather than the mineral scale you would fight in a hard water region, which is good news for how well a repair holds.
Ready to Book Faucet Repair & Installation?
A dripping faucet is almost always a cheap repair, not a reason to replace the whole fixture. We tell you honestly which one your faucet needs.