Dripping taps and tired seals: the calm fix
Published Mar 30, 2026 · Updated Jun 6, 2026 · 8 min read
The drip is almost always a worn rubber part that costs pocket change — here’s the calm version of the swap.
A dripping tap is the house’s most theatrical small problem — audible at 2 a.m., visible on the water bill, and yet caused, almost always, by a worn rubber part that costs pocket change. This sheet walks the calm version of the fix: find the shutoff, open the tap, swap the tired part, close it up. No talent required; two rules required — and they’re both in the first section.
The two rules before any plumbing
- Know your shutoff before you need it. Under the sink (small valve on the supply line) or at the home’s main valve. Close it, then open the tap to drain the line and confirm the water is truly off. This 60-second habit is the entire difference between a repair and a story.
- Plug the drain and lay a towel. Tap repairs involve small screws and springs with a documented death wish toward the plughole. The bucket from the kit catches residual water below.
Know your patient: two tap families
- Compression taps (two handles, several turns to close): the drip lives in a rubber washer at the bottom of the valve stem. Unscrew the handle, back the stem out with the adjustable wrench (jaw padded with cloth to protect chrome), replace the washer at the base — and while you’re in there, the O-ring on the stem too. Reassemble, open the shutoff slowly, enjoy the silence.
- Single-lever mixers: the drip lives in the cartridge — a replaceable unit under the lever. Pry the small cap, undo the screw, lift the lever, unscrew the retaining nut, pull the cartridge. Take the old one to the store ("one like this, please") — cartridges vary by model and the physical part is the only foolproof ID. Slot the new one in the same orientation, reassemble.
The corroded-valve exception: if the shutoff valve itself won’t turn, weeps when touched, or is visibly corroded — stop there. Forcing an old valve can turn a drip into a flood, and replacing valves is legitimate plumber territory. Likewise any repair revealing corroded pipes, damp walls or fittings that crumble: our sheet fixes rubber, not pipework. The seventh sheet holds the full stop-list.
The other usual suspects
The sputtering, weak stream is rarely the tap and almost always the aerator — the little mesh cap at the spout’s tip, clogged with mineral scale. Unscrew by hand (cloth for grip), soak the parts in vinegar for an hour, brush with an old toothbrush, reassemble: a fix so satisfying it feels illegal. The leak at the base of the spout when the tap runs is the spout O-rings — same logic as the washer: expose, replace, done. The drip under the sink at the connections usually surrenders to a gentle quarter-turn snug of the nut (over-tightening cracks fittings — snug, not strangled) or a fresh wrap of PTFE thread tape on the threads, applied clockwise as seen from the pipe end.
Shopping without part numbers
The counter trick that never fails: bring the corpse. Old washer, dead cartridge, tired O-ring in a zip bag — "one like this" beats every model number you don’t have. Buy the small variety pack of washers and O-rings while you’re there (pocket change, lifetime supply), and note your tap’s brand if it’s stamped anywhere; premium mixers often have exact replacement cartridges worth asking for by name.
Bench questions
The handle screw is hidden — where?
Under the decorative cap: the little red/blue dot or the brand medallion on top pries off with a fingernail or the flat of the utility knife (cloth-padded). Some levers hide a tiny hex screw at the back or under the lever’s lip — the torch from the kit finds it. Manufacturers hide screws for looks, not to defeat you.
I reassembled everything and it still drips.
Three honest possibilities, in order: the new washer/cartridge isn’t seated square (open up, reseat, snug evenly); the part was the wrong size (the corpse-in-a-bag trick prevents this); or the valve seat — the brass ring the washer presses against — is pitted from years of dripping, which is the tap telling you it’s reaching retirement. A pitted seat can be professionally re-faced, but on an ordinary tap, replacement is usually the saner money.
How urgent is a drip, really?
More than it sounds: a steady drip wastes thousands of liters a year, and drips don’t heal — the escaping water erodes the washer further, so today’s tick becomes next month’s trickle. It’s also the perfect starter plumbing job precisely because it’s urgent-ish but not urgent: schedule it for a calm Saturday morning, not a panicked midnight.
Silence restored — next patient: doors that stick and drawers that fight back.