Faucet and fixture installation

Why taps drip, and what fixes it

Cartridge taps. The vast majority of modern single and dual-handle fixtures. A ceramic disc or plastic cartridge controls flow and mixing. When it wears or scales, the tap drips or gets stiff. Replacing it is usually straightforward if the cartridge is still available, which is the whole question with an unbranded fixture.

Ball taps. The older single-handle kitchen design with a rotating ball. Repair kits exist and work, but there are several small parts and the springs are easy to lose.

Compression taps, two handles that tighten down onto a rubber washer, common on older Texas houses and on outdoor bibs. Cheap to rebuild, and the seat frequently needs dressing or replacing along with the washer, which is what people miss when a rebuilt tap drips again a week later.

Hard water is the real enemy. Mineral deposit inside a cartridge is why taps get stiff, why they drip after years of working perfectly, and why aerators clog. In much of Texas a cartridge is a consumable part.

High pressure accelerates all of it. A tap rebuilt twice in a year is usually reporting system pressure rather than a bad repair.

When repair stops making sense. Discontinued cartridge with no equivalent. Corroded body. A tap that has been rebuilt twice. Or a fixture so old the finish has gone, at that point the parts approach the price of a new tap.

What a proper installation includes

Stop valves. The small shut-off valves under the sink. Old multi-turn gate stops seize, and the moment you try to close one after fifteen years it either will not move or will not stop dripping afterwards. We replace them with quarter-turn ball stops as a matter of course, and it is the single most useful part of the visit.

Supply lines. New braided stainless lines, not the old ones. They are inexpensive and they are the part that floods kitchens when they fail.

Escutcheon and deck sealing. A bead of silicone under the base plate so water on the counter cannot get beneath it. Skipped surprisingly often, and it is what rots a sink base cabinet over five years.

Correct mounting. Tight, square, and not relying on a plastic nut cross-threaded onto a thin shank. On a thick stone counter, an extended mounting kit may be needed.

Drain and pop-up assembly where the fixture includes one, bedded properly in plumber's putty or silicone as the material requires.

Aerator and flow check. Flush the lines before fitting the aerator, debris from the pipe blocks a brand new aerator immediately and is the most common cause of a fixture that feels weak from day one.

Test under pressure, then again after ten minutes. Compression connections settle, and a joint that is dry on the first check is not necessarily dry.

Choosing fixtures that last in Texas water

Ceramic disc cartridges outlast every other mechanism in hard water. If you are buying, this is the specification worth looking for.

Buy a brand with parts availability. The difference between a fifteen-year fixture and a five-year one is usually whether you can still get a cartridge in year eight. Major brands with lifetime cartridge policies are genuinely worth the premium here; unbranded online fixtures are frequently unrepairable by design.

Solid brass bodies over zinc alloy. Heavier in the hand and considerably more tolerant of aggressive water.

Pull-down sprays are the most common kitchen choice and the hose and its counterweight are the parts that eventually fail. Check the hose is a replaceable item.

Touchless works well and needs power, batteries under the sink or a transformer. Fine, but know it is another thing with a service life.

Match the hole configuration. Single hole, three hole with an eight-inch spread, or four-inch centreset. A single-hole tap in a three-hole sink needs a deck plate, which is usually included but not always.

Finish and hard water. Polished chrome hides deposit best. Brushed nickel is forgiving. Matte black and oil-rubbed bronze show every water spot, which in 20-grain water is a daily reality rather than an occasional one.

The things that go wrong on the day

Worth knowing in advance, because they are the reason a fixture swap occasionally takes two hours instead of forty minutes.

A stop valve that will not close. Then the water goes off at the main and the stop gets replaced, which is more work but is also the right outcome.

A stop valve that will not close and a main that will not either. Not rare on older houses. Sometimes the meter valve has to be used, and sometimes a failed main shut-off becomes its own job.

Seized mounting nuts. Twenty years of corrosion on a nut in the worst-access position in the house. It comes out with a basin wrench or, when it will not, it gets cut.

Corroded drain tailpieces. Chrome-plated brass drain parts under a kitchen sink go paper-thin and disintegrate when disturbed. Very common on anything over fifteen years, and it means new drain parts along with the tap.

A cracked or worn sink discovered underneath. Occasionally the fixture was the only thing holding a marginal situation together.

Debris in the lines. Especially after any work upstream. Flush before the aerator goes on.

Beyond the kitchen tap

Bathroom lavatory taps. Same principles, tighter access, and the pop-up drain linkage is a frequent second job on the same visit.

Utility and laundry taps. Often neglected, often seized, and the washing machine valves behind them are worth replacing at the same time. A burst laundry hose is one of the most common household water damage claims there is.

Bar and prep sinks. Small, awkward, and frequently sharing a drain arrangement that was marginal when installed.

Filtered water taps. A separate small tap for a reverse osmosis system. Needs a hole in the counter or an existing spare, and the RO unit itself needs space and a drain saddle.

Instant hot water dispensers. A small tank under the sink and a dedicated tap. Needs an outlet, and the tank has a service life like any other heater.

Soap dispensers, air gaps and air switches. Small items that all want a hole in the counter, which is worth planning before the counter is drilled rather than after.