Dripping Faucet: What to Fix Yourself, When to Call

Why faucets drip, and why it is usually cheap

A dripping faucet is annoying, wasteful, and almost always inexpensive to fix. The moving parts inside a faucet, the cartridge, the washers, the O-rings and the valve seat, wear out with use, and a worn one lets water past even when the handle is off. That steady drip is not just a sound at two in the morning; a faucet dripping once a second wastes something on the order of a couple of thousand gallons a year. The good news is that the fix is a part, not a whole fixture, on most drips.

High Point has an easy time of this in one specific way. The city's water is soft, around two grains per gallon, so faucet cartridges and seats do not crust up with the mineral scale that destroys fixtures in hard-water regions. When a faucet here fails, it is usually simple wear rather than scale, which keeps the repair straightforward and cheap on a newer fixture. That is the case where a handy homeowner can reasonably take it on.

What you can reasonably do yourself

If the shutoffs turn easily and the faucet is a common brand, that sequence is within reach of a careful homeowner with the right replacement part. Where it goes wrong is usually one step in: the shutoff valve under the sink.

Where older homes throw a curveball

In the older mill and furniture-era houses around downtown, the angle stops under the sink are often original, and original valves seize. When you go to shut the water off for a simple cartridge swap and the valve will not turn, or turns but will not fully stop the water, the job just changed. Forcing a seized valve can snap it or start it leaking, and now you have a bigger problem than the drip you set out to fix. That is the honest line between a DIY repair and a call: if the shutoffs will not cooperate, stop, because replacing an angle stop with the water live is a plumber's job, not a weekend one.

The other reason to call is when a new cartridge does not stop the drip. That usually means the valve seat itself is worn or pitted, which needs to be resurfaced or replaced, and diagnosing that correctly is where a faucet repair visit earns its keep. It is also worth calling if you find corrosion or moisture around the supply lines behind the cabinet, because a weeping supply line is a job for leak detection before it reaches the floor, not something to paper over.

Is the faucet worth saving?

Sometimes the smarter move is not to repair the faucet at all. A quality fixture with a worn cartridge is worth repairing because the body is sound and parts are available. A builder-grade faucet that has already been rebuilt once, or one where the finish is failing and parts are scarce, is usually cheaper to replace outright than to keep chasing. If you are doing a bathroom refresh anyway, it is a natural time to handle the faucet alongside the toilet on the same visit. The test is simple: if you are buying the same part for the second time, you are nursing a fixture that wants replacing.

None of this is meant to talk you out of a repair you can do. A cartridge swap on a newer faucet with cooperative shutoffs is a fine homeowner job, and soft water makes it more likely to succeed. The judgment is about knowing the two points where it stops being simple: a seized shutoff, and a drip that survives a new cartridge. Recognize those and you will know exactly when the wrench should change hands.