Everything You Need to Know About Leaky Faucets

15 Feb Everything You Need to Know About Leaky Faucets

Your faucet is one of those household objects that you take its everyday functionality for granted. You forget to appreciate it until it’s incessantly dripping, leaking, or even spraying water across the room when you attempt to turn it on. It often feels like your faucet begins leaking with absolutely no prompting, as if one day it simply decided to stop functioning properly. This is rarely, if ever, the case. There are many actions and a lot of time leading up to your faucet actually beginning to leak and drip.

O Ring

One of the most common causes of a leaky faucet is when the O ring becomes loose or worn out. The O Ring is the screw that holds the faucet in place.

Corroded Valve Seat

The valve seat is what connects the faucet and the spout. Water sediments can accumulate in this valve which will cause corrosion which leads to leakage. The valve seat is a part of the faucet that you won’t want to replace yourself, as it’s incredibly easy to damage the entire faucet when trying to replace this part.

Issues with the washer

Another very common causes of a dripping faucet, is a worn out washer. This washer can be damaged a few different ways. Each time you turn your faucet on, the washer is forced against the previously mentioned valve seat. This constant friction causes the washer to become worn out. Another common washer issue is when the washer is installed incorrectly, or that the washer is the wrong size. In most cases, simply replacing the washer will fix this sort of leaky faucet issue.

DIY or call a professional?

There are varying degrees of severity when it comes to your leaky faucet. If tackling your leaky faucet is intimidating to you, or you feel out of your depth, then to avoid making more damage to the problem, call a professional handyman to come and fix your leaky faucet. It will end up saving you more money.

Replacing issues within your faucet is an intensive process and requires removing a lot of little pieces, and then remembering how to properly reassemble them. Before grabbing your tool box, or your phone, turn on your faucet, and then duck under the sink to look at the pipes. Watch for dripping water to see how bad the issue is and where the leaking is coming from.