Faucets, sinks and disposals in Tampa

These are the everyday repairs. Individually small, collectively the thing that makes a kitchen or bathroom tolerable to use.

They're also where a good plumber earns their keep by noticing patterns. Low pressure at one tap is a cartridge. Low pressure at every tap is the system, and that's a different conversation.

Taps and faucets

• Dripping from the spout, which is normally a worn cartridge, washer or seat. The EPA puts one drip per second at around 3,000 gallons a year, so it's worth fixing properly rather than tightening harder.
• Leaking from the base of the spout, usually the O-rings.
• Low flow at one tap, most often a clogged aerator, which is a five minute fix and very common in Tampa's hard water.
• Stiff or seized handles, typically mineral build-up inside the cartridge.
• Leaking under the sink at the supply connections or the shut-off valves.
• Replacement, where parts for an older unit no longer exist.

Sinks and traps

• Slow drainage at one basin, usually the trap or the branch.
• Leaking traps, often where a previous repair used the wrong parts or overtightened plastic fittings.
• Smell, which can mean a dry trap in a rarely used fixture, or a venting problem.
• Basket strainer leaks on kitchen sinks, where the seal under the sink has failed.
• New sink installation, including the waste and supply work a new unit needs.

Garbage disposals

If you're on a septic system, a disposal is worth thinking about rather than assuming. It adds solids to the tank, which means the tank fills faster and needs pumping more often. Plenty of people on septic run one happily, they just need to pump on a shorter interval. We'll be straight about the trade-off rather than quietly selling you one.

Hard water, which is the local theme

Tampa's water carries significant mineral content, and most of the small faults on this page trace back to it. Mineral deposits block aerators, stiffen cartridges, coat the inside of valves and shorten the life of every moving part in a tap.

The practical version: if you're cleaning aerators every few months, replacing cartridges more often than feels reasonable, and seeing white scale on fixtures, those are symptoms of one cause rather than separate problems. At that point treating the water is usually cheaper over a few years than continuing to replace the things it damages.

When a small job isn't

Some things that present as minor are worth taking seriously. Low pressure across the whole house rather than one tap points at the service line, a failed regulator or corroding supply pipe. Discolored water from several fixtures suggests galvanized pipe corroding internally. Multiple small leaks appearing in a short space of time on a house from the 1978 to 1995 window is the classic polybutylene pattern.

We'll fix the tap. We'll also tell you if the tap is a symptom.