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A tap that drips all night, one that leaks round the base every time it's used, a cupboard under the sink that's gone damp, or a handle that's seized solid. A leaking tap is one of the most common plumbing jobs there is, and one of the most ignored — right up until the worktop swells or the water bill arrives. We find the part that's actually failed and replace it, usually in one visit. Crawley-based, often with you the same day, fully insured, and a clear price before we start.
Where the water is coming from tells us most of what we need to know before we've picked up a spanner. A drip from the spout, a weep round the base, and a puddle in the cupboard underneath are three different faults with three different fixes — and only one of them is really the tap. Here's how we read each one.
The classic leaking tap: turned off as far as it will go, and still dripping into the basin. On an older two-handle tap it's the rubber washer inside the headgear, hardened and split with age until it can't press flat on its seat. On a lever or single-handle mixer it's the ceramic disc cartridge — two polished discs that slide over each other to open and close the flow — and once grit or a film of limescale gets between them the drip starts. Crawley sits on hard water, so cartridges here wear faster than the makers suggest. We fit the correct washer or cartridge, and where the brass seat has pitted we recut it, because a new washer on a damaged seat drips again within weeks. A dripping hot tap goes up the list: every drop has been heated first.
If water appears around the body of the tap only when it's running, or whenever you swing the spout, the failed seal is on a moving part rather than the one that stops the flow. Swivel spouts on kitchen mixers run on a pair of O-rings that wear through thousands of turns; pillar taps have gland packing or a spindle O-ring that lets water creep up under the handle. Neither is dramatic on its own. The damage is where the water goes next: it pools on the sink deck, runs back under the tap and into the cut-out in the worktop, and chipboard swells, laminate lifts and a basin surround goes soft. It's a seal change in most cases, and we reseal the tap base at the same time so the deck stays dry.
A wet cupboard base, a musty smell, or tins with rusty rings on the bottom usually point below the tap rather than at it. Most taps fitted in the last twenty years connect through braided flexible hoses, and those have a working life: they split at the crimp, or the rubber liner perishes and the hose weeps along its length. The compression nuts on the tap tails work loose, and the small quarter-turn isolation valves on each pipe drip from the spindle once the seal inside dries out. We trace the leak to the actual joint with the cupboard emptied and a dry cloth, replace the hose or valve, and check the waste trap and any washing machine or dishwasher feed sharing the cupboard, because those are often the real culprit and get blamed on the tap.
A tap that takes two hands to turn, or a handle that spins round without doing anything, is a different kind of failure. Stiffness is almost always limescale on the spindle or in the headgear, and sometimes a cartridge that has started to bind; forcing it is how handles snap and seats get wrecked. A handle that spins freely has stripped the splines where it grips the spindle, or the cartridge has sheared inside. We free or replace the headgear, fit a new cartridge or handle, and if the tap body itself has had enough we'll say so rather than send you off with a tap that will seize again by Christmas.
Every type of tap has its own weak points. Kitchen mixers with a pull-out spray hose leak where the hose meets the spout or down inside the cabinet where the hose weight hangs. Basin monoblocs with a pop-up waste leak at the waste linkage, which looks like a tap leak and isn't. Three-hole bath fillers hide their connections under the bath panel, so a leak there shows up as a damp patch on the floor or the ceiling below. Bath-shower mixers leak at the diverter when it stops holding, sending water out of both the spout and the hose. We work on all of them, kitchen and bathroom, old and new, and we match parts to the tap rather than fitting the nearest thing that looks right.
Sometimes the honest answer is a new tap: the cartridge is a discontinued type with no spare, the body has corroded through, the chrome has lifted and is cutting the seals, or it's an old tap that's already been patched twice. We'll say so plainly and fit a like-for-like replacement, or one you've chosen, with new flexible connectors and isolation valves so the whole assembly is sound rather than a new tap on tired pipework. If a new tap is part of a wider refresh, our kitchen plumbing service and bathroom installation service cover the bigger picture.
If it's a drip into the basin, a bowl underneath and a call to us is enough. If water is going anywhere it shouldn't — into a cupboard, along a worktop, through a ceiling — look under the sink or basin for the small isolation valves on the two supply pipes: a flat-head screwdriver turns the slot a quarter turn, and when the slot sits across the pipe that tap is off while the rest of the house still runs. No isolation valve, or one that won't turn, means the main stopcock, usually under the kitchen sink or where the supply comes in. Then dry the cupboard and leave the door open. Water already coming through a ceiling is an emergency plumber call — ring us straight away.
Three steps. No surprises.
Spout, base, handle or under the sink; kitchen, basin or bath; two handles or a single lever. A photo on WhatsApp helps. That's usually enough to narrow it to a part or two, so we arrive with the right washers, cartridges and connectors on the van.
We shut the supply, take the tap apart, and look at what's actually worn rather than guessing: washer or cartridge, seat, O-rings, gland, tails and valves. Most leaking taps are one part, and most are fixed on the same visit.
We run the tap hot and cold, swing the spout, and check every joint underneath with a dry hand before we call it done. You get a clear price before we start and an itemised VAT receipt by email, and you can pay by card on the spot with Stripe Tap to Pay, by bank transfer (BACS), or cash.
Based in Crawley, we're usually the quickest to reach the town itself and the villages around it, and we cover the wider Sussex, Surrey, South London and Kent area from there. Click any area for full detail on what we cover there.
Not in this list? We also reach Brighton and South London, and most addresses within about an hour of Crawley — call 07884 064809 and we'll confirm we cover you.
If the shower is the thing dripping or losing its temperature, see shower and tap repairs in Crawley. A garden tap that leaks or has split over winter is on our outside tap page. A damp patch with no tap anywhere near it is one for leak detection in Sussex, and a toilet that runs on or leaks at the base has its own page: toilet repair in Crawley.
Because the seal inside has worn, not because the tap isn't closed. On a traditional tap the rubber washer at the bottom of the headgear hardens and no longer presses flat on its seat; on a modern lever or mixer tap the ceramic disc cartridge has scored or picked up limescale, so the two discs no longer meet cleanly. Turning the handle harder just damages the seat. We replace the washer or cartridge with the right one for the tap and reseat it if the seat itself has pitted, which is why a drip sometimes comes back a week after a washer swap done at home.
Most can be repaired. A worn washer, O-ring, gland seal or cartridge is a part swap, and we carry the common types on the van. We'd recommend a new tap when the body is corroded or cracked, the cartridge is a discontinued type with no spare available, the chrome has lifted and is cutting into the seals, or it's an old tap that has already been patched more than once. We'll tell you which it is before anything is replaced, and if it's a replacement we fit it with new isolation valves and connectors so the next fault is years away.
That's the seals around the moving parts rather than the one that stops the flow. On a mixer with a swivel spout, the O-rings on the spout barrel wear and water weeps out at the collar every time you move it; on a pillar tap, the gland packing or spindle O-ring fails and water creeps up round the handle when the tap is on. Water sitting on the sink deck then gets under the tap and into the worktop, which is why a base leak that looks trivial can swell a chipboard worktop. It's a seal replacement in most cases, and quicker than a spout drip.
Often it isn't the tap body at all but what feeds it: the flexible connectors fail at the crimp or the liner, the compression nuts on the tap tails loosen, and the isolation valves weep at the spindle once the washer inside dries out. A cupboard base that's gone soft or black means it's been going on a while. We trace it to the exact joint, replace the connector or valve, and check the waste trap and any dishwasher or washing machine feed while we're in there, because those leak into the same cupboard and get blamed on the tap.
It depends on what's failed. A washer, O-ring or cartridge swap is a short job; replacing a tap, or getting to isolation valves and connectors behind a fitted kitchen, takes longer. We don't quote a fixed figure before we've seen it, because it might not hold. What we promise is a clear price agreed before any work starts, then you pay for the time on the job and any parts, with a VAT receipt by email. A drip on the hot tap is also costing you heated water every hour, so it tends to pay for its own repair.
We're based in Crawley and cover Crawley (RH10, RH11), Horsham (RH12, RH13), Burgess Hill (RH15), Haywards Heath (RH16, RH17), East Grinstead (RH19), Redhill (RH1), Reigate (RH2), Brighton (BN1-3) and out into Surrey, South London and Kent. If you're within about an hour of Crawley, call us — chances are we cover you.
Call or WhatsApp, tell us where the water's coming from, and we'll give you an honest time to be there.