What Causes My Faucets To Drip?

No house call is more common in the plumbing industry than the one pertaining to dripping faucets. Typically the phone call comes at any hour of the day and the caller is usually more than a little bit frazzled. A dripping faucet can seem like no big deal, right? It turns out that the constant drip-drip starts to grate on people. Sometimes a dripping faucet is an easy fix for us, sometimes it isn’t, but either way it is incredibly wasteful to let it run. You can end up wasting thousands of gallons of water per year if you have a dripping faucet somewhere in your home. Before you call a professional plumber, let’s take a look at some of the most common causes of a dripping faucet.

A dripping faucet, whether it be in the bathroom or the kitchen, is most commonly caused by worn out parts. Breath easy, though! The most common parts that wear out inside of your faucet include a tiny, cheap, little washer. This washer gets weathered away by constant usage as well as the hardness level of your water. Sediment will build up against it and start to sand it down. Now that the washer is all but tapped out, it will begin to lose it’s water tight seal. Thus the drip. If the washer is still in prime condition then move your eyes along the rest of the facility. You want to keep an eye out for damaged seals or shredded o-rings. Either parts will cause a steady drip to drive you crazy.
If we find your seals and washers in take then we will look at the behavior of your water. Does the faucet drip at certain times of the day? Or is it a steady drip? The water behavior can possibly lead us to identifying the water pressure as a culprit. If your water pressure is way too high then you will begin to see dripping at certain places in your home. Simply adjusting the water pressure to a more respectable level can lead to reduced stress and some blissful peace and quiet.
Is your Arlington home in need of a faucet repair? Call The Plumbing Doctor today at (703) 525-9280 for immediate solutions!