Leaking Faucet Repair in Burbank, CA

A dripping faucet is the easiest plumbing problem to live with and one of the worst to ignore — not because the drip is expensive, but because the valve behind it is usually telling you something. The same mineral load that kills a cartridge in three years is working on every shutoff in the house.

What We Fix

Dripping spouts. On a cartridge faucet it’s the cartridge; on an older compression faucet it’s the rubber washer and often the seat it presses against. Either way the part is small, and the repair is routine when the faucet body is still sound.

Leaks at the base or handle. Water appearing around the handle or escaping where the faucet meets the counter usually means failed O-rings rather than a failed faucet. It’s also the leak people miss longest, because it runs down behind the sink instead of into it.

Weak or sputtering flow. Usually scale in the aerator or the cartridge. Sometimes it’s the supply line or a half-closed angle stop. We check the cheap causes first.

Shutoff valves that won’t shut off. Angle stops under sinks and toilets, and the main shutoff at the house. A valve that won’t close is the one that turns a small leak into a flooded room, because nobody can stop the water while they wait.

Outdoor hose bibbs and sillcocks. Dripping spigots, leaks inside the wall behind them, and failed vacuum breakers.

Shower and tub valves. Dripping tub spouts, valves that won’t hold a temperature, and cartridge replacement behind the wall. If water is showing up where there’s no fixture, that’s leak detection →

Why Faucets and Valves Fail Faster Here

Hard water does the damage. Burbank’s supply runs around 285 ppm — roughly 16.6 grains per gallon. Those minerals deposit on every surface water touches at rest: the rubber seat a washer closes against, the ceramic discs in a cartridge, the aerator screen, the inside of a valve body. A cartridge rated for a decade somewhere soft can be gritty and dripping in three or four years here. It isn’t a cheap faucet; it’s the water.

Valves seize from never being turned. The angle stop under a sink gets used once at installation and then sits for thirty years, and the packing hardens around the stem. In a lot of Burbank’s 1920s–1950s housing stock the original stops are still in place. The first time someone needs one — a burst supply line, a toilet overflowing — it won’t budge, or it turns and then won’t seal again. That’s why we replace seized stops as part of the job rather than fighting them: the point of a shutoff is being able to use it in an emergency.

Galvanized supply behind the wall. In the older neighborhoods, what looks like a faucet problem is sometimes corroded galvanized pipe feeding it — rust flakes fouling the cartridge, pressure that dropped gradually over years. If a new cartridge doesn’t fix the flow, that’s the next thing to look at. Repiping →

Repair or Replace?

Most faucets are worth repairing. A cartridge, washer set, or O-ring kit on a solid-brass faucet costs a fraction of a replacement, and a good faucet body outlives several sets of internals.

Replacement makes sense when the body itself is corroded or pitted, when parts for the model are no longer made — common with builder-grade faucets from the 90s and 2000s — or when the finish is failing anyway and you were going to change it. If you’re replacing, we’ll point you at what holds up in hard water, which is largely a question of cartridge type rather than brand name.

Valves are different: a failed shutoff gets replaced, not repaired. There’s no version of a shutoff that’s “mostly working.”

Faucet & Valve FAQs

How much water does a dripping faucet actually waste?

A steady drip runs continuously, so it adds up faster than people expect — enough to notice on a bill over a few months. The stronger argument for fixing it is that the drip means a worn part, and worn parts don’t stop at a drip.

I replaced the cartridge and it still drips. Why?

On a compression faucet, the seat the washer closes against gets pitted by mineral and grit, and a fresh washer won’t seal against a damaged seat. The seat has to be dressed or replaced too. On a cartridge faucet, a mismatched replacement part is the usual answer.

Should I shut off the water before you arrive?

If anything is actively running where it shouldn’t, yes — the angle stop under the fixture if it turns, the main if it doesn’t. If neither will budge, don’t force them; call and we’ll handle it.

Do you install faucets I buy myself?

Yes. Buy what you like and we’ll install it. If you want a quick opinion on whether a given model holds up in Burbank water before you order, ask.

How fast can you get here?

We’re based on Victory Blvd in Burbank, so most local calls are same-day with a two-hour arrival window. Anything actively flooding gets prioritized.

Faucet & Valve Service Across Burbank

We cover the whole city — Magnolia Park, the Rancho Equestrian District, Burbank Hills, Downtown, the Media District, Chandler Park, and the Toluca Lake border. All plumbing services in Burbank →

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