Repairing a faucet is a parts question, not an age question

What is actually failing

Three parts, three symptoms.

A drip from the spout with the handle closed is the cartridge, ceramic disc or, on older compression taps, the washer and seat. It is the most common fault and usually the cheapest.

A leak from around the base of the spout when the tap is running is the O-rings where the spout meets the body. The water appears on the counter rather than in the sink, which is why it is often mistaken for a supply leak.

A leak under the sink is different again and more urgent, because it is either the supply connections or the flexible hoses, and those fail at full mains pressure rather than dripping.

The parts availability question

This decides it more often than condition does.

Established manufacturers support their cartridges for a long time and many carry lifetime parts warranties, which makes repairing a decades-old faucet from a major brand entirely reasonable.

Own-brand and budget faucets frequently use proprietary cartridges that are discontinued within a few years. A relatively young faucet can be unrepairable simply because the part no longer exists.

The practical test is to identify the manufacturer and model before deciding anything. That single check reorders the decision more often than the faucet's age or appearance does.

What hard water does to this

It attacks the moving parts specifically.

Dissolved minerals deposit on exactly the surfaces that need to move and seal: cartridge internals, the aerator screen, and the seats a washer closes against.

That matters more on some properties than others. County water averaged 67 mg/L hardness in 2024 (Collier County Water Sewer District, 2024), while most of Golden Gate Estates is on private wells (Homes and Docks, 2026) drawing untreated limestone groundwater that is commonly much harder.

A faucet that has become stiff to operate, or that has lost flow while pressure elsewhere is fine, is usually describing mineral build-up rather than a failure. Cleaning the aerator is a two-minute job that resolves a surprising share of "low pressure" complaints.

When replacing is the better call

Corrosion at the body, or a compromised deck.

Where the faucet body itself is corroded or pitted, repair buys very little. The same applies where the mounting hardware has seized to the point that servicing means damaging the sink.

A replacement is also the moment to deal with things that are awkward at any other time: seized shutoff valves under the sink, ageing flexible supply hoses, and a sink deck that has been leaking quietly around the mounting.

Those three are cheap while the faucet is off and disruptive afterwards, which is the same pattern that applies to water heaters and repipes.

How much does faucet repair or replacement cost?

A few hundred dollars for most replacements. What changes the number is what is found under the sink.

Replacing a kitchen faucet typically runs $200 to $600, and a bathroom faucet averages around $270 across a range of roughly $170 to $360 depending on fixture quality and installation complexity (HomeAdvisor, 2026).

Repair is frequently cheaper and frequently the right answer. Cartridges, aerators, O-rings and supply lines are inexpensive parts, and on a faucet that is otherwise sound and not obsolete they restore full function for a fraction of a replacement.

What raises a replacement quote is almost never the faucet. It is corroded supply lines that will not release, a seized angle stop that has to be replaced before the new faucet can be connected, or mounting hardware that has rusted into place under a sink nobody has looked at in fifteen years.

Those conditions are invisible until the work starts, which means a firm quote given without looking under the sink is provisional. A contractor who says so, and tells you what the shutoff replacement scenario costs if it arises, is being straight rather than evasive.

Combined work is meaningfully cheaper than separate visits. Installing a sink, faucet and disposal together runs $780 to $2,550 including materials and labour (HomeGuide Disposal, 2026), because the access, the shutoffs and the trip are shared across all three.

What do the common faucet symptoms mean?

Five behaviours, and in hard water most of them trace to the same cause.

A drip from the spout after the handle is closed is a worn cartridge or seat in almost every case. It is the classic faucet fault, it wastes water continuously, and it is an inexpensive part on most modern designs.

A leak from around the base of the handle rather than the spout is different. That is usually the O-rings or the packing on the valve stem, and it appears when the faucet is running rather than after it is closed — the distinction that separates the two repairs.

Reduced flow at one faucet, with normal pressure elsewhere, is nearly always the aerator. Mineral accumulates in the screen and restricts it progressively, which in this region is a maintenance item rather than a fault. Cleaning it takes minutes; replacing the faucet for it is a common and unnecessary expense.

A handle that has become stiff or gritty is mineral in the cartridge. Forcing it is how a cheap cartridge replacement becomes a broken stem, so it is worth addressing when it starts rather than when it seizes.

A leak from underneath the sink, appearing only when the faucet runs, points at the supply connections or the faucet tailpieces rather than the faucet body. That distinction matters because it is a fitting repair rather than a fixture one.

The pattern behind most of these is hard water, which works on cartridges, aerators and seats continuously. It is the same mineral that shortens water heaters here, arriving at a smaller component.

Repair or replace a faucet?

Repair a sound faucet with available parts. Replace when the parts have gone or the body has.

Parts availability is the deciding factor more often than condition. Major brands support cartridges for many years and a fifteen-year-old faucet from a recognised manufacturer is frequently repairable for the cost of a part. An unbranded or discontinued fixture may have no supported cartridge at all, at which point repair means universal parts that fit imperfectly.

Corrosion at the body is the second trigger and it is decisive. Pitting or green staining around the base, or a spout that has become rough where it was smooth, indicates the fixture itself is degrading rather than a serviceable part inside it.

Repeated repair on the same faucet is the third. Two cartridge replacements within a couple of years usually means either the water is aggressive on that design or something else in the assembly is stressing the part, and continuing to replace the symptom is the more expensive path.

The moment when replacement is cheapest is when other work has already opened the same access. If shutoffs are being replaced, or a sink or disposal is being fitted, the incremental labour to change the faucet at the same time is small — which is why combined work runs $780 to $2,550 for a sink, faucet and disposal together (HomeGuide Disposal, 2026) rather than the sum of three separate visits.

The case for keeping a good faucet is real and worth stating. A well-made fixture with available parts will outlast several cheap replacements, and the environmental and financial arithmetic both favour repairing it.

What should be replaced alongside the faucet?

Two items that cost very little during the job and a great deal afterwards.

Supply lines first. Flexible connectors fail at the ferrule and they fail without warning, which is the classic under-sink flood. They cost very little and they are already disconnected during any faucet work, so replacing them is close to free at that moment and a separate job at any other.

Angle stops second. These are the small shutoff valves under the sink, and they are exactly the kind of infrequently operated valve that seizes with mineral. A stop that will not turn means the whole house has to be isolated for any future work at that fixture — which turns a fifteen-minute job into a much larger one.

This is also the moment to check the trap and tailpiece. They are accessible, they are inexpensive, and a corroded trap discovered a month after new taps went in is an avoidable second visit.

On a kitchen installation, the dishwasher connection and the disposal knockout are worth verifying at the same time, because both are reached through the same cabinet and both are common sources of a leak that appears days later.

The general principle on fixture work is that the labour is the cost and the parts are not. Anything that is already exposed and is a known wear item is cheaper to renew now than to return for, and a contractor who suggests it is usually saving you money rather than adding to a bill.

How do you get more life out of a faucet in this water?

Three habits, all of them free, all of them acting on the same mineral.

Clean the aerator on a schedule rather than when flow becomes annoying. It unscrews by hand or with a cloth-wrapped plier, the screen soaks in ordinary descaler, and doing it periodically prevents the gradual restriction that otherwise gets mistaken for a supply problem or a failing fixture.

Exercise the angle stops occasionally. The shutoffs under every sink seize with mineral precisely because they are never touched, and turning them fully closed and open once or twice a year keeps them functional. This is the single habit that most reduces the cost of any future work at that fixture.

Wipe fixtures dry after heavy use where it is easy to do. Spotting and crusting is mineral left behind as water evaporates, so removing the water removes the deposit before it bonds. This is cosmetic rather than mechanical, but it also slows accumulation at the outlet.

What actually solves the underlying problem is treatment. The same mineral working on cartridges and aerators is the mineral shortening water heaters here, and a household addressing it at the supply is protecting every fixture at once rather than each one repeatedly.

The one habit worth avoiding is forcing a stiff handle. Mineral in a cartridge makes it grip, and applying more force is how an inexpensive cartridge replacement becomes a broken stem inside the valve body — which is a much larger job on a fixture that was serviceable a minute earlier.

What can you do yourself before calling?

Three jobs that need no plumbing skill, and one line that is worth not crossing.

Cleaning the aerator is the first and it resolves a genuine share of "the faucet is failing" calls. Unscrew it, soak the screen in descaler, rinse and refit. If flow returns, there was never a fault — there was mineral, and it will return on the same schedule unless the water is treated.

Checking that the angle stops are fully open is the second. Stops get knocked partly closed during other work under a sink, and a partly closed stop produces reduced flow at that fixture alone, which looks exactly like a faucet problem.

Identifying the faucet before ordering anything is the third. Most manufacturers stamp or badge the fixture, and knowing the brand and model turns a cartridge replacement from guesswork into a specific part. It is also the information a plumber will ask for on the phone.

The line worth not crossing is the cartridge itself on a stiff or seized valve. Removing a cartridge that mineral has locked in place frequently requires a puller and occasionally destroys the valve body when improvised, which converts an inexpensive part into a fixture replacement.

Similarly, if an angle stop will not turn, that is the moment to stop rather than to apply more force. A seized stop that snaps means the house main has to be closed and the stop replaced before anything else can proceed — a much larger afternoon than the one you started.