Stop a dripping tap yourself — and when to replace it instead

A dripping tap is the job most people put off longest, and it drives you mad at two in the morning. The parts usually cost pennies. The skill isn’t in the spanner work — it’s in working out what kind of tap you’ve got and what’s actually causing the drip. Get those two right and most taps are a straightforward repair. Here’s how I’d approach it, and the point at which a new tap is the more honest answer.

Step one: which tap have you got?

Before you buy anything, identify the tap. There are two families in UK homes:

Traditional screw-down taps — separate hot and cold heads, older style, the head turns several full rotations to shut off. The seal is a rubber washer pressed down onto a brass seat inside the body.

Modern mixers — one lever (or a modern crosshead) over the spout that lifts and quarter-turns. The seal is a ceramic disc cartridge inside the tap body.

The test takes five seconds: if the head takes three or four turns to close, it’s a washer tap. If it shuts off within a quarter turn, it’s ceramic. That one detail decides everything you do next.

Washer taps: where the drip really comes from

Nine times out of ten it’s the rubber washer on the bottom of the jumper that has gone hard or split. Swap it and you’re done. But here’s the bit most people miss: the washer presses down onto a brass seat, and if that seat is scored or pitted, a brand-new washer sitting on a rough seat will still drip. If you’ve fitted a new washer and it still weeps, the seat is now the suspect. A reseating tool cuts the seat flat again — worth owning if the house is full of older taps — or the tap body itself is due for retirement.

Also check where it drips from. Drips from the spout point to the washer or seat. Water creeping out around the spindle where the head turns is the gland packing or O-ring — a different part, but the same ten-minute fix on most taps.

And the golden rule when you rebuild: hand-tight plus a small nip with the spanner. Tap parts seal on rubber, not muscle. Overtightening is how a five-minute job becomes a cracked tap body.

Ceramic mixers: match the cartridge, don’t guess

On a mixer, the fix is usually a new cartridge. The catch is that cartridges are not universal — they vary in height, diameter and splines by brand and model. Look for the brand stamped or moulded on the body, undo the retaining nut (it usually hides under a decorative cap or a grub screw in the lever), lift the cartridge out and take a photo of it. Send that photo to a parts supplier and you’ll get the right one far quicker than guessing off the shelf.

Honest note: on some cheap unbranded taps, a matching cartridge is hard to source — or costs nearly as much as a whole new tap. At that point, buying a new tap from a brand you can actually get spares for is the sensible move, not a defeat.

When I’d stop and think again

Three situations where I’d pause before diving in:

The nuts are seized. If the headgear nut or retaining nut won’t shift with penetrating oil and a careful grip, stop — the alternative is twisting a pipework connection somewhere under the sink.

Wall-mounted or concealed taps. The workings live behind the tile. “Just having a look” means opening the wall, and that’s a bigger conversation.

The drip isn’t the tap. Water tracking from a waste, a supply connection or the underside of the basin isn’t a tap repair — it’s a leak hunt, and it needs a proper look before it becomes a ceiling job.

None of that makes it a never-attempt job. It just means it’s not the half-hour fix it looked like from the kitchen doorway.

Two habits before you touch anything

Isolate the tap first — the small quarter-turn valve on the pipe under it if there is one, the stopcock if not — then open the tap to release what’s left in the pipe. Towel down, bucket to hand: there’s always more water sitting in a trap than you expect. My full step-by-step, including the tools you actually need, is chapter 5 of the free DIY plumbing guide on the site.

If you’d rather learn it properly, taps are real work on the 3-Day Complete Plumbing Course (£550, small groups at our Deeside centre) — you’ll strip, repair and replace taps and valves on the rigs until it feels routine. If you just want to keep your hand in, Skills Club runs Thursday evenings (£30), and dripping taps and washers are exactly the kind of job you can practise there.

Not sure whether yours is a washer or a new tap? Message me on WhatsApp on 07414 249796 — describe the tap or send a photo, and I’ll give you a straight answer.