One drip per second is more than 3,000 gallons a year. The part that causes it is small. The reason it failed is the part worth knowing.
Faucet repair in Leander comes down to one question: is the faucet worn out, or is something in the house wearing faucets out? A drip usually traces to one small part inside the valve, and the EPA puts a faucet dripping at one drip per second at more than 3,000 gallons per year, which is the amount of water needed to take more than 180 showers. Replacing that part is the easy half. The reason it failed is the half worth knowing, because if it is pressure or scale, the new part goes the same way as the old one.
A single faucet dripping once per second wastes more than 3,000 gallons a year, according to the EPA's WaterSense program. That is not a rounding error on a water bill. The EPA also reports that the average household's leaks account for more than 9,300 gallons of water wasted every year, that nine percent of homes have leaks wasting 50 gallons or more per day, and that household leaks waste nearly 1 trillion gallons annually nationwide.
Fixing the easy ones pays. The EPA says that correcting easily fixed household water leaks can save homeowners about 10 percent on their water bills. A drip you have stopped hearing is still running every hour you are at work and every hour you are asleep.
Where the water appears tells you which part gave up. The EPA notes that old and worn faucet washers and gaskets frequently cause leaks in faucets, and on a modern single-handle faucet that wearing part is usually the cartridge. Here is the map we work from on a service call.
| What you see | Where it usually is |
|---|---|
| Spout drips with the handle fully off | Inside the valve: the cartridge, or the seat and spring under it |
| Water seeps around the base of the spout | The O-rings sealing the spout to the body |
| Water runs from under the handle when the tap is on | The packing or bonnet seal at the stem |
| Puddle in the cabinet, faucet itself dry | Not the faucet: the supply stop, the connector or the drain |
| Handle is stiff or grinding | Scale inside the cartridge bore |
That last row of the table matters in Central Texas and we come back to it below. A puddle with a dry faucet is a different job from a drip, and our sink repair and installation page covers both ends of it.
If you have replaced parts in more than one faucet in the same house, measure the water pressure before you replace another. The 2021 International Plumbing Code, which the City of Leander has adopted as part of its building ordinance, says that where water pressure within a building exceeds 80 psi static, a pressure-reducing valve must be installed to bring the distribution piping to not greater than 80 psi static. A house running above that limit chews through cartridges, O-rings and supply connectors, and every one of those failures looks like a faucet problem from the kitchen.
Two other signs point past the fixture. Banging pipes when a tap or an appliance valve shuts are a water hammer symptom, and the same code requires a water-hammer arrestor where quick-closing valves are used. And if you suspect water is going somewhere you cannot see, the EPA's test is to read the water meter before and after a two-hour period with no water being used at all: if the meter moves, there is a leak somewhere. The EPA adds that a family of four exceeding 12,000 gallons in a cold month such as January or February may have serious leaks.
A faucet that suddenly trickles is more often a blocked or wrong aerator than a dying valve. Scale and grit collect in the aerator screen at the end of the spout, which is the one part of a faucet a homeowner can unscrew, rinse and put back without opening anything.
Fit the wrong one and a healthy faucet feels broken. The 2021 IPC caps a private lavatory faucet and a sink faucet at 2.2 gallons per minute at 60 psi, and a public lavatory faucet other than a metering type at 0.5 gallons per minute at 60 psi. The EPA states plainly that flow rates of 0.5 gallons per minute or less are not appropriate for use in private lavatories, so a commercial aerator from a hardware-store bin will starve a bathroom sink. WaterSense labeled bathroom faucets sit at a maximum of 1.5 gallons per minute, which the EPA says reduces a sink's flow by 30 percent or more from the standard 2.2 gallons per minute without sacrificing performance.
If flow is weak at every tap rather than one, the problem is upstream of the faucet. For reference, the code's required capacity at the fixture supply outlet is 0.8 gallons per minute at 8 psi flow pressure for a private lavatory and 1.75 gallons per minute at 8 psi for a residential sink, so there is not much headroom to lose before a tap feels wrong.
Hard water is the reason a Leander faucet rarely reaches the end of its rated life. The USGS classifies water above 180 mg/L as calcium carbonate as very hard and 121 to 180 mg/L as hard, and notes that when hard water is heated, as it is in a home water heater, solid deposits of calcium carbonate can form. Those deposits land on the smallest clearances in the house, and inside a faucet the smallest clearances are the cartridge bore, the seat and the aerator screen.
Our own FAQ page says it from the service side: Liberty Hill is well known for its hard water, and we constantly field calls about faucet clogs, broken water heaters and clogged drains, all of which are being impacted by the water quality. A stiff handle and a spout that will not shut fully are both scale symptoms before they are wear symptoms. If you are replacing faucet parts every couple of years, treating the water addresses the cause rather than the fixture.
Repair the faucet if the body is sound and the finish is intact, and replace it if it is near the end of its life or parts are no longer made. InterNACHI's estimated life expectancy chart puts faucets and spray hose at 15 to 20 years. A twelve-year-old faucet with a worn cartridge is worth a cartridge. A twenty-year-old faucet that is pitted at the base, loose on the deck and no longer supported by its maker is worth replacing.
Check the warranty before you buy any part. Moen's Lifetime Limited Warranty, to take one maker, covers leaks, drips and finish defects for as long as the original purchaser owns the home where the product is installed, and Moen says it may send replacement parts free of charge when a product is under warranty. The catch matters in a market with as much turnover as Leander: that warranty is not transferable and applies only to the original purchaser while they own the home, so if you bought the house rather than the faucet, it does not follow you. Find the brand on the handle or under the spout and check your own maker's terms first.
If you are replacing rather than repairing, two code points are worth knowing. The 2021 IPC requires faucets and fixture fittings to conform to ASME A112.18.1/CSA B125.1, and those supplying drinking water for human ingestion to meet NSF 61, Section 9. It also requires faucets and fittings used for drinking or cooking water to comply with NSF 372 with a weighted average lead content of 0.25 percent or less. A current, listed faucet clears both. A salvaged one from an unknown era may not.
The efficiency case for a new faucet is small but real. The EPA estimates that replacing old, inefficient faucets and aerators with WaterSense labeled models saves the average family 700 gallons of water per year, the amount needed to take 45 showers, and nearly 11,000 gallons over the faucets' lifetime.
You may work on your own faucet, and anyone you pay may not do so unlicensed. Texas Occupations Code Section 1301.051 states that a property owner is not required to be licensed to perform plumbing in the property owner's homestead. Section 1301.351 is the other half: a person other than a responsible master plumber may not engage in plumbing unless they hold the proper licence, registration or endorsement and their work is supervised and controlled by a licensed person, and a person that advertises or otherwise offers to perform plumbing must secure the services of a responsible master plumber.
That licence carries obligations beyond a card in a wallet. The Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners describes a responsible master plumber as responsible for the general supervision and management of plumbing work performed under contracts secured under the licence, for obtaining all necessary permits and requesting all inspections required by applicable plumbing or building codes, for ensuring everyone performing plumbing work holds a current licence or registration, and for maintaining at least $300,000 of general commercial liability insurance.
Where the line sits on a faucet job is simple. The aerator and the shutoff valve under the sink are at the fixture, and the code even requires access to flexible water connectors and that the fixture supply pipe terminate not more than 30 inches from the point of connection to the fixture, so that work is reachable. Anything behind a wall, under the slab, or on a gas line, a gas control valve or a flue is not homeowner work in Texas and is not a do-it-yourself job at any skill level.
Vaquero Plumbing is family-owned, holds Texas licence RMP 15304, and does faucet and fixture repairs as part of sink service across Leander, Liberty Hill, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Georgetown and Austin. The office is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 5:30, with Saturday by appointment, and the number is 512-893-8705. If you have replaced the same part twice, say so when you call: that is a pressure conversation, not a faucet one.
The EPA puts a faucet dripping once per second at more than 3,000 gallons per year, which it describes as the amount of water needed to take more than 180 showers. For scale, the EPA also says the average household's leaks account for more than 9,300 gallons wasted every year, and that fixing easily corrected household leaks can save homeowners about 10 percent on their water bills.
Texas Occupations Code Section 1301.051 says a property owner is not required to be licensed to perform plumbing in their own homestead, so the law does not stop you working on your own faucet. Anyone you hire is a different matter: Section 1301.351 says a person who advertises or offers to perform plumbing must secure the services of a responsible master plumber. The EPA's own guidance on valve leaks that drip when nothing is running is to contact an experienced handyperson or licensed plumber, and gas lines, gas control valves, flues and anything behind a wall or under the slab are never homeowner work.
Check the aerator you put back on. The 2021 International Plumbing Code, which Leander has adopted, caps a private lavatory faucet and a sink faucet at 2.2 gallons per minute at 60 psi, while a public lavatory faucet runs at 0.5 gallons per minute or less. The EPA says flow rates of 0.5 gallons per minute or less are not appropriate for use in private lavatories, so a commercial aerator fitted to a home faucet will feel broken even though nothing is.
A drip is not an emergency, but it does not improve and the part behind it is usually wearing in one direction. Vaquero Plumbing covers Liberty Hill, Leander, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Georgetown and Austin, and the office is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 5:30, with Saturday by appointment. We hold Texas licence RMP 15304.
From leaks and clogs to water heaters and repipes, our family-owned crew is ready with same-day service and honest pricing.