Plumbing Repairs

What counts as a plumbing repair

This page covers the small and medium jobs that make up most service calls. Think fixture repairs, valves, supply lines, noisy pipes, pressure problems, outdoor faucets, short sections of damaged pipe and hooking up new fixtures or appliances. None of it is glamorous, but it’s the work that keeps a house or a business running normally.

Some problems start small and turn out to be bigger. A drip under a sink might be a loose nut, or it might be a pipe that’s failing along its whole length. When a repair points to something larger, like a hidden leak, a failing water line or a drain that keeps backing up, we’ll tell you and explain the options. That might mean leak detection, drain cleaning or a bigger project down the road.

Common repair calls

• Toilets that run, rock, leak at the base or flush weakly
• Faucets and shower valves that drip or won’t shut off fully
• Stuck, leaking or seized shutoff valves
• Worn or bulging supply lines
• Banging or hammering pipes
• Water pressure that’s too low or too high
• Leaking or broken hose bibs
• Pinhole leaks and damaged sections of pipe
• Installing fixtures and appliance water connections

Running toilets and toilet repairs

A running toilet is one of the most common calls we get, and it’s more than an annoyance. A toilet that keeps refilling can waste a lot of water without making much noise. The two usual causes are a flapper that no longer seals against the flush valve and a fill valve that doesn’t shut off at the right level.

Here’s a simple check you can do yourself. Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and don’t flush. If color shows up in the bowl after about 10 minutes, water is leaking past the flapper.

Other toilet problems we fix

• Water on the floor around the base, often from a failed wax ring or a loose closet flange
• A toilet that rocks, which can break the seal over time
• Leaks at the tank bolts or where the supply line connects
• Weak or incomplete flushes
• Handles and flush hardware that stick or break

A toilet that clogs over and over is usually a drain issue, not a toilet issue. If that’s what you’re seeing, our drain cleaning work may be the better fit.

Dripping faucets and fixture valves

A faucet dripping about once a second can waste more than 3,000 gallons a year. Most drips come from worn internal parts. Older compression faucets use rubber washers and seats that wear down. Most newer single-handle faucets use a cartridge, and when the cartridge or its O-rings wear out, you get drips from the spout or leaks around the handle.

In most cases the fix is replacing the worn cartridge or washer with the correct part for that faucet. Sometimes the faucet body itself is corroded or the parts are no longer made, and replacing the faucet makes more sense.

Showers and tub valves

Shower valves have cartridges too. A shower that drips after it’s off, takes forever to get warm or won’t hold a steady temperature often needs a new cartridge. Since the valve sits inside the wall, some older valves need more work to repair or replace. If you’re already planning a bathroom update, we can fold that into bathroom plumbing work instead of doing it twice.

Shutoff valves and supply lines

Every sink and toilet should have its own shutoff valve, usually called an angle stop. You probably don’t think about them until you need one, and that’s when people find out theirs won’t turn or starts leaking at the stem as soon as it moves.

Multi-turn vs quarter-turn valves

Older homes often have multi-turn valves that use a rubber washer to seal. They take several turns to close, and after years of sitting still the washer can harden or the stem can seize. Quarter-turn ball valves close with a single quarter turn and tend to hold up better. When we replace a bad stop, we usually recommend a quarter-turn valve.

Braided supply lines

The flexible lines running from the stop to the faucet or toilet don’t last forever. Braided stainless lines hold up better than plain rubber ones, but they still wear out. The common advice for washing machine hoses is replacement every three to five years, and it’s worth checking the flex lines under your sinks and toilets on a similar schedule. Replace any line that’s kinked, bulging, rusted at the fittings or showing frayed braid.

Your main shutoff

Everyone in the house should know where the main shutoff is and be able to close it. If yours is stuck, buried or leaking, fix it before you need it in a hurry. Problems on the line between the meter and the house fall under water line repair.

Noisy pipes and water pressure problems

Banging and water hammer

That loud bang when a washing machine or dishwasher shuts off is called water hammer. Moving water gets stopped fast by a quick-closing valve, and the pressure wave has nowhere to go. It’s more than noise. Repeated spikes stress joints, fittings and appliance connections.

The usual fix is a water hammer arrestor installed near the quick-closing valve. Current residential code calls for arrestors at quick-closing valves such as washer and dishwasher connections. We’ll also check that pipes are strapped properly, since loose pipes rattle and knock on their own, and look at your house pressure, because high pressure makes hammer worse.

When pressure is too high

Residential plumbing code caps static water pressure at 80 psi. If the supply coming into the building is higher than that, a pressure-reducing valve (PRV) is required. High pressure wears out faucets, toilet fill valves, supply lines and appliances faster, and it can cause a water heater relief valve to drip.

A PRV can also fail over time. We test your pressure with a gauge and replace or adjust the PRV as needed. Once a PRV is in place, the system can become closed, so the water heater usually needs a thermal expansion tank. If the tank is waterlogged or charged to the wrong pressure, we’ll sort that out as part of water heater service.

When pressure is too low

If only one faucet is weak, it’s usually a clogged aerator or a failing cartridge. If the whole house is weak, the list gets longer: a PRV set too low or failing, a partly closed valve, a leak in the supply line, or old pipe with a narrowed inside. We work through those in order, starting with the simplest.

Outdoor faucets and hose bibs

Outdoor faucets take a beating here. Sun, sprinklers and salt air near the coast all wear on the valve and fittings, and a hose left under pressure keeps a steady load on the washer. Common problems are drips from the spout, leaks from the handle stem and cracked or corroded bodies.

Most codes require backflow protection on hose connections, typically a vacuum breaker. It stops dirty water from being pulled back into your drinking water if pressure drops while a hose is sitting in a pool, a bucket or a fertilizer sprayer. If your hose bib is missing one or the one it has is leaking, we can replace it or install a faucet with the protection built in.

Small leaks and pipe repair

A leak you can see under a sink or in a utility room is often a quick fix. We’ll cut out the bad section or fitting and replace it with the right material for that system. The bigger question is why it leaked. A single failed fitting is one thing. A pinhole in copper, or a third leak in the same line this year, usually means the pipe is wearing out.

If you have water stains, a meter that moves with everything off or a warm spot on a slab floor, the leak may be hidden. That’s a job for leak detection before any repair. And if leaks keep showing up in different places, whole-house repiping can cost less over time than patching one section after another.

Fixture and appliance installations

Installations are a big part of everyday service work. We replace or add fixtures and connect the water and drain lines appliances need.

• Faucets, toilets, sinks and shower trim
• Refrigerator ice maker and water dispenser lines
• Washing machine outlet boxes and supply valves
• Dishwasher water supply and drain connections
• Under-sink and point-of-use water filter plumbing connections
• Garbage disposal hookups
• New shutoff valves and supply lines

Washer boxes put the hot and cold valves and the drain in one recessed box in the wall, which is neater and easier to shut off than valves hanging off open pipe. For ice makers we run a proper supply line with its own shutoff so it can be isolated if it ever leaks.

For bigger kitchen work, like moving a sink or adding a line for a new appliance location, see our kitchen plumbing page. Layout changes and full remodels fall under plumbing renovations.

What happens on a service call

When you call or send a request, we’ll ask what you’re seeing, where it is and how long it’s been going on. Photos help. That gives us a sense of what we may need before we arrive.

On site, we look at the problem and the parts around it. A leaking faucet might lead us to check the stops and supply lines under the same sink, since those often fail around the same time. Then we explain what we found, what we recommend and any other options, and we don’t start work until you’ve agreed to it.

If the job needs a part we don’t have on hand, or it turns out to be a larger job than a repair visit, we’ll tell you and set up the next step.

Repair or replace

We’d rather fix something that’s worth fixing. A faucet in good shape with a worn cartridge should get a cartridge. But repairing isn’t always the better deal.

Replacement usually makes sense when

• Replacement parts aren’t made anymore or are hard to find
• The fixture body is cracked or badly corroded
• You’ve repaired the same thing more than once in a short time
• You were planning to update the fixture anyway
• A newer fixture would fix a problem the old one can’t, like a toilet that clogs because of its design

We’ll give you both options when both are reasonable and tell you which way we’d go in your place.

Repairs in older Southwest Florida homes

A lot of homes in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Punta Gorda and Lehigh Acres have been around for decades, and their plumbing shows it. Original valves are often seized, supply lines may be decades old, and some homes still have pipe materials that are near the end of their life, such as galvanized steel or polybutylene.

In an older house, a simple repair can turn up other weak spots. We’ll point out what we see so you can plan, without pushing work you don’t need. Seasonal homes are another local issue. A house that sits empty for months can have washers dry out and valves stick, so it’s smart to have the main shutoff and fixture stops checked when you come back. You can find local pages like Cape Coral plumbing and Fort Myers plumbing on our service areas page.

Commercial plumbing repairs

We handle the same kinds of repairs for businesses: restroom fixtures, flush valves, faucets, shutoffs, supply lines and water hammer problems. Commercial buildings see much heavier use, so parts wear faster, and repairs often have to be scheduled around business hours or tenants. Learn more on our commercial plumbing page.

What you can do yourself and when to call

Plenty of small jobs are fine for a handy homeowner. Just shut off the water first and have the right replacement part in hand.

Usually reasonable to DIY

• Cleaning a clogged faucet aerator or showerhead
• Replacing a toilet flapper
• Swapping a supply line when the shutoff valve works properly
• Checking for toilet leaks with food coloring
• Reading your water meter with everything off to check for leaks

Better to call us

• A shutoff valve that won’t turn or leaks when you move it
• Anything involving the main shutoff, the PRV or the water heater
• Leaks inside walls, ceilings or under a slab
• Cutting into or soldering pipe
• Low pressure throughout the house
• A repair you’ve already tried that didn’t hold

On permits: minor like-for-like repairs often don’t need one, but rules vary by city and county, and bigger changes usually do. We’ll let you know if your job needs a permit.

If you’ve got a drip, a leak, a stuck valve or a fixture to install, call us at (239) 518-4198 or send a request through our contact page. For the rest of what we do at home, see residential plumbing.