Kitchen Faucet Repair & Installation
Kitchen taps work harder than any other fitting in the house, and Bay Area hard water is unkind to them. We repair pull-down sprayers, replace worn cartridges, cure leaks at the base and in the cabinet, renew supply lines and seized angle stops, and fit new taps including filtered and instant-hot units. Licensed California contractor #1082507.
For bathroom basins, tub fillers, outdoor hose bibbs and whole-home tap work, see our faucet repair and replacement service.
- Pull-down and pull-out sprayer faults
- Cartridge and valve replacement
- Leaks at the base, deck and under the sink
- Supply lines and seized angle stops
- New tap installation, single and multi-hole
- Filtered and instant-hot tap fitting
- Low flow and scaled aerators
Signs You Need Kitchen Faucet Repair
Catching these early is almost always cheaper than waiting for the failure.
The sprayer will not retract
A pull-down head that hangs limp usually means the counterweight has slipped along the hose, the hose is snagging on the trap or the disposal, or the quick-connect has come apart underneath. Sometimes the weight is simply sitting in the wrong position. All of those are fixable without a new tap.
It drips when it is turned off
A steady drip from the spout is the cartridge, not a washer, on almost every modern kitchen tap. Hard water scale scores the ceramic discs and the seat until the faces no longer close cleanly. Fitting the correct cartridge for that make and model is the repair.
Water pooling around the base
Water appearing on the deck when the tap runs points at a perished O-ring in the spout collar, or a loose mounting nut letting the body rock. Left alone it runs down through the tap holes into the cabinet, where it swells the base and goes unnoticed for months.
A puddle in the cabinet
A wet cabinet floor with a dry tap above means the leak is below: a supply line ferrule, a failed braided hose, a weeping angle stop or the sprayer hose connection. We dry everything, then isolate and pressure-check each connection rather than guessing at whichever looks wettest.
The flow has dropped off
Poor flow at one tap only is usually a scaled aerator or a clogged sprayer face, both quick to clear. If clearing them changes nothing, the next suspects are a partly closed or scaled angle stop, a blocked inlet screen in the cartridge, or corrosion inside old galvanized supply pipe.
The handle is stiff or wobbly
A handle that grinds as it moves is scale inside the cartridge. One that has gone loose and floppy is usually a worn handle screw, adaptor or retaining nut. Both are worth attending to early, because forcing a stiff handle is exactly how a stem gets snapped off.
Kitchen Tap Work We Take On
Repairing what you already have
A good tap is worth repairing. We identify the make and model, source the correct cartridge, O-ring set, sprayer head or hose, and fit it. Most manufacturers keep parts available for many years. Where a tap is a cheap unbranded unit with no parts support at all, we say so rather than charge you to find out.
Replacing the tap
New taps go in with new supply lines and, where the old ones are seized or weeping, new angle stops. We check the hole count and spacing on your sink or worktop first, because a single-hole tap on a three-hole sink needs a deck plate. Working in a tight cabinet under a fitted sink is most of the job.
Filtered and instant-hot taps
A separate filtered tap or an instant-hot unit needs a spare hole or a newly drilled one, a supply tee, and for instant-hot a tank under the cabinet with a power outlet nearby. We site the tank where it can be reached and serviced later, not buried at the back behind the waste pipe.
Supply lines and angle stops
The valves under your sink are the ones you will want working during an emergency. Old multi-turn stops seize solid, and the packing weeps the moment anyone moves them. We replace them with quarter-turn stops and fit new braided lines, which is cheap insurance against a burst hose and a flooded cabinet.
How We Handle Kitchen Tap Work
Identify the tap and the fault
Make, model and cartridge type decide whether this is a parts job or a replacement. A photo of the tap, the underside of the sink and the angle stops is usually enough for us to quote without needing a visit at all.
Quote before we start
You get the price for the repair and, where the two are close, the price for replacing the tap instead, so the decision is yours. Most quotes are free. Nothing gets dismantled until you have approved the work.
Isolate and protect
Water off at the angle stops or the house valve, cabinet emptied, base protected. Old stops that will not shut off fully get replaced as part of the job rather than fought with, because that fight only ever ends one way.
Repair or fit
Cartridges, O-rings, sprayer heads and hoses are replaced with the correct parts and scale is cleaned off the seat and body. New taps are mounted square and pulled down evenly, with new braided supply lines and the correct sealing method at every joint.
Test and check for weeps
We run hot and cold to full, cycle the sprayer in and out, and check every joint by hand and with paper. The cabinet gets checked again before we leave, because a slow weep will not show itself in the first two minutes.
Why Kitchen Taps Fail Here
Bay Area water carries a lot of dissolved mineral, and a kitchen tap sees more cycles than anything else in the house. That combination is what kills cartridges. Scale builds on the ceramic discs and the seat until the two faces no longer meet cleanly, and the result is a drip you cannot stop however hard you crank the handle. Cranking harder is then what wrecks the stem. The cartridge is a modest part, and it is nearly always the correct repair.
The second failure point is the pull-down sprayer. The hose runs up through the spout and back down into the cabinet, weighted so that it retracts. When it stops retracting, the cause is almost always mechanical and visible: the counterweight has slid along the hose, the hose is catching on the disposal or the trap, or the quick-connect at the bottom has unclipped. Hoses also wear through where they rub, and a worn hose leaking inside the cabinet is a common cause of a mystery puddle.
Under the sink, the angle stops deserve far more attention than they get. Older multi-turn valves sit untouched for twenty years, and the first time anyone moves them the packing weeps or the stem seizes solid. That is the worst possible moment to find out, because you are usually already dealing with a leak when you reach for them. Whenever we do tap work we look at the stops, and we would rather fit quarter-turn valves and new braided lines while everything is already apart.
In homes still on pre-1960s galvanized supply pipe, poor flow at the kitchen tap can have nothing to do with the tap at all. Galvanized pipe rusts inwards, and decades of build-up narrows the bore until the fixture at the end of the longest run barely delivers. Cleaning the aerator makes no difference whatsoever. We check flow at the angle stop as well as at the spout, so you find out which problem you actually have before buying a tap that will not solve it.
What Affects the Price
We quote every job up front, so you approve the price before anything starts. These are the things that move it:
- Repair versus full replacement of the tap
- Cost and availability of the correct cartridge or sprayer parts
- Whether angle stops and supply lines are renewed at the same time
- Hole count and spacing on the sink, and whether a deck plate is needed
- Access in the cabinet, including a deep sink or a disposal in the way
- Adding a filtered or instant-hot tap, including drilling a new hole
- Any electrical outlet needed under the cabinet for an instant-hot tank
Most quotes are free and can be done from photos or video you send us. Some on-site estimates carry a fee based on distance, and we tell you that before we come out.
Keeping a Kitchen Tap Working
Unscrew it, rinse the screen and soak it in white vinegar to lift the scale, then refit it. It takes five minutes and it is the single most effective thing you can do about falling flow at a kitchen tap.
Stiffness means scale inside the cartridge, not a tap that wants more effort. Forcing it is how stems shear off, and how a modest parts job turns into a full replacement.
Once a year, close and reopen each stop under the sink. It keeps them free, and it tells you now rather than mid-leak whether they still shut the water off properly.
Every few months, clear the cupboard out and run a hand along the supply lines, the sprayer hose and the trap. Damp, a white crust or a swollen cabinet base all mean a slow leak that has been running a while.
If the head has started retracting slowly, look underneath. The weight has usually slipped along the hose, or the hose is catching on something. Repositioning it takes a moment and saves the hose wearing through.
Kitchen Faucet Repair — Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers, without the sales pitch.
Is it worth repairing a kitchen tap, or should I just replace it?
If the tap is a known brand and the fault is a cartridge, O-ring, sprayer head or hose, repairing is usually better value and the parts are readily available. Replacement makes more sense when the body is corroded, the finish has gone, the tap has already been repaired repeatedly, or it is an unbranded unit with no parts support. Where it is close, we quote both.
Why does my pull-down sprayer keep dripping after I turn it off?
A little water draining out of the head for a few seconds is normal, because the hose holds water above the spout level. A drip that carries on for minutes, or one that starts again later, points at the diverter or the cartridge failing to close. Both are repairable parts, and which one it is depends on exactly where the water is coming from.
Can you fit a tap I bought myself?
Yes. We will fit a customer-supplied tap, and we will tell you before we start if the hole spacing does not suit your sink or if the unit looks likely to give trouble. What we cannot do is stand behind the tap itself, only behind the way it has been fitted. Have the fixings and instructions to hand when we arrive.
What is involved in adding an instant-hot water tap?
You need a hole in the worktop or sink, a cold supply teed off under the cabinet, and for most units a tank mounted below with a power outlet nearby. If the cabinet has no outlet, adding one is an electrical job. We site the tank where it can be reached for servicing and where any leak would show rather than soak quietly into the base.
Why is the flow poor at my kitchen tap but fine everywhere else?
Start with the aerator and the sprayer face, which scale up quickly in Bay Area water. If cleaning them changes nothing, check the angle stop is fully open and not scaled internally. In homes with pre-1960s galvanized supply pipe, the bore narrows with rust over decades and the longest run suffers first, which no amount of tap work will cure.
My tap drips only on the hot side. Does that matter?
It matters more than a cold drip, because you are paying to heat every drop and the constant draw keeps the water heater cycling. On a two-handle tap it tells you exactly which cartridge or seat has failed. On a single-lever tap the one cartridge handles both sides, so a hot-only drip usually means the hot seat within it has worn.
Do you charge extra for nights, weekends or holidays?
No. We do not add overtime charges, ever. The rate you are quoted is the same whether we come out on a Tuesday morning or at 2am on a holiday weekend.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. Power Plumbing USA holds California contractor license #1082507 and carries full liability insurance. All work is performed to California Plumbing Code, and we pull permits where the job requires them.
Where We Provide This Service
We cover 15 Bay Area cities from our Union City base. See the full service area →