Tap Repair near you

A drip from the spout and a weep from the handle are different faults with different parts, and saying which one you have shortens the visit. Water leaving the spout with the tap closed means the seal that shuts off flow has failed, so on a capstan tap that is the washer and the seat it presses against, and on a quarter-turn tap or mixer it is the disc set or the cartridge. Water appearing around the spindle or the base while the tap runs, and stopping when it is closed, means a seal on the moving part rather than the shut-off itself.

Leaks that are not at the tap at all are the ones worth catching early. Wall-mounted taps conceal their working parts in the cavity, so a failed seal there runs inside the wall and the first evidence is often a stain, a soft patch of plasterboard or a swollen kitchen cupboard. Under a sink or vanity, the braided flexible hoses connecting the tap to the isolating valves sit under mains pressure permanently and fail at the crimped ends or where they have been kinked around a waste pipe. A hose that is bulging, rusted at the collar or weeping is replaced rather than tightened.

Repeat failures usually have a cause upstream. Where the static pressure in the building exceeds what the Code allows, or where water hammer slams through the pipework each time a tap or an appliance valve shuts, seals and washers are being asked to absorb that punishment every day. A plumber who finds the same tap back on the list a few months later should be checking the pressure and any pressure limiting valve, not simply fitting another washer.

Tapware is a certified product class in Australia, and this catches out homeowners who buy online. The National Construction Code requires any plumbing or drainage product of a type listed on the WaterMark Schedule of Products to be WaterMark certified, and it must be certified before it can be installed and installed by a licensed plumbing practitioner. Selling a non-certified product here is legal. Installing it is the part that is not: where a product type is on the Schedule of Products and is not WaterMark certified, a licensed plumber is not permitted to install it.

A compliant product carries its evidence with it. It is marked with the WaterMark trademark, the WaterMark licence number and the applicable product specification, it is listed on the WaterMark product database, and it is supplied with a Scope of Use statement setting out what it is intended for. The scheme explicitly extends to products bought through online stores including overseas marketplaces, which is precisely where uncertified tapware tends to come from.

You can settle this before you spend anything. Search the WaterMark product database by licence number, by product type, brand name, model name or model ID, or by licensee name, and if the product is not there ask the supplier for the certification information before buying. The Australian Building Codes Board lists the consequences of installing an uncertified product where certification is required as the cost of replacing materials, product failure resulting in building damage and loss, and possible voided insurance, and a local plumbing authority may simply refuse to accept the installation.

Tap repair sits closer to the homeowner end of plumbing than most jobs, but the line is drawn by each state rather than nationally. Western Australia is the most explicit about it: plumbing work there may only be done by someone licensed by the Plumbers Licensing Board, while minor tasks such as replacing a showerhead or clearing a blocked pipe are excluded and homeowners may legally do them. Its category of minor plumbing work is the testing, maintenance, repair or replacement of existing plumbing, and the examples given include tap repairs and replacements on a like-for-like basis, meaning the fitting is already installed in place before the work begins.

Other states set the threshold lower. New South Wales requires a licence or certificate before you do any plumbing, draining or gasfitting work, regardless of the cost of the work and regardless of whether the property is residential, commercial or industrial, and doing that work unlicensed is a breach of the Home Building Act 1989. Victoria allows plumbing work only by a plumber holding current registration or a licence, or by a plumbing apprentice. In Queensland, work necessary for extending, altering, replacing or removing supply pipes in an existing building is one of the twelve categories of notifiable work set out in schedule 1 of the Plumbing and Drainage Regulation 2019, which a licensed plumber registers with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission on a Form 4 or 4a.

The practical reading is that changing a washer on an existing tap is at the householder end of the scale in some states and not in others, while anything that alters the pipework, moves an outlet, replaces a wall-mounted body or adds a tap where none existed is licensed work everywhere. In Western Australia there is a further wrinkle worth knowing: licensed plumbing contractors there self-certify and remain responsible for the work they perform for six years from completion, and they must keep a record of minor plumbing work for at least six years as well.

A tap repair is a service supplied to a consumer, so the Australian Consumer Law's guarantees apply on top of anything written on the invoice. Service providers must carry out services with an acceptable level of care and skill, services and any resulting products must be fit for any purpose you made known, and where no time frame was agreed the work must be supplied within a reasonable time. Those guarantees cannot be written out of a business's terms.

The remedy depends on how serious the failure is. Where the problem is minor, the business must fix it free of charge, and it is the business that chooses how. Where the problem is major, which the ACCC describes as a service that creates an unsafe situation, that has one serious problem or several smaller ones that would have stopped you buying it had you known, or that cannot be used for its normal purpose and cannot easily be fixed within a reasonable time, you are the one who chooses: cancel the contract and seek a refund, or keep it and pay a lower price. A tap that is dripping again a fortnight later is a reasonable thing to raise in those terms, in writing, with the original business given the chance to return.

LokalMatch is only the introduction. You describe the tap problem once, with your postcode, which tap it is, whether it drips from the spout or weeps at the handle and whether anything is wet in the cupboard below, and plumbing businesses covering your area contact you directly. Those businesses pay LokalMatch for the requests they receive. LokalMatch does not repair taps, does not set prices or quote on anyone's behalf, and does not vet, rank or recommend any business, so checking the licence on your state regulator's register before work starts is still your step.