How to Fix a Dripping Faucet, and When to Call a Plumber

By the Plumbing Pros Sherman TX team Published February 18, 2026 · Updated August 14, 2026

Why faucets drip

A faucet's job is to make a watertight seal when closed, and a drip means that seal has worn out somewhere. In a cartridge faucet, the most common modern type, the cartridge that controls flow and temperature wears and stops sealing. In older compression faucets with separate hot and cold handles, it is usually a rubber washer or seat that has hardened or worn. In a single-handle ball or ceramic-disc faucet, it is the O-rings or the disc assembly. In every case the part is small and inexpensive.

One local note that closes the loop practically: Sherman's water is treated to only moderate hardness, so faucets here are not caked in the heavy mineral scale that destroys cartridges quickly in hard-water towns. That means a drip here is more often ordinary rubber-and-packing wear than scale damage, and the internal parts, once replaced, tend to last. It also means aerators clog more slowly, so low flow at a single tap is a quick aerator clean more often than a mineral-choked cartridge.

The DIY repair, step by step

The repair follows a consistent pattern. First, close the shutoff valves under the sink and open the faucet to release pressure, and plug the drain so small parts cannot fall in. Then remove the handle, usually a set screw under a decorative cap, and take out the cartridge, stem, or disc assembly, noting exactly how it comes apart. Take the worn part to a hardware store to match it precisely, since cartridges and washers are brand and model specific, then reassemble in reverse with the new part.

The details that trip people up are small: getting the cartridge oriented the right way so hot and cold are not reversed, not overtightening and cracking a fitting, and making sure O-rings are seated. Turn the water back on slowly and check for leaks before declaring victory. If the drip persists after a correct cartridge swap, or if the faucet is old and cheaply made, that is the point where a faucet repair or replacement by a plumber is the more sensible spend than chasing parts.

The shutoff-valve trap

Here is the thing that turns a fifteen-minute job into a bigger one, and it is specific to older homes. The angle-stop shutoff valves under your sink may not have been turned in years, sometimes decades. When you finally close one to do the faucet repair, an old valve can seize, refuse to fully close, or start weeping around its stem the moment it is disturbed. Now you have a second problem, and possibly water you cannot shut off at the fixture.

This is common enough in the older housing around the Sherman courthouse square and across Denison that it is worth checking your shutoffs before you start, gently. If a shutoff will not operate or weeps when you touch it, replacing that valve is cheap insurance, because a working shutoff is what lets you isolate a fixture in an emergency without killing water to the whole house. It is also exactly the kind of small thing a plumber will handle as part of the job rather than leaving you stuck.

When to just call

DIY makes sense when the faucet is decent quality, the shutoffs work, and you are comfortable with the disassembly. Call a plumber when the drip persists after a proper repair, when the shutoff valves are seized or weeping, when the faucet is old and corroded enough that replacement beats repair, or when you simply want a new fixture installed correctly with sound supply connections. None of these are failures on your part, they are just the points where the job has grown past a quick part swap.

It is also worth calling if a dripping faucet is not your only symptom. Low water pressure across the whole house, rather than at one tap, is a different problem that can point to corroded supply lines and even a repipe in an older home. And a persistent leak that has soaked a cabinet or the floor under the sink may need leak detection to find where the water is really coming from. A single tired faucet is a small job; those other signs are the faucet pointing at something larger.

Faucet Repair questions, answered