A drip at the spout and a puddle in the cabinet
A drip from the spout and a puddle in the cabinet are two different leaks. The spout drip is usually a cartridge or a washer. Water in the cabinet is a supply line, a shutoff, or the faucet shank under the deck.
True Plumbers & AC repairs and replaces kitchen, bathroom, and laundry faucets in Lakeland, Plant City, and Winter Haven under CFC1428965. Most of these are a single visit. We quote before we open the box on a new faucet.
A dripping faucet
A drop that hangs on the spout with the handle off is the cartridge, the seat, or an old washer. It wastes water into the sink, not into the cabinet. On a single-handle faucet the cartridge is the usual part. On a two-handle faucet each side has its own stem.
We shut the stops under the sink, pull the cartridge, and match it. If the brand no longer makes that cartridge, replacement of the faucet is the honest option. We say that before we start drilling.
A leak under the kitchen sink
Open the cabinet. A dark stain on the plywood, or a puddle after you run the water, is not a spout drip. Look at the two supply lines, the stops on the wall, and the nut under the faucet. A loose supply drips when the faucet is on. A bad shank seal can drip when it is off.
Swollen cabinet bottoms mean the leak has been there a while. We fix the connection and tell you if the cabinet floor is already soft. If water has reached the subfloor or the ceiling below, that is water damage restoration after the leak is stopped.
A faucet cartridge and a clogged aerator
A weak stream with the handle all the way open is often the aerator, the screen on the tip of the spout. Unscrew it. If the holes are packed with white grit, soak it and put it back. That is a clogged aerator, not a failed faucet.
A handle that is stiff, or a drip that continues after the aerator is clean, is the cartridge. Scale from local water crusts the cartridge and the aerator at the same time. Cleaning the screen does not fix a cartridge that no longer seals.
When a faucet leak is an emergency
A faucet is an emergency when you cannot close the stop under the sink and water is still coming out. Shut the main if the stop spins and nothing happens. Then call. A slow spout drip can wait until morning.
The overnight page is emergency plumbing. If you can close the stop and the cabinet is dry, book a daytime faucet repair. You do not need a 2 a.m. truck for a cartridge.
A bathroom faucet that keeps dripping
Bathroom faucets drip for the same reason as kitchen faucets, with one extra failure: the pop-up. A stopper that will not seal, or a lift rod that is disconnected under the deck, looks like a drain problem. The cartridge drip and the pop-up are separate. We check both while the water is off.
Widespread bathroom sets have two handles and a spout. A drip from the spout can be either cartridge. We test each side. A drip at the base of the spout is the spout o-ring, which is a smaller part than a full cartridge.
Kitchen faucet repair and the sprayer
A pull-down sprayer that drips at the head, or will not dock, is usually the hose weight, the spray head, or the hose under the sink. The hose can leak inside the cabinet while the spout looks dry. That is the stain people find on the cabinet floor with no drip at the tip.
We replace the hose or the head when the cartridge is fine. If the faucet body is corroded at the deck and the sprayer hose is original, a new faucet is often less work than three separate parts. We put both prices on the quote.

Scale on every faucet in the house
One crusted aerator is a cleaning job. White scale on the kitchen faucet, the bath faucet, and the shower head is the water, not three bad faucets. We still repair the one that drips. The house-wide fix is a softener after a water test.
Read water softener for a salt unit and salt-free softener for what a conditioner does and does not do. We do not sell a softener off a single dripping faucet.
Repair the faucet or replace it
We repair when the body is solid and the cartridge or supply is the only failed part. We replace when the body is pitted, the finish is gone at the base, or the cartridge is discontinued. You can supply the faucet if it matches the hole pattern in the sink.
Call (863) 667-6364. Say spout drip or cabinet puddle, and say kitchen or bath. That tells us whether to bring a cartridge or to plan on supply lines.