Kitchen faucet replacement
Kitchen faucet replacement is fifteen minutes of plumbing and an hour of lying on your back inside a cabinet, which is why so many homeowners start one on a Saturday and call somebody on Sunday. The work is a like for like swap at existing supply lines and an existing shutoff, and it sits inside our kitchen repair service alongside the disposal and sink work it usually travels with.
Service family Kitchen repair
Scheduling Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Service area Six counties across Southeast Michigan
Phone (734) 540-0347
What the visit covers
Water off at the stop valves, supply lines disconnected, the old faucet and its mounting hardware out through the top of the counter, the deck cleaned, the new faucet set on a fresh gasket, new supply lines fitted and every joint checked under pressure with a torch and a dry hand. The sprayer, the soap dispenser and the air gap get put back where they belong.
The cabinet, and why this takes longer than it looks
Everything happens in a space the size of a laundry basket, above your face, behind a disposal, with a drain assembly in the way. Nuts under a thirty year old faucet are usually corroded onto the studs, and the basin wrench that reaches them has one flat of travel per stroke. That is the whole job. The faucet itself goes on in minutes once the old one is out.
Where our work stops and a licensed plumber starts
Fixture work at existing supply lines and shutoffs is ours. The list below belongs to a licensed plumbing contractor, and it goes to one rather than being worked around.
- Moving, adding or re piping supply lines inside the wall
- Main line, sewer line and gas line work of any kind
- Water heater work and anything on the incoming service
- Any work needing a municipal permit and an inspection
- A leak inside a wall or below the floor rather than under the sink
Shutoff valves that have not moved in twenty years
The most common surprise on this job is a stop valve that will not turn, or turns and then weeps. Replacing a pair of quarter turn stops while the cabinet is already open costs very little and saves the next person an emergency. Where a valve fails and the house has no working isolation, the water goes off at the main and the repair becomes valve work on our plumbing list before the faucet goes on.
Hole count, and the plate that hides it
Sinks come with one, three or four holes. A single lever faucet on a three hole sink needs an escutcheon plate to cover the outer two, and not every faucet includes one. A four hole sink with a soap dispenser you no longer want needs a blank. We check the hole count before you order rather than after the box is open.
What gets checked before we start
- Hole count and spacing on the sink deck
- Whether the stop valves turn and hold
- Supply line length, condition and fitting type
- Whether the sink is top mount, undermount or integral
- Disposal, air gap and dishwasher connections in the way
Pull down sprayers and the hose that wears out
Pull down faucets fail at the hose and the weight long before the valve gives up. The hose rubs on the disposal or a shelf, the coating wears through and it starts to seep inside the cabinet, which you notice as a swollen cabinet bottom rather than as a drip. If your faucet is a pull down and the cabinet floor is soft, that is where the water came from.
Single lever, bridge and the faucets that need a deck plate
A bridge faucet or a widespread set has separate hot and cold stems and needs the hole spacing to match exactly. A single lever needs one hole and cooperates with everything. Farmhouse sinks and deck mounted setups on a stone counter have their own constraints. We look at the counter, the sink and the faucet together, because the counter is the part you cannot drill again.
Stone counters, and why we do not drill them
Adding a hole to granite or quartz for a soap dispenser or a filter tap is stone fabrication rather than plumbing, and a chipped counter is not a repair. We will fit a faucet in the holes that exist and refer new holes to a stone fabricator. That is an honest limit and it saves everybody a difficult conversation.
Water filters, softeners and the taps that come with them
A filter tap with its own cartridge under the sink is a straight swap when the hole exists. Whole house water softeners and reverse osmosis systems are a different trade and we refer those out rather than sell them. If a filter is already plumbed in, we reconnect it and check its date while the cabinet is open.
Hard water here, and what it does to a faucet
Municipal water across this region runs hard enough to scale an aerator within a year. A faucet that has lost pressure has usually lost it at the aerator or the sprayer head rather than anywhere serious. That is a two minute fix. A faucet with a stiff lever and a weeping base, on the other hand, has worn its cartridge and is worth replacing rather than rebuilding.
Cabinet damage found under the sink
About half the faucets we replace sit above a cabinet floor that has already been wet for years. Swollen particle board, lifted veneer and a stained base are the tells. While the cabinet is empty is the cheapest moment to deal with it, which is why a new cabinet bottom and our water damage prevention work often join this visit.
Disposals, drains and the work that travels with a faucet
The faucet, the disposal, the drain assembly and the shutoffs are one cluster of parts in one small space, and replacing them together costs far less than four separate visits. Most people book sink drain repair and faucet repair at the same time, and the same crew arrives ready for all of it.
Faucets you buy and faucets we source
Buy your own. You will get a better faucet for the money and you get to pick the finish. Bring it unopened and we will check the hole count, the supply fittings and the escutcheon before anything comes apart. Where you would rather we sourced it we will, and we will steer you toward a solid brass body with a serviceable cartridge over a heavy discount.
How long the visit takes
A straightforward swap with cooperative valves is an hour. Corroded mounting nuts, a stone counter, a disposal in the way or a pair of failed stops takes two. Landlords running rental turnover repairs and sellers clearing a home inspection repairs list usually do every fixture in the house in one appointment.
Sinks that come out with the faucet
Once the faucet is off, a tired sink is the cheapest it will ever be to change. A top mount stainless sink lifts out and drops back into the same cutout in under an hour, with a new bead of sealant and a fresh clip set. An undermount on a stone counter is a different job that needs the counter supported from below, and that one gets planned rather than decided while the water is off.
A full kitchen remodeling project covers both properly, and an annual home check catches the slow leaks before they reach the cabinet floor. Sellers who need the whole kitchen presentable at once handle it through pre listing home repairs instead.
Book kitchen faucet replacement with our crew
If the lever is stiff, the base is weeping or the sprayer has given up, the faucet has told you what it needs. We will swap it, replace the stops while we are in there and check the cabinet floor underneath, anywhere from Milan across our service area. View our Portfolio, then contact us now for a free quote.
