Tap Repair & Replacement in Bristol

Vetted & insured engineers Clear pricing before work starts G3-qualified for unvented cylinders No gas work — plumbing only

A dripping tap wastes up to 5,500 litres a year and announces itself every night at 2am. Our Bristol plumbers repair or replace taps of every type, usually within the hour.

Bristol water notes: Bristol's water is hard — much of it from Mendip limestone sources — so scale is a constant background factor in element failures, weak showers and tired tap cartridges across the city. Bristol pairs Georgian and Victorian stock in Clifton, Montpelier and Totterdown — often on steep gradients with long internal pipe runs — with dense modern harbourside apartments, keeping the plumbing mix broad. Mains supply here is managed by Bristol Water.

Repairs: washers, cartridges and seals

Diagnosis by symptom: a steady drip from the spout is a washer (compression taps) or cartridge (ceramic disc); leakage around the base of a swivel spout is O-rings; a handle that turns without resistance is a stripped head or spline; banging pipes when the tap closes is water hammer, cured with an arrestor or pressure adjustment rather than a new tap. Each is a stocked-part fix for our Bristol engineers. Bristol's water is hard — much of it from Mendip limestone sources — so scale is a constant background factor in element failures, weak showers and tired tap cartridges across the city.

Replacement done properly

A professional tap replacement includes the parts that fail next: new flexible connectors (the old ones are the most common future flood source), service/isolation valves fitted if absent, thread sealing done correctly, and the tap tightened against a supported base rather than a flexing sink. It's the difference between a tap swap and a tap swap you won't revisit. We supply-and-fit or fit your purchased tap across Bristol at the same labour rate.

The real cost of a drip

One drip per second is roughly 5,500 litres a year — on a metered Bristol supply, that's paid for twice, as water and as sewerage. Hot taps are worse: every drip carries heating cost too. A £75 repair typically pays for itself within months on a metered hot tap, before counting the staining and scale damage to the sink below.

Tap work pricing in Bristol

From £75 for standard tap repairs in Bristol, parts included. Replacements are quoted as labour plus tap, so you can compare our supplied ranges with your own purchase like-for-like. If your existing tap is obsolete and a repair means hunting discontinued cartridges, we'll tell you the honest economics up front.

Frequently asked questions

Do you fix outside taps?

Yes — repairs, replacements and new outside tap installations with the legally required double-check valve for backflow prevention, plus an internal isolation point so you can drain it each winter.

My mixer tap has low pressure on hot only — why?

Common on combi and gravity systems: scale or a blocked hot-side inlet filter, a kinked or degraded flexi, or the tap's internal flow restrictor. It's diagnosable in minutes with the tap head off.

Is a constantly dripping tap really worth fixing?

On a metered supply, unambiguously: thousands of litres a year, charged as both water and sewerage, plus heating cost on hot taps. The repair usually costs less than the annual waste.

Can you fit a tap I bought online?

Yes — supply-your-own is fine and priced at the same labour rate. We'll check compatibility (tail lengths, hole spacing, pressure requirements) before removing the old tap, so a mismatch is caught before the sink is out of action.