A Faucet Drip: The Real Cost of Ignoring It

One drip per second is roughly 3,000 gallons a year down the drain — and on your bill. A steady stream is far more. But the bigger cost isn't the water. It's where that water goes. A drip behind the escutcheon soaks the cabinet, the wall, and the floor under it, quietly, for months.

Nine times out of ten it's a worn cartridge or a rubber seat — a small, inexpensive part. The repair is short. The damage from ignoring it — a rotted cabinet floor, a stained ceiling below, a rusted shutoff that won't close when you need it to — is not.

The cheapest repair is the one you make the week the drip starts, not the month the cabinet floor gives out. Call and tell me which faucet and how fast it's dripping — I'll tell you whether it's a cartridge or a replacement.