---
title: 'How to Repair a Leaking Faucet | This Old House'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=zMH61Yabdj0'
video_id: 'zMH61Yabdj0'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 280
---

# How to Repair a Leaking Faucet | This Old House

> Source: [How to Repair a Leaking Faucet | This Old House](https://youtube.com/watch?v=zMH61Yabdj0)

## Summary

This tutorial from This Old House walks through the complete process of diagnosing and repairing a leaking faucet. It covers common challenges like removing stubborn handles, identifying faucet types, and replacing worn washers or cartridges. The key to a lasting repair is ensuring a tight seal between the washer and the seat.

### Key Points

- **Faucet Repair Primer** [00:00] — The hardest part is often removing the handle, which may require a handle puller if fused by water over time. Always look for a screw, sometimes hidden under a hot/cold button.
- **Faucet Vintage Identification** [01:07] — Modern faucets (last 20 years) use a cartridge unit to control water flow; if it fails, replace the whole cartridge. Older faucets (20+ years) have a stem unit with a washer that presses against a seat.
- **Washer Wear** [01:44] — The washer can become indented and worn out. It is not a disposable item but should be replaced. The screw holding it can be soft and may strip, requiring careful removal.
- **Side Wear and Retainer Ring** [02:38] — If the washer is worn on the side, simply replacing it won't work. The solution is to break off the old end, grind it down, and use a retainer ring to create a tight seal.
- **Seat Inspection and Replacement** [03:19] — The seat where the washer sits can be pitted or cracked. Use a seat wrench to remove it for inspection. If worn, either replace the seat or grind it down on emery cloth to create a flat surface.
- **Goal of Faucet Repair** [04:23] — The entire purpose of faucet repair is to create a tight seal between the washer and the seat. Both surfaces must be flat for the seal to work effectively.

### Conclusion

The essential takeaway is that a lasting faucet repair requires a proper seal between a flat washer and a flat seat. If the seat is damaged, it must be replaced or re-milled.

## Transcript

I thought we would start with a basic primer on faucet repair. Now oftentimes, the hardest part of the whole job is how to get the handle off.
So there's always a screw, sometimes it's covered by a hot or cold button you pull out. And now you want to make a clean bite, push it down, and counterclockwise, this can be a soft screw. Right.
It's a brass screw, so sometimes it can strip you when you're very careful. So now if you're lucky, that handle will pull right off, not in this case. But oftentimes it's been fused in there with water over time. So this is a thing called a handle puller.
A good name, okay. This thing goes down inside here, and you want to be just low enough to catch the bottom of the handle. And I'm good there. Okay. Now you just pull it this way, and that makes you down, it pulls up the handle.
That makes sure it works. Okay. So now we've got that off. Right. So now the next question is, is what vintage a faucet is? If it's a modern faucet, in the last 20 years, what's down underneath to control the water,
some sort of cartridge. So now you've got cold water that comes into the bottom of this stem, and now as you turn it, it allows water to come from this point into the mixing chamber, not through the spot. And this is where we might have a failure.
Right. So if this goes bad, you just get a new cartridge unit and replace it. Disvolves will be unique. A couple bucks. And this is a traditional faucet that has a stem unit that looks like this. So this is going to be 20 years or older, that's right. Absolutely.
It's got a washer at the bottom and has it, shuts the water off, it pushes against the seat at the bottom. Yeah. So now we're going to excavate to the next level. So this is likely where we're going to have our problem. That's pretty loose. Okay.
So now, so we've got here, yeah, that's a mess. So that washer, look at how indented that is, it's fully worn out. So is this not necessarily a disposable item?
No, no, you just want to replace the washer at the bottom. So now this is another potential trouble spot right here. Another soft screw. Well, this screw has been sitting in water, it's whole life. And so that's a Phillips head, you want to make sure you have a good clean Phillips head
on your screwdriver. And now you want to just hold that against me. Okay. You want to push, because if you strip that head, you are in trouble, you'd have to drill
it and tap it, or you'd be just having to change the whole faucet. Take off that screw, and now we have access to a washer, which is a mess. So that is a mess. So simply put, I could just put a washer right back in here, maybe get a new screw, but look
at this. Look at the side of this right here, it's completely worn on the side. So I could replace that washer, but it would just blow out through the side against the seat of the washer. Not going to make a good seal right there.
So what I want to do is I want to break this end off, and then grind it down, and put a thing called a retainer ring. Okay. Let me just have that washer. So now the washer is going to sit there, now I put a new screw in there, and I'm going to
end at the bottom. A nice tight seal. Okay. But there is one more place that this faucet repair can go bad. And that's down here at the bottom. Down in size is a thing called a seat, and that's where the washer sits against.
And that could be pitted or cracked. So this would press down on there with the washer. So they make seat wrenches that allow the good name, perfect names. So this goes down through here, four, little four corners, I got it.
That one's not coming out as easy as the other one. Come on. There you go. That's real life right there.
Okay. So just. So now we can get the seat out. Right. Look at that. So now if that is worn or pitted, you can either get the replacement seat, or you can grind
this down on a piece of emery cloth, or they make a tool that will allow you to attempt to remill that seat in place.
And what you're really trying to do is just get a flat surface so that you've got two flat surfaces just touching each other, making it a tight seal. The entire story about faucet repair 101 is making a tight seal between the washer and the seat. Well, it looks like you're going to have to find something else to talk about it, you can't
feel it.