In July, 2015 I had a plumber here to fix the dripping bathtub faucet. He put new gaskets and I don't know what else, but it still dripped. He said then it must be something (I forget what he called it) inside the wall behind the faucet. I could not afford to have him go inside the wall at that time. It is now Jan, 2016 and the faucet is running a small stream of hot water constantly.

I have searched the internet and cannot find a valve or any such whatchamacallit inside the wall behind a bathtub/shower faucet. This plumber came highly recommended and seems a stand-up guy. Can someone tell me what besides gaskets would make the faucet run?

there is absolutly nothing behind the wall that needs to be changed to stop a drip. someone would open up the wall to change the entire valve body.

What brand of shower valve? Single Handle or 3 valve?

Could your plumber be referring to a brass/monel seat?

Knowing the brand of your faucet will help us to help you.


Best Wishes

YOu are describing a faucet with bad seats, and ANY halfway competent plumber would know how to fix it and what he needs to do it.

"...ANY halfway competent plumber would know how to fix it."

Not so fast, hj. I doubt many young apprentices are schooled in compression faucet repair. It may be second nature to us but anymore, I view compression faucets as model T's in the plumbing world. To me, they're a trap waiting to spring. Think about it. Even though there are available parts, normally we are putting these parts into decades old faucet bodies that have been worn down thru many thousands of gallons of water thru them. If we are successful in repairing them, the typical homeowner views it as a 10 year fix. And we know that compression faucets are only as good as the treatment given them by the homeowner.

Generally, I take a few minutes after a compression repair to tell the h/o of the benefits of todays washerless anti-scald single control faucets with the view of persuading them to consider it for themselves.

My original statement still stands. IF you are going to present yourself as a "service/repair" person, you SHOULD know how to fix "things" you come across. And seat checking and replacement is as basic as you can get.

Could he have been talking about the valve? Do they ever need replaced?

There are three knobs, the middle is to divert to the shower head. I don't know what the brand is. I would rather buy new faucet components if that's the problem..than have my wall opened up. The plumber is in his sixties so he has been doing this a while.

faucet seats are pretty much replaceable. a small percentage are not replaceable and must be ground down to smooth off the surface. after many times being smoothed there isn't enough 'meat' left and the whole valve must be replaced.


replaceable valve seats..

Agreed. It's my experience that with faucet repair, one needs to "know when to hold up, know when to fold up, know when to walk away, know when to run..."

I am in my 80's so I have been doing it longer, and I have known 60 year old plumbers who did NOT know how to repair faucets.

And I respect you for that, sir.

Thanks to all who responded! I am happy to say that for now the problem is solved. I had the same plumber back. On the invoice: "Repair hot on tub-replace seat" and "Install 3/4 full pont (?) ball valve". He said next time it would need a new faucet which would require going into the wall. That must be what he was talking about the last service call. I guess he had more patience to work it out this time. I would like to have had my son or son-in-law here to better understand but they were at work.

I am thinking plumbing is both an art and science. Thanks again, this is a good site.



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