Faucet Repair & Replacement
Kitchen faucets, bathroom faucets, and tub & shower valves for homes across Snohomish County
Stollwerck Plumbing & Sewer repairs and replaces faucets across Everett, Mukilteo, Edmonds, and Lynnwood — kitchen and bathroom faucets, and the tub and shower valves behind the wall that most homeowners don't think of as faucets until one fails. Faucet and fixture-valve work is one of the most common things we do. It is bread-and-butter work, and it rewards being done carefully.
What We Do
Dripping and Leaking Faucets
A faucet that drips from the spout needs a new cartridge, washer or seat. One that leaks around the handle or base usually needs O-rings or a packing repair. We diagnose which before quoting, because they are not the same job — and a drip you can hear at night is rarely as small as it sounds on the water bill.
Cartridge and Stem Replacement
Most modern faucets and shower controls run on a replaceable cartridge; older ones run on threaded stems. We carry common cartridges on the truck, match the rest by manufacturer and pattern, and replace them without disturbing the trim you like.
Kitchen and Bathroom Faucet Replacement
When a faucet is genuinely done — body corroded, finish gone, parts discontinued — we swap it. We install customer-supplied fixtures and can supply the faucet ourselves; either way the angle stops and supply lines under it get inspected while we are there, because they are the same age as the faucet.
Tub and Shower Valve Service
Diverters that send water to the wrong outlet, shower controls that lost their hot side, single-handle valves that drift — this is faucet work behind a wall. We replace cartridges and stems through the existing opening wherever possible, so a valve repair does not have to become a tile project.
Obsolete and Hard-to-Match Valves
Pre-war and mid-century homes around here still run brands and patterns nobody stocks — and a stem that another repair butchered can be genuinely hard to identify. Matching an odd stem by length, thread and broach is slow, unglamorous work, and it is often the difference between a repair and opening the wall for a full valve replacement.
Angle Stops and Supply Lines
The shutoff under the sink and the flexible line to the faucet fail more often than the faucet itself, and at higher cost, because they fail as leaks. We replace seized and weeping angle stops in the same visit as any faucet job.
Real Faucet Work in Everett
A homeowner on Maple Street in Everett called us in April 2026 about a leaky tub diverter. When Logan arrived, the whole tub was already taken apart — three-valve wall, trim off, and the two lower stems that feed the spout visibly butchered by previous attempts. One had its set screw cut off inside it; the other looked like it had been tapped by a drywall screw. The middle control, a Price Pfister Avant, only ran the shower head.
Logan did what could be done that day: he replaced the Price Pfister cartridge so the shower worked again, and rebuilt the tub's waste and overflow from the crawlspace, then filled and tested it for leaks. The mangled stems were still functional, so instead of forcing a bigger job on the spot, he measured them — 5.5 inches — identified the closest available match by pattern, and left the family with a bid to replace the stems and trim properly.
That is what faucet repair in an older house actually looks like: part detective work, part plumbing, and an honest line between what should be fixed today and what deserves a proper quote.
Why Fixture Valves Around Here Die Hard
Everett's older neighborhoods — Rucker Hill, Northwest Everett, the blocks around the historic core — still hold early-1900s housing stock, and their tubs and sinks run on stems and trim that left production decades ago. Repairs there are about identification and matching. Mukilteo skews the other way: Harbour Pointe was built largely in the '80s and '90s, so its faucets and shower cartridges are now reaching end of life in batches, one fixture after another.
High water pressure shortens the life of all of it. Cartridges, washers, angle stops and supply lines are all built for a range, and a house sitting over 80 psi chews through them early. If your fixtures keep failing young, have the pressure gauged before you replace another one.
Signs a Faucet Needs Attention
A Drip You Can Hear at Night
A spout drip is a worn washer, cartridge or seat announcing itself. It will not improve, it wears the seat further the longer it runs, and it quietly adds up on a quarterly water bill.
A Handle That Fights You
A handle that needs force, sticks, or keeps turning past its stop means the stem or cartridge is failing inside. Cranking harder is how set screws shear and stems get butchered — call before it reaches that point.
Water Where It Should Not Be
Moisture around the faucet base, in the cabinet below, or on the wall behind a shower control means a seal upstream of the spout has gone. That one is worth same-week attention, because the leak you can see is rarely the whole leak.
How We Handle Faucet Work
1. Identify the Valve First
Brand, model, cartridge or stem, thread and broach pattern — before anything gets forced. A wrong guess on an old valve turns a repair into a wall opening.
2. Quote Before Work
You approve the price before we start. If we find the stems are past saving, you get a bid for the bigger job, not a surprise on the invoice.
3. Repair With Matched Parts
A cartridge that almost fits will drip again by winter. We match parts properly or tell you plainly that replacement is the better spend.
4. Test Under Pressure
We run the fixture, check the shutoffs and supply lines feeding it, and look for the next failure while the water is on — so one visit doesn’t become three.
Faucet Repair FAQ
How much does faucet repair cost in Everett or Mukilteo?
A straightforward cartridge or washer replacement is one of the least expensive jobs we do, and we quote it before starting. Replacing a whole faucet costs more; tub and shower valve work runs higher again when access is tight. Part availability moves the price most — obsolete stems take real hunting.
Why does my faucet still drip after I shut it off hard?
Because the sealing surface inside is worn, and force cannot fix that. The washer, cartridge seal or valve seat has scarred, so water sneaks past no matter how hard the handle is turned. Cranking harder actually speeds the wear. The fix is replacing the worn part, not stronger wrists.
Can you still get parts for a discontinued shower valve?
Often, yes. Many pre-war and mid-century patterns are still reproduced or cross-referenced, and we identify them by length, thread and broach before ordering. On the Maple Street job above, the closest match for a butchered 5.5-inch stem was a pattern from a company that stopped making them decades ago.
Should I repair my faucet or replace the whole thing?
Repair when the body is sound and parts exist: cartridges, washers, O-rings and stems are all serviceable. Replace when the body is corroded, the finish is failing from the inside, or parts are unobtainable at reasonable cost. We tell you which side of that line your faucet is on before quoting.
How long does a faucet repair visit take?
Most cartridge and washer repairs are done within the hour, including testing. A full faucet replacement usually runs one to two hours, depending on the shutoffs and what we find underneath. Obsolete-valve work can take a second visit while the matched part is ordered — we make the fixture usable in the meantime.
Can you replace a tub or shower valve without wrecking the tile?
Usually. Cartridges and stems come out through the existing trim opening, and many full valve swaps can be done from an access panel behind the wall instead of through the tile. When tile work truly cannot be avoided, we say so up front and keep the opening as small as the job allows.
What a Customer Said
“On time arrival. Worked on three outlet fixtures and solved the problems, can't ask for any more,”
Why Homeowners Call Us for Faucet Work
Every Tech Is a Licensed Plumber
No subcontractors. The person matching your 70-year-old stem is a licensed plumber employed here, working under Washington license STOLLPL780CJ.
We Quote Before We Touch It
Diagnosis first, price second, work third. If the repair is not worth making, we tell you that too.
One-Year Guarantee
Every repair carries a full one-year guarantee on our workmanship — well past the industry’s usual ninety days.
Local Enough to Come Back
Our office is in Mukilteo. If a repair needs an ordered part, the return trip is minutes, not a dispatch across the county.
Fix That Dripping Faucet
Call the Mukilteo office and tell us what it's doing.