How Do You Fix a Noisy Faucet?

When you use any faucet in your home, you should only hear the noise of water coming out of it. If you notice banging, squealing, screeching, or any other odd sounds whenever you turn your faucet on, it usually needs to be inspected by a professional plumber. While most faucet repairs are fairly simple, you’ll want to act fast when you notice strange noises, as they could be a sign of damage to your plumbing system. 

The 5 Main Causes of a Noisy Faucet and How To Fix

Instead of putting up with the annoyance of a noisy faucet and risking a costly faucet repair in the future, you can take action to fix it fast when you know why your faucet is making noise in the first place. To ensure you can act quickly, find out more about the five primary causes of loud faucets and their solutions below:

1. Loose Washers

One of the most common reasons for a noisy faucet is a loose washer in the water valve. As water runs through the faucet, it will cause the washer to shake and make a squealing or screeching noise. Since an improperly sized or worn-out washer is usually at fault for the noise, a plumber will need to replace your old washer with a new one. To replace the washer, the plumber will shut off your water supply, take apart your faucet, and install new washers properly sized to your faucet.

2. High Water Pressure

If your water pressure is set higher than your faucet can safely withstand, it can cause your faucet to make loud noises, such as screeching and squealing. As the high pressure forces water to flow faster than intended through your faucet’s spout and inlets, it will cause compression, leading to loud noises. High water pressure can also cause strange sounds when water passes over clogged debris in your faucet or pipes. A plumber will need to lower your water pressure and remove any clogs to fix this issue.

3. Pipe Expansion

Does your faucet make a squealing noise whenever you run hot water? If so, the issue is likely caused by your pipes expanding and scraping against the metal support brackets that hold them. Since hot water makes metal pipes expand, the easiest fix is to hire a plumber to switch out your metal support brackets with plastic brackets. By replacing your metal brackets, you’ll eliminate the source of the scraping and squealing noises.

4. Excess Build-Up of Mineral Deposits in the Aerator

An aerator is a screen-like device designed to reduce and control the stream of water that comes out of your faucet. When minerals build up on this screen, it can cause your faucet to make odd noises. To fix the issue, unscrew the aerator located at the tip of your faucet and run your water. If the noise is gone, your aerator was at fault, and you simply need to replace the old aerator with a new one.

5. Plumbing System Damage or Clogs

If you notice banging noises whenever you turn on your faucet, you likely have a problem with your plumbing system. Banging sounds could indicate your pipes are too small, you have a blockage in your system, or debris and scale have corroded your pipes. While a plumber may be able to fix the issue by unclogging your pipes, they’ll need to replace your plumbing system if they find irreparable corrosion or improperly sized pipes.

Choose Newcomb and Company for Faucet Repair in Raleigh

If you need faucet repair services in Raleigh, Newcomb and Company can help. Our team of certified plumbers can identify the source of a noisy faucet and make the repair as fast as possible. Besides handling loud faucets, we can provide many other plumbing services, such as leaking faucet repairs, drain cleaning, and water heater replacements. We also offer comfort contracts, where our team will routinely check your home for plumbing, energy efficiency, and HVAC issues to ensure everything is running in top condition.

Learn more about our Raleigh plumbing services today. If you have any questions or want to make an appointment, please contact us.