Faucets, toilets, sinks, shut-off valves, tub and shower work, and the rough-in behind a renovation. The everyday plumbing that makes a house work properly — and the shut-offs that keep a small problem from becoming a flooded floor. Typical fixture work $200–$600.
Fixture work looks simple and often isn’t, particularly in older Lakes Region houses. A faucet swap becomes a real job the moment the shut-off valve under the sink won’t close — and in a house with original multi-turn stops, it usually won’t. We replace those valves as a matter of course rather than working around them, because a working shut-off at every fixture is the cheapest insurance in a building.
That’s the theme of most of this work: the visible part is a faucet, and the part that matters is what’s behind it.
On a renovation we do the part that happens before the walls close: moving supply and waste to where the new layout wants them, setting vents correctly, and getting it inspected. Moving a toilet or a shower drain is a framing and venting problem as much as a pipe problem — waste lines need proper fall and proper venting, and what’s possible depends entirely on which way your floor joists run and how much depth there is under the floor.
That’s why we’d rather be involved at the drawing stage. Five minutes looking at a plan can tell you that swapping the tub and the vanity is nearly free while moving the toilet four feet the other direction means opening a ceiling downstairs. Finding that out after the tile is in is an expensive way to learn it.
Frost-free hose bibs to replace the ones that split last winter. Shut-offs added where there aren’t any — plenty of older houses have a bathroom with no way to isolate it. Supply lines swapped out before the twenty-year-old braided ones let go behind a vanity. Toilet fill valves and flappers on a well system, where a running toilet cycles the pump continuously and shortens the life of a component that costs well over a thousand dollars to replace.
None of it is exciting. All of it is cheaper than what it prevents.
Usually it’s a $15 part and ten minutes, and most homeowners can do it themselves — we’ll tell you that on the phone. Call us if it keeps coming back, if the shut-off under it won’t close, or if you’re on a well. On a well a running toilet cycles the pump continuously, which wears out a pump that costs well over a thousand dollars to replace.
Yes. Moving a fixture means relocating both supply and drain, and the drain is the constraint — waste lines need proper fall and venting, which depends on what the floor framing allows. Bring us in while the layout is still on paper and we can tell you which moves are simple and which ones are expensive, before you’ve committed to a design.
If they’re old multi-turn stops and you’ve never touched them, yes. They seize in place, and you find out at the worst possible moment — water spraying and no way to stop it short of shutting down the whole house. Quarter-turn ball valves are inexpensive and they work when you need them.
Not necessarily, and we’ll say so. Where it’s worth calling is when the valves under the sink won’t close, when the old fixture is seized to the deck, when the sink is a farmhouse or undermount install, or when you’re in an old house and the supply nipples are the original galvanized. Those are the jobs that start as an hour and end as a weekend.
Tell us what it is and roughly how old the house is. If it’s a job you can do yourself, we’ll tell you that too.
Describe what’s happening and where the property is. We’ll come back with a straight answer on what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there. If it’s an emergency, say so in the first line.
We reply to every request within 2 business hours.
