In a borough where both water companies supply hard water, taps don’t just wear out — they scale up, seize and drip. Here’s what’s actually wrong with yours, and what fixing or replacing it properly involves.

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Tap work is mostly small fixed-price jobs — ask whether the quote covers parts, and whether supplying your own tap changes the price or the guarantee.

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Coverage: W3, W5, W7, W13, UB1, UB2, UB5 and UB6, plus the NW10 fringe around North Acton and Park Royal.
What this covers: dripping and seized taps, washer and cartridge replacement, mixer and monobloc taps, new tap installation, isolation valves, and outside taps.
Not this page: a tap with no water behind it is a supply problem — see the emergency plumber no-water check; a full sink or basin swap is kitchen or bathroom plumbing.
Costs: among the cheapest plumbing jobs there is — see what it costs.
Availability: routine bookings; a tap you can’t shut off is an isolation-valve or stop-valve problem first.

Jump to: Why your tap drips · Hard water vs your taps · Repair or replace? · Outside taps · By district · Costs · FAQs

Why your tap is dripping (or stiff, or screeching)

A tap is a valve, and almost every fault is the valve’s sealing surface failing. In traditional compression taps — the kind you turn several times — the culprit is usually the rubber washer, or the brass seat it presses against, worn or scored by years of grit and scale. In modern quarter-turn taps, the equivalent is the ceramic disc cartridge: when it drips or grinds, the cartridge is replaced as a unit. Monobloc mixers add their own failure points — the cartridge, the flexible tail hoses underneath (which age, and which fail wet), and the O-rings where the spout swivels.

The supporting cast matters too. A tap that’s stiff or screeches is usually scale or a dry spindle rather than terminal failure. A tap that drips only at certain times of day may be reacting to pressure changes rather than its own washer. And a “dripping tap” where water appears at the base or under the sink isn’t a drip at all — it’s a leaking joint, hose or O-ring, which is a more urgent fix because that water is going into the cupboard, not the basin.

Two genuinely useful pre-call checks: look under the sink or basin for a small isolation valve on the supply pipe — a quarter turn with a screwdriver shuts off that tap alone, no household shutdown, no urgency premium. And for quarter-turn taps, cartridge matching usually needs the tap’s make and model, the cartridge length or spline count, or simply good photos — gather those and the plumber arrives with the right part instead of a return visit.

Hard water vs your taps

This is the genuinely Ealing part of tap work. The borough’s drinking water is split between two companies — the council’s Infrastructure Delivery Plan maps Affinity Water across much of the west and Thames Water in the east¹⁰ — and both sides are hard-water territory: Affinity Water attributes its hardness to water drawn through chalky limestone¹, Thames Water says the same of its region², and the Drinking Water Inspectorate links hard water to scaling in water systems and appliances.³

For taps, that means scale crusting around spouts and aerators, stiffening spindles, scoring washers and seats faster, and shortening cartridge life — which is why Ealing households end up repairing the same tap repeatedly and why “the new tap failed within a couple of years” is a hard-water story, not necessarily a quality one. The practical responses: clean or replace aerators (most unscrew by hand), descale spouts before condemning a tap, expect consumable parts to be consumable here, and when buying a replacement, treat solid serviceable mechanisms as worth more than ornate ones that can’t be repaired.

If the household is considering a water softener as the bigger fix, that’s a kitchen plumbing conversation — including the important rule about keeping a drinking tap on the unsoftened mains.

Repair or replace?

The honest economics: a washer or cartridge swap on a serviceable tap is the cheapest job in plumbing; replacement makes sense when the tap body itself is worn (reseating no longer holds), parts are obsolete, the finish is failing, or the tap is a cheap unserviceable unit where the cartridge costs nearly as much as a new tap. A good plumber will tell you which side of the line yours sits on — and a quote that jumps straight to replacement for a simple drip deserves a “why?”

On the fittings themselves, the quiet compliance point applies even to a humble tap: under the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, water fittings must be of appropriate quality and standard, suitable for the circumstances and installed in a workmanlike manner⁴ — and certification is how products demonstrate that in practice, with WRAS saying its certification can be used to demonstrate compliance to Regulation 4⁵, alongside recognised equivalents NSF REG4¹² and Kiwa KUKreg4¹³. Bargain-site taps of unknown provenance are where this stops being theoretical: if you’re supplying your own tap, check it carries recognised certification before the plumber arrives holding it.

Two installation details worth asking about: new isolation valves fitted as part of the job (cheap now, invaluable later), and new flexible hoses rather than reusing tired ones — a failed flexi under a kitchen sink is a flood, not a drip.

Renting? Taps and their pipework sit within the landlord’s repairing obligations for water and sanitation installations under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985⁶ — report rather than book. Council tenants use Ealing Council’s repair routes — 0800 181 744 or 020 8825 5682 for out-of-hours emergencies.⁷

Outside taps

The outside tap is the most neglected tap on the property and the most weather-exposed. Two things make it a proper job rather than a DIY spur. First, backflow protection: WaterSafe is explicit that the water fittings regulations specify outside taps should always have a double check valve to prevent backflow — so garden water and the bacteria in it can’t be drawn back into the drinking supply — noting that homes built since 1999 typically have an inline check valve in the supply pipe, while earlier homes usually have one built into the tap itself.¹¹ Second, winter: an outside tap on an unprotected run is the classic freeze-burst candidate, so a proper install includes an internal isolation valve so the run can be shut off and drained before the first frost. If yours has neither, that’s a small upgrade with outsized value — see burst pipes in Ealing for what the alternative looks like.

Find a verified plumber for tap work by district

Straight talk first: a ceramic cartridge fails identically across all seven towns — tap work is postcode-light. What varies in Ealing is the water (hard everywhere, whoever bills you) and the housing around the tap:

Acton (W3, parts NW10). Period terraces can hide older or non-standard pipework and crusted isolation valves behind modern sinks, while the new Acton Gardens blocks⁸ are monobloc-and-flexi territory where cartridge and hose quality decide lifespan.

Ealing (W5, W13). In converted flats, the first question is whether the tap’s supply can be isolated within your flat at all — and an under-sink leak from a tap base or flexi hose deserves faster attention than a drip into the bowl, because that water is heading for the downstairs neighbour’s ceiling, and proving whose it was matters later.

Greenford (UB6, parts UB5) and Northolt (UB5). Interwar and post-war homes that haven’t been refitted may still be running original or mid-century taps where reseating skills and part-matching beat a catalogue replacement. In managed and estate blocks, a plumber may need the freeholder, managing agent or council if isolation is controlled from a riser cupboard rather than inside the flat — establish that before any tap comes off.

Hanwell (W7). Older housing, original plumbing in places — the tap that hasn’t been touched in thirty years often sits above a stop valve in the same condition, so a tap visit is a good moment to test it.

Perivale (UB6). In older Perivale homes, hard water and ageing fittings can make the repair-or-replace decision clearer once the tap is opened — and the spindle’s condition usually tells the story.

Southall (UB1, UB2). In larger or extended households, kitchen taps work hardest and fail soonest — and a dripping hot tap is heated water down the drain, which on a metered supply is the most expensive kind of drip.

What it costs

Tap work is the affordable end of plumbing, which makes the pricing questions simple: parts included or not, your tap or theirs, and what happens if the tap turns out to be unserviceable once opened.

Editorial estimate only, for orientation. These are NOT regulated rates, NOT market data and NOT a published cost survey — tap quality and access change the price. Always get a written quote.

There is no official price list for tap work in Ealing. Local cost context: Ealing is inside London’s ULEZ⁹, and half the borough’s road network sits in controlled parking zones¹⁰ — minor for a short tap visit, but it’s why some plumbers bundle small jobs into one call-out, which is worth doing anyway: the per-job price of plumbing drops fast when the van only parks once.

Frequently asked questions

Why verified plumbers — not a general directory

Tap work is small enough that nobody checks credentials — which is exactly how unvetted traders turn a £70 washer into a £300 “you need new pipework.” Every listing here is checked before going live and re-verified annually: we confirm the business is legitimately trading and verify the named contact, we check evidence of public liability insurance, and we confirm the plumber covers Ealing’s W and UB postcodes before a profile is approved.

Taps are water-fittings work, squarely — and you can look any plumber up yourself on WaterSafe, the free, water-industry-backed national register of approved plumbing businesses. Where any gas work arises on other jobs, we confirm registration directly with the Gas Safe Register. Profiles may be suspended or removed if credentials lapse or credible concerns are raised — see the full verification process →

There’s no pay-to-play ranking of listings and no customer middleman fee: enquiries go directly to the plumber.

Related areas

Verified plumbers for tap repair and installation across Ealing’s neighbourhoods, including:

• Acton
• Brentham Garden Suburb
• Central Greenford
• Dormers Wells
• Ealing Broadway
• Ealing Common
• East Acton
• Greenford
• Greenford Broadway
• Hanger Hill
• Hanwell
• Hanwell Broadway
• Lady Margaret
• Montpelier
• North Acton
• North Ealing
• North Greenford
• North Hanwell
• Northfields
• Northolt
• Northolt Mandeville
• Northolt West End
• Norwood Green
• Perivale
• Pitshanger
• South Acton
• South Ealing
• Southall
• Southall Broadway
• Southall Green
• Southall West
• Walpole
• West Ealing

Related services

Other verified plumbing services in Ealing:

• Emergency Plumber in Ealing
• Burst Pipes in Ealing
• Leak Detection in Ealing
• Blocked Drains in Ealing
• Toilet Repairs in Ealing
• General Plumbing in Ealing
• Bathroom Plumbing in Ealing
• Kitchen Plumbing in Ealing
• Washing Machine & Dishwasher Installation in Ealing
• Boiler Repair in Ealing
• Boiler Installation in Ealing
• Boiler Servicing in Ealing
• Central Heating Repair in Ealing
• Commercial Plumbing in Ealing

Related guides

• London Hard Water — The Complete Homeowner & Landlord Guide 2026
• London Plumbing Costs & Compliance Guide 2026
• How to Read a Plumbing Quote — A London Homeowner’s Guide 2026
• New Homeowner Plumbing Guide — London 2026

A tap fault in Ealing is rarely mysterious: a washer, a cartridge, an O-ring, or scale doing what Ealing scale does. Fix drips early, fit isolation valves while anyone’s under the sink, give the outside tap its check valve — and the verified plumbers listed above will handle the rest at the cheapest end of the trade.

Contact verified plumbers in Ealing ↑

← Back to all plumbing services in Ealing

Last reviewed: June 2026 by Adiel Khan — SFEDI-accredited business advisor 20+ years experience (South East Enterprise Ltd) and operator of VerifiedPlumbers. LinkedIn ↗

This page is checked for compliance and regulatory accuracy against the regulations and bodies cited on this page, including the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, WaterSafe, Thames Water, Affinity Water, the Drinking Water Inspectorate, Ealing Council and Transport for London. Source links are provided within this page where relevant.

Sources & further reading

1. Affinity Water (water hardness) — https://www.affinitywater.co.uk/water-quality/hardness
2. Thames Water (hard water) — https://www.thameswater.co.uk/help/water-and-waste-help/water-quality/hard-water
3. Drinking Water Inspectorate (hardness and scaling) — https://www.dwi.gov.uk/consumers/learn-more-about-your-water/water-hardness-hard-water/
4. Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 — https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1999/1148/contents/made
5. WRAS (how to demonstrate compliance to Regulation 4) — https://www.wrasapprovals.co.uk/news/articles/compliance1/
6. Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, Section 11 (landlord repairing obligations) — https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1985/70/section/11
7. Ealing Council (reporting a housing repair) — https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201093/repairs_-_council_property/2742/reporting_a_housing_repair
8. Ealing Council (South Acton Estate regeneration) — https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201104/housing_regeneration/377/south_acton_estate
9. Transport for London (Ultra Low Emission Zone) — https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/ultra-low-emission-zone
10. Ealing Council Infrastructure Delivery Plan, Part One: Infrastructure Baseline Report, Feb 2024 (water supply split; CPZ coverage) — https://www.ealing.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/19508/part_one_infrastructure_baseline_report.pdf
11. WaterSafe (outside taps and double check valves) — https://www.watersafe.org.uk/news/latest_news/double-check-your-outside-tap-this-summer/
12. NSF (NSF REG4 certification — Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations compliance) — https://www.nsf.org/water-systems/regional-certification-approvals/uk-approvals-certifications/nsf-reg4-certification
13. Kiwa (KUKreg4 — demonstrating Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 compliance) — https://www.kiwa.com/gb/en-gb/insights/stories/water-regulation-4-compliance—dispelling-the-myth-of-wras-approval/