- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Drip & Hose Bib Repair in Gainesville, Florida
Small job. Real plumber. Leaks don’t stand a chance.
Rather text? Send a photo of the problem to 352-377-9447 and we’ll tell you what it sounds like.
Two year parts and labor warranty
Then manufacturer coverage. Most drips fixed the same visit. Licensed Florida plumbing contractor CFC1430748. Leak Detection in Gainesville, FL
Gallons a year wasted by one drip per second, per the EPA.
3000
+
Flat fee to come out and diagnose it. Waived on larger jobs.
$
69
Nights a year Gainesville drops to freezing or below.
16
Hose bib repair in Gainesville covers any dripping outdoor spigot, plus dripping kitchen, bath and laundry faucets inside. First Choice Plumbing charges a flat $69 to come out and diagnose it, then repairs or replaces the worn washer, stem, packing, vacuum breaker or the whole bib, usually in one visit. Work carries a two year parts and labor warranty. Call or text 352-377-9447.
- FL Certified Contractor CFC1430748
- Owner run and locally operated
- $69 flat to come out
- Most drips fixed the same visit
- Two year parts and labor warranty
- The stakes
What One Drip Actually Costs You
A faucet dripping once per second wastes more than 3,000 gallons a year. That is the EPA’s number, not ours, and it is about 180 showers worth of water going down a drain nobody used. Household leaks together average around 9,300 gallons a year, and roughly one home in ten is losing 90 gallons a day or more without knowing it.
The water is the small part. The part that gets expensive is where the water goes.
An outdoor spigot that drips from the spout is mostly wasting water and keeping a wet patch by your foundation, which is a mosquito problem more than a plumbing one. But a hose bib that weeps at the connection behind the siding is putting water inside your wall, and you won’t see that until the drywall stains or the baseboard swells. Same with a kitchen faucet that leaks under the sink instead of at the spout. By the time you smell it, the cabinet floor is already soft.
So we do not treat a drip call as a nuisance visit. We find out which kind of drip it is, and if it turns out to be the harmless kind, you get to hear that out loud and stop worrying about it.
- Common causes
Why Is My Outdoor Faucet Dripping?
Where the water comes out tells us which part failed. Before you call, look once and note the spot. It genuinely shortens the visit.
- Dripping from the spout with the handle closed. The stem washer or the seat it presses against is worn. This is the most common one and usually the cheapest fix.
- Weeping around the handle when the water is running. The packing nut behind the handle has loosened, or the packing washer or O-ring around the stem is worn out. Sometimes a careful quarter turn on the nut stops it. Sometimes the stem needs new packing.
- Spraying or dribbling from the little cap on top. That cap is a vacuum breaker, and Florida code requires one on hose connections so garden hose water can never get siphoned back into your drinking water. The rubber disc inside wears out. It is an inexpensive part and a quick swap.
- Leaking only when a hose is attached. Usually a dead hose washer or a worn thread, not the faucet. Take the hose off and check again before you call anybody.
- Wet siding, wet wall, or a leak you can hear but not see. The bib is leaking at the connection where it threads into the pipe, behind the wall. This one matters. It is the only kind of hose bib leak that damages a house.
- Cracked body after a cold snap. Water left in the bib or a hose left on through a freeze can split the brass. It often stays quiet until the first warm-weather use.
If you have a frost-free sillcock, the long kind, the actual shutoff sits 8 to 12 inches inside the wall. Water draining out of the spout for a few seconds after you close it is normal and by design. A steady drip that never stops is not.
- What it costs
What Does It Cost to Fix a Dripping Faucet in Gainesville?
Most plumbing sites will not answer this. We will, as far as we honestly can.
It costs $69 for us to come out, look at it, and tell you exactly what is wrong. That fee is flat, you know it before we roll, and it does not change because it is a Saturday or because your house is nice. On larger jobs it gets waived.
The repair itself gets quoted before we touch anything, and it depends on what failed. Rebuilding a hose bib with a new stem washer and packing is a different number from cutting out a cracked frost-free sillcock and running new pipe. For context only, national cost guides put professional outdoor spigot replacement somewhere in the range of $150 to $450 depending on the type, with anti-siphon and frost-free models at the top of that. Those are not our prices, they are the ballpark the industry reports, and we tell you ours before we start.
Two year parts and labor warranty on the work, with the manufacturer warranty on top of it. If the drip comes back inside that window, so do we, and it does not cost you a second trip fee.
Financing through Wisetack starts around $500, so it rarely comes up on a job this size, but it is there if the drip turns out to be the tip of something bigger. Financing · Membership plans
- $69 service call
- Flat to come out, look at it, and tell you what is wrong. Waived on larger jobs.
- Two year warranty
- Parts and labor on the work, with the manufacturer warranty on top of it.
- Meet the owner
A Small Job Still Gets a Real Plumber
Will Harrod is the certified plumbing contractor behind First Choice Plumbing, license CFC1430748. Mike runs the service calls, and Kim answers the phone and dispatches the day. It is a small crew on purpose.
That is exactly why a dripping faucet is welcome here. A big shop has to feed a board full of trucks, so a $69 call gets treated like a favor. We built this company on small jobs turning into customers, and customers turning into their neighbors. Kindness kills, as Will puts it, and it is cheaper than advertising.
- Will Harrod, owner. Certified plumbing contractor, license CFC1430748.
- Mike runs the service calls.
- Kim answers the phone and dispatches the day.
- Try this first
Try This First, Before You Call Anybody
Some of these you can settle in two minutes without paying a plumber. We would rather you did.
If the meter is moving, that is a different problem. Here is how we find a hidden leak.
1. Take the hose off.
Then watch the spigot for a full minute. A huge share of "leaking faucets" are a five dollar hose washer or a hose left pressurized against a valve that was never meant to hold it all day.
2. Close the handle firmly, not hard.
Cranking it down does not seal a worn washer, it chews up the seat and turns a cheap repair into a replacement.
3. Note where the water appears.
Spout, handle, top cap, or the wall behind it. Tell us that when you call and we will bring the right parts the first time.
4. Feel the wall inside.
Put your hand on the interior wall and the baseboard behind that outdoor faucet. Damp, cool, or soft means stop reading and call us today.
5. Check your meter.
Turn off every fixture and the irrigation, then watch the low-flow indicator on the meter for thirty minutes. If it moves, you are losing water somewhere beyond this faucet.
- Repair or replace
Can a Leaking Hose Bib Be Repaired, or Does It Have to Be Replaced?
Both happen, and it is not a judgment call we make from the driveway. We look at the body, the threads and the seat first.
We repair it when:
- The body is sound and the leak is a stem washer, a packing washer, an O-ring or the vacuum breaker disc.
- The seat is still smooth enough to seal against a new washer.
- The bib is decent quality brass and worth keeping.
- It has never been rebuilt before, or it has been years since the last one.
We replace it when:
- The body is cracked or split, usually from a freeze or from being cranked on for years.
- The threads are stripped or the hose connection will not seal on anything.
- The seat is pitted or chewed up, in which case a new washer will start dripping again inside a month.
- It ties into an old galvanized nipple that is rusting from the inside out. Pipe repair
- There is no vacuum breaker on it at all, which we see often on older homes and which Florida code no longer allows on a hose connection.
Here is our end of it. A repair is the smaller ticket and we will still quote it when it is the right answer, because a repair that holds is worth more to us than a replacement you did not need. What we will not do is put a fresh washer on a chewed-up seat, hand you a warranty, and come back in three weeks. If it needs replacing, we will show you why while we are standing there.
- What we fix
What We Fix on a Drip Call
Outdoor hose bibs and spigots.
Rebuild or replace, standard or frost-free, including the vacuum breaker the code requires on a hose connection.
Dripping kitchen and bath faucets.
Cartridge, ceramic disc, ball or compression, we carry the common ones.
Leaks under the sink.
Supply lines, angle stops, tailpieces and P-traps. This is the leak that quietly ruins a cabinet floor.
Running or weeping toilets.
Fill valves, flappers and supply connections while we are already there.
Laundry and utility connections.
Washing machine valves, laundry tubs and utility sink faucets.
Farm and outbuilding spigots.
Barn hose bibs, pasture lines, horse waterers and outdoor kitchen connections around Hawthorne, Williston and High Springs.
If you have more than one dripping fixture, say so when you call. We would rather knock out four of them on one $69 trip than have you pay for three more.
- What to expect
What to Expect When You Call Us
Call or text and tell us where it drips from.
Kim answers, takes the address, and asks the two or three questions that decide which parts ride out to you. You can also book it online in about a minute.
We come out for a flat $69 and diagnose it.
You get told what failed, why, and what the fix costs, before any work starts. If it is something you can handle yourself with a wrench, we will say that too.
We fix it, usually that same visit.
Common washers, packing kits, vacuum breaker parts, cartridges and hose bibs ride on the truck. Then it gets tested, cleaned up, and covered by the two year parts and labor warranty.
- Freezes in Gainesville
Do Outdoor Faucets Really Freeze in Gainesville?
They do, and people from further south are always surprised by it. North central Florida is not peninsula weather. The Gainesville area averages about 16 nights a year at 32 degrees or colder, the first freeze usually lands around the first of December, and the last one hangs on to about the end of February. Hard freezes that last more than a night come through every few years.
That is more than enough to split a hose bib. The pattern we see is almost always the same: a garden hose was left screwed on through a cold night, the water in the bib had nowhere to go, and the brass cracked. Then it stays quiet all winter, because the split is behind the closed valve, and it shows up in March when somebody finally waters the yard.
Three things stop it, and none of them cost anything.
- Take the hose off before the first cold night and leave it off.
- Open the bib for a second to let it drain, then close it.
- Put a foam cover over it when a freeze warning goes out.
If a freeze already got you, we replace the bib and, where it makes sense, put in a frost-free sillcock so next winter is not a repeat.
- When to look deeper
When a Drip Is Not Just a Drip
Sometimes we get out there, fix the faucet, and something still is not right. These are the signs that the drip you called about was not the whole story.
- The meter keeps creeping with every fixture and the irrigation shut off.
- A warm or damp spot on a tile or concrete floor, which in a slab home usually means a supply line under the slab.
- A soggy strip in the yard that never dries, often running from the meter box toward the house.
- A water bill that climbed and stayed up while nothing about your household changed.
That is where our leak detection work comes in. It is $375 flat, you are guaranteed we will find it, and if we do not find it, you do not pay. Leak Detection in Gainesville, FL · Water line leak and repair
And here is the part worth saying plainly, because you have probably been burned by the opposite: we are not going to sell you leak detection to fix a hose bib. If the washer was the whole problem, you will pay for a washer and we will go home. We would rather be the plumber you call the next four times than the one who got an extra few hundred dollars out of you once.
- The difference
The Difference Is in the Details
Licensed Florida plumbing contractor CFC1430748. Flat $69 to come out, and no job is too small.
| What matters | First Choice Plumbing | Typical Plumbing Company |
|---|---|---|
| Will they take a job this small | Yes, on purpose. It is how we meet most of our customers | Small jobs get pushed to the back of the schedule or declined |
| What it costs to come out | Published up front: flat $69, waived on larger jobs | "Free estimate" with no published numbers anywhere on the site |
| Minimum charge | No hidden minimum stacked on top of the trip fee | A one hour or two hour labor minimum you find out about at the end |
| Who shows up | A small local crew, with the owner still running estimates himself | Whoever the dispatch board assigned that morning |
| If it is a cheap fix | You get told it is a cheap fix, and charged for a cheap fix | The small repair becomes a fixture replacement quote |
| Code details | Vacuum breaker on every hose connection, as Florida code requires | Bib swapped like for like, backflow protection left off |
| Warranty | Two years parts and labor, then manufacturer coverage on top | Thirty or ninety days on a small repair, sometimes nothing |
| Who is accountable | A named Florida license holder, CFC1430748 | A call center and a franchise number |
- Service area
Where We Fix Drips and Hose Bibs
We are based in Hawthorne and we run all of Greater Alachua County and the rural stretches around it. Kim batches the day’s calls by geography so our tech is not crossing the county twice, and that is a large part of why a small job can still get a same-week slot instead of being pushed to whenever.
Gainesville, Hawthorne, Newberry, Archer, Jonesville, Alachua, High Springs, Micanopy, Waldo, Melrose, Keystone Heights, Interlachen, Starke, Williston, and the surrounding parts of Alachua, Marion, Putnam, Bradford, Union, Clay and Levy counties.
Don’t see your town? We likely still come out — call 352-377-9447
$69 flat to come out
You know the number before we roll, and it gets waived on larger jobs.
Most drips fixed the same visit
Washers, packing kits, vacuum breaker parts, cartridges and hose bibs ride on the truck.
Two year parts and labor warranty
If the drip comes back inside that window, so do we, and it does not cost you a second trip fee.
No job too small
We take small jobs on purpose. That's how we meet most of our customers.
- FAQ
Drip and Hose Bib Questions We Get Every Week
Because the washer that seals against the valve seat is worn, and turning the handle harder does not fix that. It just grinds the seat and turns a cheap repair into a replacement. Close it firmly and leave it, then note whether the water comes from the spout, the handle or the cap on top, since that tells us which part failed.
Most of them can be repaired. If the body is sound and the seat is still smooth, a new stem washer, packing or vacuum breaker disc usually fixes it. We replace the bib when the body is cracked, the threads are stripped, the seat is pitted, or it is tied into a rusted galvanized nipple. We will show you which one you have while we are standing there.
It is a flat $69 for us to come out and diagnose it, waived on larger jobs, and the repair itself is quoted before any work starts. National cost guides put professional outdoor spigot replacement around $150 to $450 depending on the type, with frost-free and anti-siphon models at the higher end. Those are industry averages for context, not our prices, and you get our number before we begin.
That cap is a vacuum breaker, and Florida code requires one on hose connections so water from a garden hose can never be siphoned back into your drinking water. The rubber disc inside wears out over time and starts leaking or spraying when the water runs. It is an inexpensive part and a quick swap, and it is not a reason to replace the whole faucet.
A faucet dripping once per second wastes more than 3,000 gallons a year according to the EPA, which is roughly 180 showers. Household leaks together average about 9,300 gallons a year, and about one home in ten is losing 90 gallons a day or more. The bigger risk is where a hidden drip goes, since water behind a wall or under a cabinet does damage the water bill never shows.
Yes. The Gainesville area averages around 16 nights a year at or below freezing, typically between the first of December and the end of February. A hose left attached through a cold night is the usual cause of a split hose bib, and the crack often stays hidden until the first warm-weather use. Pull the hose off, drain the bib, and cover it when a freeze is forecast.
Generally no. Swapping a fixture without altering the plumbing system behind it is treated as a minor repair rather than permitted work. If the job goes further, like opening a wall and running new pipe, permitting can apply, and Alachua County Growth Management handles unincorporated areas while the City of Gainesville permits inside city limits. We tell you before we start if a permit is part of the job.
Yes, and please tell us when you call so we bring the right cartridges. We would much rather handle four dripping fixtures on one $69 trip than have you pay three more trip fees over the next few months. Under-sink supply lines, angle stops, running toilets and laundry valves get handled on the same visit too.
- Let's get started
Let's get that drip to quit.
Flat $69 to come out, an honest answer about what failed, and most drips fixed on the first visit. No minimum, no upsell, no job too small. Licensed, owner-run and local. Leaks don’t stand a chance.
- Leaks don't stand a chance.
Tell us what's going on and we'll take it from there
You get a real person, a $69 visit, a flat price before we start, and a company that patches what it cuts and answers the phone when you call back. If a smaller fix is the right call, we’ll tell you that too.
First Choice Plumbing is a locally owned, owner led plumbing company working Gainesville, Hawthorne and Greater Alachua County. Leak detection, repipes, water heaters, drains, trenchless lining, well water filtration and septic. We find it, we fix it, we guarantee it.
Florida Certified Plumbing Contractor CFC1430748
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First Choice Plumbing
6940 SE 221st St
Hawthorne, FL 32640 - Office Mon to Fri, 8 to 5. Emergency line 24/7.
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