How to Fix a Leaking Shower Head
Telling leftover water from a failing seal is how to fix a leaking shower head, and the test takes about a minute. Water held in the head and its arm after a shower drains away on its own. A drip that hangs on for hours is supply water getting past a perished mixer seal, which is work for a licensed plumber.
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Houses here went up mainly through the eighties and nineties, so the mixers behind their shower tiles have logged decades of family bathing. Our McDowall plumbers see the pattern on every run.
Is a Dripping Shower Head Normal
A short spell of drips just after you switch off is normal, but a drip still going hours later is not. The shower arm holds a little water every time you bathe, and that water finishes emptying by itself within a minute or so.
Nothing needs doing about that. When a drip drags on well past the first minute, or greets you next morning, supply water is getting past a tired seal in the wall mixer. That fault never clears up on its own.
Quick way to tell the two apart:
- Drips ending inside the first minute or two are the head emptying, and they are fine.
- A drip running for hours, or restarting overnight, is supply water and signals a mixer fault.
Head, Joint or Mixer Behind the Wall
A drip has three sources: the connection where the head meets the arm, the mixer hidden in the wall, or the diverter that shares a bath-shower set. Each one leaves its own signature.
The joint at the arm
Water showing at that connection during a shower means the joint has loosened or its small seal has given up. Nothing there points to the wall.
The mixer
A head that drips with the taps closed is being fed from the wall mixer, where an aged washer or a tired cartridge no longer shuts the water off. The cartridge also governs the flow rate and the blend of hot and cold, so wear can show up as a stiff handle or drifting temperature.
The bath diverter
Where a bath and shower share one mixer, water running from the head while a bath fills, or backing out of the spout mid-shower, blames a failing diverter or a partly blocked spout rather than the head.
Scale in the head
Mineral crust can shut some spray holes, pushing water sideways through the rest, which reads as a stray spray rather than a true leak.
What Counts as Unregulated Plumbing Work
Yes, swapping the head is unregulated work under Queensland law, open to anyone who has the competence to do it properly. No plumbing licence is called for, no approval from the regulator or the council is needed, and no report is ever lodged.
The finished result is still held to the minimum standards written into the plumbing rules. The DIY line stops at the head, because only the head appears on the unregulated list. A cartridge or valve within a mixer belongs to a licensed plumber, every time.
When you buy a replacement, read the water rating sticker too. Australian rules require every head sold here to be registered under the national scheme and to display its star rating and water use wherever it is advertised, online included.
Worn Seats and Bodies Behind the Wall
The giveaway is a drip that outlasts a new washer, or a replacement cartridge, in the wall mixer. When fresh parts fail to stop it, the culprit is usually the valve seat or the mixer body itself.
A washer presses shut onto the seat, and a cartridge closes within the body. Scored or worn metal lets water past either way, so no new part will cure it.
The plumber assesses the seat and the body before quoting, because the fix may be a repair rather than a whole new mixer. Repairs within the mixer count as minor work, so a QBCC licensee handles them; no permit is raised and no Form 4 gets filed.
When to Call a Plumber About the Drip
Ring a plumber about a shower head leaking when off, or one a new head has failed to cure, or a handle gone stiff with drifting heat. All three faults sit in the wall rather than on the head, and our shower repairs work covers the mixers, diverters and arms behind them on every run we make across the suburb.
What the fix costs comes down to three things: whether the head or the mixer is at fault, which part it needs, and how easily the mixer can be reached. We settle the figure in a fixed quote before any work starts.
Shower Head Questions From McDowall Homes
Call (07) 3523 7121Who is allowed to replace a shower cartridge in Queensland?
Only a licensed plumber. Queensland lists repairs within a shower mixer as minor work: a QBCC licensee does them, with neither a permit nor a Form 4 needed. The cartridge never joins the head on the unregulated list.
Why does my shower head leak where it joins the arm?
Water seeping from that join while you bathe means the fitting has slackened off or its sealing washer has failed. Drips that show only with the water running sit apart from a mixer drip. A head swap needs no licence, but work on the arm is ours.
Who fixes a dripping shower head in a McDowall rental?
The renter reports the drip to the property manager or owner straight away. Queensland tenancy law then puts the repair duty on them for the whole lease. A renter may lawfully swap the head, one of the very few jobs left open; the mixer never is.
What should a replacement shower head in McDowall carry?
Look at the water rating label. Heads sold in Australia are registered under the national labelling scheme and show their stars and their water use wherever they are listed for sale, online included.
Talk to Us About That Dripping ShowerWe'll call you back.
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