Shower Repair & Fixture Replacement in Lakewood, CO

The diagnostic ladder matters because the rungs differ so much in cost. A drip from the head with the water off is the valve cartridge letting go — a repair measured in an hour. Water at the floor or ceiling below is where care pays: failed caulk and grout wick surprising amounts of water, and that fix is sealant work, not plumbing. Only after those are ruled out does the conversation reach the valve body or pan. Opening a wall on a hunch is how small leaks get expensive; I diagnose before I cut.

Valve work is fully in scope, which changes what this page can promise. Cartridges cure most drips and most temperature complaints — a shower that scalds when the toilet flushes has a worn pressure-balancing cartridge, not a haunting. When the valve body itself is done, or you're upgrading from crusty two-handle originals to a modern balanced valve, that's behind-the-wall plumbing I do directly — often through a neat access panel rather than a tile demolition, when the geometry allows.

Denver's hard water sets the maintenance rhythm here. Scale clogs showerhead jets into weird spray patterns, cements cartridges into their bodies, and shortens the life of every rubber seal it touches. A fixture refresh — new head, clean or new cartridge, fresh trim — restores flow and feel for modest money, and it's a fair moment for the honest upsell that isn't one: if your grout and caulk are at end of life, sealing them now is the cheapest leak prevention that exists. The full recaulk-and-regrout job lives on my tile repair page.